Condition : Very good
Description :
With so many powerful virtual instruments and effects available within music software, it's perfectly possible to set up a computer-based recording system without a mixer, but there are elements of the traditional mixer that it's difficult to manage without, especially if you're using active monitors. For example, you need an easily accessible physical volume control, perhaps a monitor Dim button for when the phone rings, and a mono button to see if your mixes collapse into a lifeless heap when played over a mono system. Then there's talkback, the ability to select different two-track machines for playback, and a headphone out. Samson's C*Control provides all this and more.
Essentially, the C*Control duplicates the master section of a mixer and, in addition to its main stereo mix input, it can also switch to three further stereo sources. Stereo input level monitoring is implemented using a pair of six-segment LED meters. What's more, it can even mix these inputs, which is useful if you simply want to use your guitar preamp to play along with a CD or one of your songs in progress. There's no input level control though so levels must be controlled at source. As well as being monitored via speakers, the stereo mix can be sent to three stereo recorders at the same time (any one of which can be used as a monitor source via the input selectors), and there's switching for up to three sets of studio monitors. The third monitor output may be on at the same time as either of the first two making it suitable for feeding a subwoofer or for driving separate playback speakers in the studio area. Clearly much thought has gone into the monitor switching system, not least because, if the Speaker B button is pressed down, the Speaker A button toggles between Speakers A and Speaker B, whereas if the Speaker B button isn't down it simply turns Speaker A on or off. The routing also makes it virtually impossible to feed an output back into an input, which would produce electrical feedback.
C*Control includes an integral electret talkback mic (mounted in the front panel) that can send into the cue mix or into the two-track outputs, where a rear-panel jack allows remote talkback switching using an optional 'normally open' switch. The speaker outputs dim whenever talkback is operated. A headphone amp with its own level control is built in, and a stereo cue output feeds the selected stereo input to an external headphone amp or other cue system. Using talkback momentarily overrides the source in the cue output but does not affect the headphone output.
Inputs & Outputs
The first three inputs are on balanced jacks operating at a nominal +4dB level, while the fourth is on phonos and operates at -10dBV. A single stereo level meter monitors the overall input level. All three two-track outputs, plus the stereo mix input, are active when selected, so to prevent a two-track machine in record mode from feeding back into its own input, the correspondingly numbered two-track output is muted when a two-track input is switched on. This is a wise precaution, but because of this you also have to remember to deselect all three two-track inputs if you want to use the talkback to record a verbal cue to tape, otherwise nothing will happen. Two of the two-track outputs are balanced on TRS jacks at a +4dB level, while the third again uses unbalanced phonos at -10dBV.
To the immediate right of the meters is a headphone jack and its associated level control. This always monitors the input and is not interrupted by the talkback facility — talkback only routes to the Cue outs (balanced jacks) or to the two-track outputs, depending which of the two non-latching Talkback switches is depressed. A talkback level control is fitted.
The speaker-system outputs are at line level (the first is on balanced jacks while the other two are on phonos), so are suitable for feeding both active monitors and passive monitors driven from a power amplifier. A master level control affects all the speaker outputs, while Speaker B has a further volume control (which you could think of as a trim control) allowing it to be balanced with Speaker A. If a subwoofer is fed from the Speaker C outputs, its level must be calibrated on the unit itself, after which it tracks the main volume control setting along with Speakers A and B. The Dim switch knocks down the speaker output levels by 20dB to allow talking or answering the phone without disturbing the volume control setting and there's also a Mute button for when only complete silence will suffice. Mono sums the left and right channels for compatibility checking.