How to Choose a Monitor Controller

How to Choose a Monitor Controller

There a lot of monitor controllers around, so how do you choose which one to buy?

This guide gives you an overview of what a well designed monitor controller can do, and the extra features you get with a Crookwood C series monitor controller.

What does a Modern monitor controller do?

So today, there are 2 main functions that a controller performs:

Monitoring

The controller should let you listen to your work, check it for coherence, and also let you listen to various points in the record path so you can make quality and processing judgements

Recording

The controller should let you select a source to send to a record path, so you can process the signal.

What does a Crookwood monitor controller do?

Our C class range of consoles add a lot more functionality to this basic controller, so you can do your job faster, better and with complete audio confidence.
The integration and facilities we offer means our monitor controllers become the centre of your studio, bringing everything together, working as one cohesive machine to let you work at your best.

A few details -

Monitoring

This is the heart of a controller.  Without excellent monitoring, you can never really hear what the source and your revisions sound like. And if you can't hear properly, your work is compromised, and you'll make mistakes.

• Our monitors are extremely accurate, with usually just one active stage between the source and the loudspeakers. Remaining fully balanced throughout, they are extremely accurate and pure.  The sound is accurate, not warm, euphonic, coloured or masked, so you know what everything sounds like, warts and all!
• The level accuracy is also world beating.  Small differences in level can fool our ears so easily into thinking something is better, when in fact, it's just louder!  The controllers  have fine 1dB level volume steps, plus you can trim any source to any other with 0.25dB steps to eradicate level differences during A/B compares. We also have speaker calibration so you can calibrate your room to known international standards for complete confidence.
• We have the widest range of monitor check functions available to verify the sound, and spot problems that will cause problems on the various formats you have to produce.  Not just a mono button, but between 4 and 13 different checks, model dependant.
• We have full surround capabilities to 7.1 , with foldown checks, speaker calibration, and instant flipping between stereo and surround for fast production of multiformat work.
• We offer full bass management and subwoofer integration for surround and stereo, working with mono or stereo subs in conjunction with your main speakers: not just a few dodgy filters, but accurate calibrated level and frequency for mains and subs to integrate perfectly.
• We work with digital or analogue sources, transparently trimming and moving between them with ease, automatically engaging converters to suit.
• Obviously we offer proper external meter outputs, but in digital as well for digital meters, and we can also drive digital speakers directly with our digital monitor output.
• Finally we have a large range of monitor sources, so you can connect all of your legacy gear, as well as multiple DAWs, or outputs within a DAW so you can really monitor your ITB signal flow.

Remember, these are options: your controller can be as simple or as complex as you wish. But it illustrates that its not an average monitor controller hey?

Recording

We make the recording path easy by having two selectors in the controller: One for monitoring, and a separate one for record selection.  This lets you set up a path, analogue or digital without a single re-patch!

All together now

You can buy these parts separately, but put together they offer an integrated well thought our controller, a real bonus to your everyday sound quality and productivity.

Think Monitoring? Think Crookwood!