Apollo Studio Tech (Part 8)

In the previous posts I focused mainly on creating and processing of the audio on my PC, but off course it is also quite nice to hear the output somewhere. In my studio I use different sets of monitor speakers to judge my mixes on. In the picture you can see from left to right: Genelec 8250, Mackie HR824 MKI, and Avantone Active Mixcubes. The Genelecs are my main monitors, so they are closest to me and under my desk is also the matching 7260A Sub-woofer. Next to these 3 stereo sets there is also a Surround setup with 5 Behringer B2031A's and a B2092 Sub-woofer. You can read all about why I use these monitors in the equipment section of the studio menu. This article is about the routing of the audio to these monitors.

There are several audio sources in my studio and they all need to be routed to the monitors. On the right you can see the schematic again in a simplified form with only everything on it that is relevant for the monitoring. Two of the audio sources are the Mastering and Video PC and Audio PC. The mastering PC has a dedicated RME Fireface 800 that outputs an SPDIF signal. The Audio PC only has the RME MADI interfaces in there so in one channel it outputs its audio signal to the ADI-648 that sends it to an ADAT channel and the Friend-Chip converts this to an SPDIF signal that goes into an Mutec MC4. This is an Digital Audio Converter with 3 inputs that you can select from and it also has three inputs. You can see three other audio sources on the input from the MC4 that are mixed together in a Mutec Merger. These sources are a Alesis Masterlink HD/CD recorder, an Eminent Multimedia Player that I use to watch movies in my studio and a Logitec Sqeezebox that I use to listen to music in the studio.

The Alesis Masterlink also has an output routed back into it so that I can record everything that comes out of my monitors in the studio without using a PC. Then there is two more outputs from the MC4. One is directly going into the Genelec 7270A Sub-woofer that in its turn sends it to the Genelec 8250's and the other signal is going into a Presonus Central station that I also use as DA converter for the analog stereo monitors. An analog signal is also sent from the Central Station to the SPL Surround Controller so I can also listen to a stereo mix on the Behringer surround set. There is also an analog surround signal coming directly from the analog outputs of the RME Fireface 800 attached to the Mastering and Video PC.

In the picture on the right you can see the Presonus Central Station on the bottom. It is really the heart of the analog audio monitoring setup. It has a volume controller on the right that is right in front of me and next to that you can select monitors A, B and C. On here are the Mackies HR824 MKI and the Avantones Active Mixcubes. I still need to also connect the analog inputs of the Genelecs to this. There is also a main out on the back that in its turn is connected to one of the stereo inputs of the SPL Surround Controller. This output does not respond to the volume controller, so I can set the level for the surround set on the SPL.

In the picture on the right you can see the Presonus Central Station on the bottom. It is really the heart of the analog audio monitoring setup. It has a volume controller on the right that is right in front of me and next to that you can select monitors A, B and C. On here are the Mackies HR824 MKI and the Avantones Active Mixcubes. I still need to also connect the analog inputs of the Genelecs to this. There is also a main out on the back that in its turn is connected to one of the stereo inputs of the SPL Surround Controller. This output does not respond to the volume controller, so I can set the level for the surround set on the SPL.

This is the last part in this series for now. I hope you enjoyed it.