pro control db25 cables for monitor section

[ToneSetter]

Am I going to notice any difference in sound quality from the pro control monitor section using mogami gold db25 cables over other brand (hosa, planet waves, digidesign, etc) non gold cables? What brand of cables would you guys recommend? Thanks for the help

[Southsidemusic]

A waste of money and time if you ask me. The monitor sections on those 15-20 y/o tanks are not great and buying better cables to try improving on that is throwing away money.

Get a standalone monitor controller like presonus or Mackie andyou will notice a HUGE sound improvement. Same with the Control24 which also has a less than stellar monitor section.

This is IMNSHO of course and you will probably get someone who says that you should get the new cables but take it from someone who beendoing this for the past 20 years

[ToneSetter]

I wasn't meaning will mogami db25 cables make the monitor section sound better. I meant will mogami db25 cables really sound better than other brands of cables that are cheaper? But is the monitor section of the pro control really that bad?

[Delta Music Belgium]

Originally Posted by ToneSetter

But is the monitor section of the pro control really that bad?

Yes, the analog monitor section of the ProControl Main unit is really that bad.

The problem resides in the volume pot: the levels of all channels (stereo and surround) do not remain in perfect balance when turning the volume pot up or down. For example when using using the pot for simple stereo volume control you can hear the stereo image shift at certain levels (what indicates both channels do not attenuate equally).

In the early ProControl Main units this was very bad, then Digidesign came up with a revision pot that was better but the problem was never entirely solved.

So my best advice is to stay way from the analog monitor monitor section and use an external monitor controller. I use a GraceDesign m906 5.1 surround controller but there are cheaper alternatives

[ToneSetter]

I just mainly wanted to use the talkback feature of the pro controls monitor section and be able to use the talk back button next to the transport controls. Is there a way to do this?

[ToneSetter]

To use the talkback feature of the pro control and none of the other features of the monitor section would I just use the pro controls output 5 or 6 of a db25 cable (which the attached image from the manual shows is for talkback output to pro tools) into a channel on my interface and then in pro tools use a mono track with the input set to the channel that the pro controls talkback output is going into on my interface and set the output of the track to main out, or the artists headphone mix?

[YYR123]

Yeah I always use, adaptors off of the main cable, whatever they may be to reach.

I build my own cables just so I have exactly what I need and so they don’t cost a fortune.

I never used the PC as a monitor unit, I always had 3rd party units for monitoring....just because they were more robust, offered more io and were lots cleaner.

The PC was great as a control surface but it didn’t have a great monitoring control sound...especially this far into the game.