Mixer vs Big Knob or Central Station

[Rocket Boy]

Hi. I was just curious about what benefits I might reap from adding a big knob or central station to my rack and using that for monitoring instead of my 1604VLZ Pro which I use only for monitoring. How much is this really coloring my sound?

 

[MOFO Pro]

Hi. I was just curious about what benefits I might reap from adding a big knob or central station to my rack and using that for monitoring instead of my 1604VLZ Pro which I use only for monitoring. How much is this really coloring my sound?

That depends on everything... signal chain... monitoring chain... the control room... and your ears...
I wouldn't spend a couple hundred on a volume control for your monitors... but if you have the room, equipment, and monitoring to merit it... and require diverse monitor routing capablities... then yeah... maybe

 

[SonicAlbert]

The CS has some nice features designed specifically for monitoring, like you can switch between three sets of speakers, for example. It also has a talkback and a couple independent headphone outputs. Otehr nice features include SPDIF and TOSlink inputs, speaker trims for each set of speakers, plug mute, dim, and mono switches. The other thing is that the CS takes up a lot less room!

I used to own three VLZ PRO's, and while they are very nice compact mixers, I personally much prefer my CS for use as a monitor controller.

 

[LAZI]

How much is this really coloring my sound?

the mackies do color the sound while the central station is very transparent. the mackie eats up some desk space but the cs can be rack mounted and used by the remote. the cs does not have as many routing options as the big knob and costs a good bit more but i think it offers better overall quality and digital interfacing that is very useful. also the meter is cool.

 

[Massive Master]

The meter and the monitoring DA in the Central Station is worth the price of the whole thing.

All of the other (dozens of) features are just icing on an already impressive cake.

Former CS user,

 

[Warhead]

I'm a current CS user...the damn thing rocks. I'd be willing to bet this thing would test out as clean or cleaner than the monitoring section of many boards considered higher end.

The meters can be seen across a football field and are very accurate, I like.

The conversion on board is surprisingly good, hung close enough to my Lucid stuff that I went ahead TOSLINK from my Digiface and rocked out.

The remote rocks, I keep it just above my mouse for easy reach. It has all the features I need on board the remote anyhow.

War