Many monitors in an Olde Control Room

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Brian Roth

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Joined
Aug 20, 2005
Messages
3,184
Location
Salina Kansas
This is an odd branch from another thread here:

https://groupdiy.com/threads/replacing-4053-with….82843/
In that thread, I mentioned using chips for use to send a desk's CR output to different monitors in the CR and elsewhere.

Man how things have changed over the decades!

In my first "real studio gig" in early 1970's (MCI desk, Ampex 16 track) all we had were the monitors in the soffit...JBL as I recall.

Then HorrorTones <g> became popular for obvious reasons.

Next, nearfields.

Then was a "Sh!t can" speaker in the meter bridge to guesstimate how an ad jingle would sound on a cheap clock radio/TV set in mono.

Next in my world, the main writer/producer set up his keyboards behind the desk facing the engineer. So, a pair of kick-ass monitors in the rear of the CR, since he was basically sitting below the Big Mains in the soffit.

Another alternative was to feed the mix to a low power radio transmitter so we could listen to a mix on the radio in our automobile.

Yet, desks typically had (at best) only two choices for monitors...main/alt main/minis. Either/or. Sometimes you could mash down two buttons to get both at once.

Hence, I concocted various switchers to handle all the monitor possibilities since the desks had only two choices. Typically, only one loudspeaker set was used at one time, BUT sometimes (Keyboard guy facing the engineer) two sets were in use when tracking.

So, non-exclusive choices for monitoring. IOW, any combination was allowed.

LOL...it was FUN to press all the buttons at once for a loud "disco experience"! Not a great mixing environment.....but fun.

WHY did desks come equipped for only two sets of CR speaker outputs????

Sigh I'm Olde and nowadays all hit songs are recorded/mixed on a computer in a kid's bedroom while he/she uses earbuds.

Bri
 
WHY did desks come equipped for only two sets of CR speaker outputs????
Because no matter how many you provide, it will not be enough for someone and all those folks who want fewer will moan about the cost. Two seems a reasonable compromise, one for mains and one alt. All studios in those days had maintenance engineers who could wield a soldering iron an build a box that could switch the altt to a number of destinations. In all my time at Neve designing custom consoles I was never asked for more than two.

Cheers

Ian
 
I recall putting two stereo feeds on the master mix output. One control room feed and one studio feed for playback in the room.

Playing multiple speakers at the same time is not good for fidelity. Probably not unusual to mult several amp inputs together and power the amps up/down as desired.

JR
 
Big biamped or triamped calibrated mains so you don't blow sheeet up while tracking or cueing and passive near fields with NO SUB...a CD burner and the clients car stereo plus your favorite set of cans
 

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