# The Type Of Shit That Pisses Me Off... - Site: Analog Industries - Author: Chris Randall - Date: 2008-08-24 - URL: https://analogindustries.com/2008/08/the-type-of-shit-that-pisses-me-off/ Okay, so I'm merrily working along, I go to switch to headphones, and I hit the "MUTE" button on my Central Station, and it pops out and _hits me in the forehead._ So, being the sort to which Einstein was obviously referring in his definition of insanity, I stuck the button back in the hole, thinking it would work again. As you can see in the picture, that was a dumb idea. On the one hand, no fault to Presonus. Shit breaks. On the other hand, these buttons are cheap as fuck. Which kind of goes against the statement that the Central Station was made with the "highest quality passive components including military grade 1% tolerance metal film resistors, multi-element potentiometers and ultra-durable connectors to deliver the highest sonic performance." I'm glad I'm not in the military, is all I'm sayin'. I'm sure that if I dropped a line to Presonus, they'd get me sorted out in short order (this Central Station was, in fact, payment for services rendered to that company; I didn't actually _buy_ it); they are nice folks and generally on the ball about this sort of shit. But that brings to light a bigger issue, one I've touched upon in many different ways over the last couple years of writing this blog. You Get What You Pay For. I'm gonna shut the fuck up now and go read about [this.](http://www.dangerousmusic.com/dbox.html) Sure, it costs a lot more, but what if I had a commercial studio and the mute button on my monitor controller got stuck, or worse yet, popped out and got lodged in the eyeball of a client? Can't have that. ## Comments (10) **Wade Alin** (2008-08-24): there's always this - http://cgi.ebay.com/Coleman-Audio-M3-Monitor-Control_W0QQitemZ190246329941QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item190246329941&_trkparms=72%3A552%7C39%3A1%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C240%3A1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14#ebayphotohosting 1st Generation Coleman, it's well built, very transparent and you don't have to pay for D/A and summing that you probably won't use. That's the conclusion I came to with the Dbox. -W **inteliko** (2008-08-24): That Dangerous joint will look nice with the rest of your silver rack. **javahut** (2008-08-24): I'd just forget about hardware for studio routing. Don't like all the extra crap in the way of the signal. Just use the mixer/routing/control software for your A/D D/A. RME's Fireface mixer does all I need for basic signal routing... and a lot more. Then again, I don't have the most complicated studio signal routing set up. But the basics are more than covered. I don't think you can get truly uncolored sound from those hardware studio controllers unless you spend big bucks... like the Dangerous unit. Definitely not worth the dollars to me. That's what software's for. **Chris Randall** (2008-08-24): I would suggest that course of action for people that just have one computer and one set of speakers. I, however, have three computers and two sets of speakers. And as far as monitor controllers go, the Dangerous unit is one of the cheapest of the professional ones. It is definitely _not_ "big bucks." -CR **javahut** (2008-08-24): Definitely an improvement over the PreSonus. If it was me, though, and I was gonna spend that much, I think I'd spend a tad more for the Monitor ST. Less "all-in-one", more targeted application. It'd be worth it just for the programmable gains. I would bet better quality audio for monitoring, too. http://www.dangerousmusic.com/stsr.html **Wilson** (2008-08-24): Even so, it still manages to be lust-worthy for being, on the surface, a volume knob. CR, I remember you speaking of the virtues of analog summing once. Do you think you'd work those 8 summing inputs into your mixing workflow? **Wade Alin** (2008-08-24): Yeah, Google "Crane Song Avocet." That's some much bigger bucks. And hardware volume controllers are a necessary evil for those of us without volume knobs (Apogee, Lynx, Lavry etc.) , unless you don't mind either mixing in 11 bit or going completely deaf in like 3 weeks. **Chris Randall** (2008-08-24): Working the summing in would involve replacing my Rosetta 200 with a Rosetta 800 (or Aurora 8); I simply can't absorb that expense right now. Actually, I can't even absorb the expense of the D-Box. I still have to pay for the Purple mic pres, and I thank my lucky stars that Andrew/Purple are very patient and understanding. But I thought the D-Box would at least give me the option in the future without having to switch boxes. All of this will be solved, theoretically, with the release of Automaton, of course. But that is (naturally) taking far longer than it was supposed to. -CR **boobs** (2008-08-24): I bought a Dbox several months ago. 6 or so? anyway.. it's quality. very well done top to bottom a to z. the DA in it sounds great btw. it's a very flexible piece of gear as well. also, completely neutral sounding. great for summing through if you are into that kind of thing. **Chris Randall** (2008-08-24): boobs, question: The material implies that you can listen to more than one 2trk source at the same time. Is that, in fact, the case? -CR