Which Surround Monitor Controller...

[One Track Music]

... would you recommend. I've been using the SPL but am not totally thrilled. It's a bit clunky & big on my desk, doesn't have talkback, has already bust a channel once. Been looking at the C|24 but it's a bit overkill as I'm a composer... would love to have just its master section! I love the grace 906, but not sure why I would need any onboard d/a converters. I do need at least 2 stereo ins, which the coleman doesn't seem to have.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks so much!
Joel

[Wellnitz]

Hi Joe,

if you have the money, i recommand the RTW 30900.

Newest feature: a Dolby E decoder is in the box or you can buy a SDI Deembedder instead.

Some highlights?

You can flip ch 7/8 to L/R. A professional 8 ch. multimeter is inside.
You can choose cut or solo for each channel.
plus,plus.

Take a look at www.rtw.de

My 2 cents

Jochen

[mr.armadillo]

You may take a look at studio tech's stuff:


Studiotech




This one looks like what you want (simple, talkback function, 2 stereo inputs)

Picture

[Richard Fairbanks]

Hi Jochen,

RTW looks very interesting, I have not actually seen one. A couple of questions about it, is talkback possible? Is there bass management? Another concern is sample rate. It looks like an external clock is required, is that right? The box does not support 192kHz. So, if you had to work on a 192kHz job, it looks like you'd have to use a different clock to drive the RTM and then monitor analog inputs or find some other way to samplerate convert.

[Frank Kruse]

Hi Jochen,

RTW looks very interesting, I have not actually seen one. A couple of questions about it, is talkback possible? Is there bass management? Another concern is sample rate. It looks like an external clock is required, is that right? The box does not support 192kHz. So, if you had to work on a 192kHz job, it looks like you'd have to use a different clock to drive the RTM and then monitor analog inputs or find some other way to samplerate convert.

Talkback: no

Bass management: no

More info here http://www.rtw.de/images/produkte/en/Bro_SC_30900_E.pdf

Maximum Fs is 96Khz

But I faintly remember an RTW-rep. telling me about a bassmanagement module on a trade show. Maybe send them an email.

frank.

[KK Proffitt]

You may take a look at studio tech's stuff:


Studiotech




This one looks like what you want (simple, talkback function, 2 stereo inputs)

Picture

Reliable, too. We've been using our models 78/79 for nearly a decade. They were absolutely great when we
had to incorporate -10dBV stuff (Lexion consumer unit for Dolby Digital and DTS) into one of our our playback. As I recall, they
helped us find the parts for the mod.

[One Track Music]

Thanks all very much. I have a Stereo Studio Comm, which has been solid. Andrew in the TDM forum, where I also posted this question, has made quite a compelling argument for the Grace 906, it has some little details that could be really useful, such as adat optical in (to use for Mac sound) & spdf for CD player, leaving other ins free. Hmm, a bit more money though... ain't that the way!

Any more suggestions/experiences welcome.
thanks,
Joel

[soundguydave]

If you work in a post studio, I would recommend against the studio comm. Its pretty limited in the talkback function, in that it only injects into the cue and you can't bring it out of the box easily. So in my situation where I need talkback into protools for slating and talking to talent over ISDN, it doesn't work well. I have been looking at the dangerous music SR/ST. It has talkback, slate, cue, 4 inputs, 3 monitors out and a pretty nice looking controller with a lot of features. Not too bad at about $2,800

[mr.armadillo]

If you work in a post studio, I would recommend against the studio comm. Its pretty limited in the talkback function, in that it only injects into the cue and you can't bring it out of the box easily. So in my situation where I need talkback into protools for slating and talking to talent over ISDN, it doesn't work well.

That's definitely true for the 5.1 studio comm, and I really miss the slate there. (The stereo studio comm however is perfect for slating and ISDN and got everything you need) If you only need it for 5.1 monitoring, it's perfectly fine, easy to use and really worth it's money. I like that ref level button that automatically puts your level at 85dB SPL (or whatever level you want).

The 906 looks very pretty, and that headphone output is really useful (the studio comm doesn't have one).

[KK Proffitt]

That's definitely true for the 5.1 studio comm, and I really miss the slate there. (The stereo studio comm however is perfect for slating and ISDN and got everything you need) If you only need it for 5.1 monitoring, it's perfectly fine, easy to use and really worth it's money. I like that ref level button that automatically puts your level at 85dB SPL (or whatever level you want).

The 906 looks very pretty, and that headphone output is really useful (the studio comm doesn't have one).

Yes, we use our four banks of 8 just to monitor. It's great for checking AC3 encode/decode loops. I do love the ref and the mute buttons. For talkback, etc., we have an 800-point patchbay and a 96-point (4X96 channel) AES router. I wired a footswitch years ago for the talkback mike and it gets patched wherever I want it to go. I love mults... Everything else is done inside PT.