An often overlooked piece of gear for smaller studios is the monitor controller. Monitor controllers can be very beneficial in both small and large studios.
While a range of features can be found on different models, monitor controllers typically do two things: make switching between multiple inputs and outputs easy, and provide a transparent and high-quality signal to your monitors. While channel switching is pretty straightforward, what separates monitor controllers in price and quality is the latter feature: how well they provide a colorless sound.
Also, many producers like to have a piece of music to reference when mixing. In such cases, a monitor controller makes it easy to do A/B comparisons and switch back and forth between the reference track and the mix, hearing both in the same pair of monitors.
Here are four monitor controllers that are affordable and will likely enhance your mixing and mastering experience:
Presonus Monitor Station – $300
For the money, the Presonus Monitor Station offers a lot of features, including three stereo inputs, three stereo outputs, four headphone amps and a built-in talkback mic.
It fits easily on your desktop and offers an LED metering strip. Not a bad place to start for the studio on the budget.
Mackie Big Knob - $300
Similar to the Presonus, the Mackie Big Knob only has two headphone amps, but offers an extra input channel. You can’t go wrong with either one.
Drawmer MC2.1 – $600
Moving towards into the prosumer price range, the Drawmer MC2.1 offers a the same features with an extra dedicated subwoofer output and a cleaner, more transparent sound.
Dangerous D-Box - $1500
In the bottom of the professional level of monitor controllers, most models have built-in D/A converters on board, which can give you a much cleaner signal. It can also allow for your reference track and mix to share the exact same signal conversion, giving you a clearer picture of their comparison.
The Dangerous D-Box offers 2 headphone amps, 2 analog inputs and 2 digital inputs, a “mastering-grade” monitoring path and an 8-channel analog summing mixer, making it a nice all-in-one package for pro studios that don’t want to spend thousands of dollars.
The one downside, however, is that there is no desktop remote controller, which can make switching and adjusting the monitor volume inconvenient depending on where your rack is located in your studio.
Whatever the size of your studio, a monitor controller can help synergize your workflow, add precision to monitoring and enable you to do easy A/B comparisons with a reference track. Along with other features many models come with, picking up a monitor controller to enhance your mixing is a choice you’ll want to make sooner than later.
So, Why A Membership?
Let’s face it — trying to create professional mixes without the correct knowledge, tools, services, and network is like playing a concert with a broken instrument to an audience of no one.
That’s where the Sage Audio membership comes in — the membership gives you everything you need to create professional mixes consistently.
The membership is the secret to your success — it’s the difference between the 1,929,999,999 of poor-sounding mixes and the .00000002% of mixes that make people say 'WOW!"
There are 7 unique value-points included in your Sage Audio membership.
Let’s go over each one so you can decide if the membership is right for you.
1. Sage Audio University
- SAU Flagship Mixing Course: 23-video in-depth mixing course that reveals the little-known secrets of mixing and matches the needs of the new music industry.
- SAU Flagship Mastering Course: 19-video in-depth modern mastering course that dives into every nuance of making professional-sounding masters.
- SAU Pre-Mastering Course: Concise pre-mastering course that details the latest industry standards for preparing your mixes for mastering.
- SAU is designed for every experience level, ranging from budding mixing engineers to advanced engineers. The techniques and concepts taught can be applied to any DAW to create industry-leading mixes without expensive software or plugins - and free plugin alternatives are suggested throughout each course.
- Each SAU course includes Start-to-Finish session walkthrough lessons for multiple genres so you can follow along with your preferred genre.
- SAU Certification Document, which can be downloaded and showcased on your website and social channels.
Yes, I want to join the membership now >
2. Private 1-on-1 Mentorship
- The Sage Audio private 1-on-1 Mentorship gives you direct access to us for advanced mixing feedback, in-depth discussions, and customized guidance that's tailored to your specific needs.
- Unlimited private access to us for advanced mixing feedback, where we provide detailed suggestions for improvement.
- Unlimited private access to us for in-depth discussions to help you improve every aspect of your mixes and masters.
- Customized guidance that’s tailored specifically to your needs.
- Fast communication so you can improve your skills quickly.
Yes, I want to join the membership now >
3. Unlimited Mixing Feedback
- Unlimited professional mixing feedback directly from us so you can consistently improve your skills and create professional mixes.
- Mixing feedback is invaluable, and the Sage Audio membership gives you continual direct access to us for real-world feedback so you can improve every aspect of each of your mixes while you're in the process of mixing.
Yes, I want to join the membership now >
4. 50 Free Mastered Songs Per Year
- 50 free mastered songs per year with your own dedicated professional mastering engineer so you can get all your mixes sounding like professional songs.
- You get your own dedicated Sage Audio mastering engineer to create custom masters that are specific to you and sound exactly how you want.
- Unlimited revisions with your dedicated mastering engineer. As a standard of our service, we are not happy until you are happy with the sound of your masters.
- All masters are delivered as commercial, industry-standard high-resolution 24-bit HD WAV masters so they will sound clean and clear on every platform.
Yes, I want to join the membership now >
5. Community
- The Sage Audio community is a tight-knit community of passionate audio engineers who can provide you with additional real-world mixing feedback, meaningful discussions, networking, collaborations, and more.
Yes, I want to join the membership now >
6. 70+ GB of Curated Sage Audio Downloadable Content
- 36 multitrack sessions spanning multiple genres for mixing practice.
- 57 un-mastered mixes spanning multiple genres for mastering practice.
- 62 Recommended Free Plugins List (vetted, tested, and approved, so you don’t have to).
- 39 Recommended Paid Plugins List (vetted, tested, and approved, so you don’t have to).
- 71 Sage Audio custom plugin presets to improve your mixes and masters.
- Sage Audio Membership Badge to showcase on your website, social channels, and portfolio.
Yes, I want to join the membership now >
7. 800+ Video Catalog
- Access 700+ in-depth Sage Audio mixing and mastering videos - curated and organized into categories so you can easily take a deep dive into all aspects of audio engineering with thousands of hours of concise, expertly crafted Sage Audio videos to continually improve your skills at your own pace.
Yes, I want to join the membership now >
