What's a good monitor these days?

[blay]

Originally Posted by F5D

the sound is now alot better than before when I used my 828 mk2's digital volume control. At the worst case (when playing at low volumes) the bit depth of the motu's output was only 10-12 bits.

Are you saying that the bit depth varies in relation to volume on the 828mkII?

Thats certainly news to me...

cheers

Blay

[blay]

from harmony central:

One of the benefits of passive volume attenuation is that you no longer have to control volumes with your software master volume fader. Reducing audio levels from software only reduces your bit depth. It is much more appropriate to keep your software masters at unity and passively attenuate the audio to your active monitors.

You learn something every day

cheers

Blay

[Khazul]

Originally Posted by blay

Are you saying that the bit depth varies in relation to volume on the 828mkII?

Thats certainly news to me...

cheers

Blay

Such is the nature of digital. The output is still 24bit, but if the digital level signal is very low, then its might be peaking at a sample value of say +/- 5000 or so (out of a possible 8Million or so) - ie only 14bits are being usefully used.

[Khazul]

Originally Posted by blay

from harmony central:

You learn something every day

cheers

Blay

And passive volume conjtrols *cant* be overridden by errant software and blow up your monitors either

[Tomer=Trance]

Passive=no amplification so there is no risk at overdriving the signal chain from your soundcard to your monitors.

a passive monitor mixer is usualy design to be colorless and trasparent.

[Doc Jones]

Originally Posted by blay

You learn something every day

cheers

Blay

agreed. thanks for the info f5d!

[blay]

Cant find anyone who stocks the m-patch 2 in AUS - just the original m-patch, which will prob suit me better anyways (being a half-rack unit) as I will be able to rack it next to my ultralite...

Think I just found my next purchase - thanks for the heads up F5D

[Tomer=Trance]

Originally Posted by blay

Cant find anyone who stocks the m-patch 2 in AUS - just the original m-patch, which will prob suit me better anyways (being a half-rack unit) as I will be able to rack it next to my ultralite...

Think I just found my next purchase - thanks for the heads up F5D

you also have the Suzy from RME\Synthax,which is a passive monitor mixer although the Mpatch 2 looks alot more sturdy.
personaly i use a cheap behringer mon800 monitor mixer which works great for me and also has some extra features like talkback and 2 sets of headphone outs.

http://namm.harmony-central.com/WNAM...x/PR/Suzy.html

[blay]

Most people I know are taking the signal out of nice expensive soundcards into shithouse cheap mixers, picking up lots of noise on the way - all in the aim of having 1 fader to scramble for when satan saws and the like rear their ugly heads...

I havent seen a piece of behringer gear last more than 18months, and they are noisy straight out of the box.

Id say the components in the RME unit would be of much higher quality than SM Pro... but thats just my guess.

cheers

Blay

[Khazul]

What I have never figured out is why something as simple as a monitor control box cost a bloody fortune compared to say a a very basic mackie mixer. I would like to get a pre-sonus central sation here - especially if I get a second set of monitors - but they are expensive and have been seeing them come up second hand. Allways hopeful that the prices will plummet one day


Another intersting side of your comment blay - even good mixers sometimes cut serious corner on their monitoring sections - thats the one thing on my Yamaha 01x that really annoys me - the monitor outs are crap - unbalanced FFS!!!!

Otherwise its a really good solution for audio I/O and workstation hardware mixing needs.