918 Chapter 25
operator usually has a psychological hook about the
main stereo bus monitoring being the gospel unblem-
ished signal path and that all the auxiliary functions are
somehow less polished and somehow tainted. In reality,
the monitoring chain normally selects directly between
all its sources, merely treating the stereo mix as one of
the many. No special treatment is desired or given.
25.14.1 Solo, Solo-Free, and Prefade Listen
An assumption is made that the solo function is such
that if a console channel is soloed, all other sources
contributing to the main stereo bus are muted, leaving
the desired channel in isolation at its set level and
panned position. An exception and extension to this are
for other channels (principally those returning effects to
which our soloed channel may be contributing) to
remain unmuted in the stereo mix during solo operation;
this is done by using the solo-free button on those chan-
nels still needed. Solo-free detaches the channel from
the consolewide muting/solo activation logic.
Soloing individual channels wet (i.e., with all its
attendant effects) is a common need; at a stage in a
production where things are dripping in reverb and
sundry funny noises, soloing in context only makes
sense—by that time it is well known and redundant
what something sounds like dry. A channel’s sound has
become an amalgam of the source and applied effects,
not just that of the source.
The upshot of this is that solo monitoring is inherent
to the stereo mix path. If that path isn’t selected for
monitoring, then neither is the solo. So, although a solo
overrides the main stereo mix (unless disabled alto-
gether by a master function, solo safe), it cannot over-
ride anything else, unlike the PFL.
Although PFL could just be brought up as another
monitored source, it is made to emulate solo in
single-button touch operation, with the added advanta-
geous capability of overriding everything—whatever is
selected to monitoring. Hit a PFL button anywhere on
the console and, if desired, it will be what you hear in
the monitors. Alternatively it can be arranged to just
come up on headphones or a “near field loudspeaker” so
as not to disturb the main monitors.
25.14.2 Monitoring Controls
Now we’ve worked out how to get what signal and at
what priority into the monitoring chain. What other
torture do we put it through?
- Level control, which is used to adjust the volume.
Usually a big knob or a fader of its own. The most
used control on any console—just ask any console
manufacturer’s service department. - Mute is used to turn the row off occasionally.
- Dim is used so that you can hear what people say.
- Mono is still used in radio and TV.
- Phase reverse is used to make sure you haven’t
already done it inadvertently. (This function
together with the mono button makes for one of the
quickest ways in history of lining up analog tape
machine azimuth.) - Split is unashamedly borrowed from broadcast
monitoring technology. This routes a mono sum of
the main stereo mix bus continually to the left side
of the monitor chain and a mono sum of whatever
source is selected (including PFL override) to the
right side, providing simultaneous monitoring of
two different sources—one of which would almost
certainly be console output anyway. (Split’s origins
lie in network radio, where announcers on the air
have to talk up to program junctions and smoothly
hand over to another studio or network feed, news,
or whatever at a cue. In order to do this, they have to
be able to hear both themselves and the network
they are opting into to hear the lead-up and
handover cue.) Other than its primary design use,
the split function is used considerably under other
normal programming, affording random source
monitoring without losing track of what the main
console output is doing. It’s also used extensively in
program prerecording and production, enabling,
with practice, real-time multisource edits (jump
edits) without recourse to razor blades and tape.
Split will eventually find a niche in multitrack
recording techniques; if nothing else, it can fulfill
the requirement for single-loudspeaker mono moni-
toring, by simply selecting the right side to a dead
source. - Desktop loudspeakers, or idiot speakers, are used to
do transistor-radio and cheap hi-fi impersonations,
also affording a respite of sorts from the sometimes
wearing grandiosity of normal monitor loud-
speakers. - Near-field loudspeakers (relatively small speakers,
usually perched on the console’s meter bridge) are
used as a twofold reality check during mix: they are
close enough to the engineer for the room acoustics
to be unimportant; they are closer in size/quality to
what the majority of listeners will be using. Often,
they are used as the prime monitoring with big