How do you control the volume of your Active studio monitors?

So how DO you control the volume of your Active monitors?

  • With a mixing board

    Votes: 97 49.2%

  • With a passive preamp

    Votes: 5 2.5%

  • With my computer's audio output faders

    Votes: 45 22.8%

  • other...

    Votes: 50 25.4%
  • Total voters
    197
I'll put in another vote for the Mackie Big Knob. Awesome investment. Simple and completely effective. I love that I can switch between (or combine) various input sources and route the audio to different monitors at the push of a button.
 
good question!

I've always wondered how people control the volume on studio monitors and assumed it was done through a mixer. I have a modest home studio and that's one of the reasons I decided not to get powered monitors, that and I tend to believe that if you can get it to sound good on consumer grade speakers, which is what the average listener will hear it on, then what's the point in having ridiculously expensive monitors? Unless you're a fairly big pro studio, I don't see the point.

I have a Delta 1010 24/96 sound card routed out to a sony surround-type receiver and some nice home tower speakers and it sounds pretty good to me. Is that so wrong?
 
SubLunar said:
I've always wondered how people control the volume on studio monitors and assumed it was done through a mixer. I have a modest home studio and that's one of the reasons I decided not to get powered monitors, that and I tend to believe that if you can get it to sound good on consumer grade speakers, which is what the average listener will hear it on, then what's the point in having ridiculously expensive monitors? Unless you're a fairly big pro studio, I don't see the point.
Click to expand...

I just use a custom-made Shallco stepped attenuator to control volume. I have twenty 1 dB steps down from my reference level and then "off". Obviously, there are a number of other cool units that do the same basic thing.

The problem with "consumer grade speakers" is that they fill the whole space of possible sonic inaccuracies... they aren't all the same, they're just not accurate.

Accurate monitors needn't be ridiculously expensive. Taming the high and midrange reflections isn't too hard either. The really tough challenge in most rooms and any small room (under 3000 cu ft) is getting the listening space to allow for accurate bass monitoring.

The basic idea on accurate full range monitors in a good sounding room is two-fold:

1) you want to hear an accurate, neutral representation of the sound, on the assumption that you will make the best mix when you can hear what's going on, and

2) a mix done on a neutral system will, on the average, sound less bad on most less-accurate systems, while mixes done on inaccurate systems will be skewed based on those inaccuracies and will sound really bad on other systems with opposing inaccuracies

Cheers,

Otto
 
ambi, i got the mackie big knob. its great i got it used for $200 just for the talkback feature but the volume knob is great. the dim is brilliant
 
SubLunar said:
I've always wondered how people control the volume on studio monitors and assumed it was done through a mixer. I have a modest home studio and that's one of the reasons I decided not to get powered monitors, that and I tend to believe that if you can get it to sound good on consumer grade speakers, which is what the average listener will hear it on, then what's the point in having ridiculously expensive monitors? Unless you're a fairly big pro studio, I don't see the point.

I have a Delta 1010 24/96 sound card routed out to a sony surround-type receiver and some nice home tower speakers and it sounds pretty good to me. Is that so wrong?
Click to expand...

yes...no...I don't know... what do you think?
 
I control mine with one of these...





I used to own 3 Delta 1010's and an Allen & Heath Saber II. The converters in this thing are amazing in comparison, as are the pre amps, the EQ, the compressor and the reverb
 

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Mackie mixer, Interface output to the return, CR outputs to the monitors. Easier to turn down the volume knob that on the computer. That is the main reason, just easier.
 
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