I’ve recently finished setting up the 5.1 surround sound control room and am writing a series of posts detailing the use of this room as there are a few guidelines which MUST be followed. This post will detail the few item which MUST NOT be done unless you want to feel the wrath of Steve (and possibly me) and also ruin usability for other students.
This list isn’t very lengthy but please follow it to ensure smooth running of this control room.
- Do not remove the patch leads marked red in the image under any circumstances. These are still to be hard-wired in the patch bay and are linking the outputs from the 003 control surface to the BlueSky monitor system and headphone amplifiers, if they are messed with all the I/O settings for ProTools will be messed up, and you will not get the correct output.
- Do not move the 003 control surface around on the desk, there are digital cables running between the 003 and O2R which could get damaged if you move things around. There should be no need to move the control surface anyway.
- Do not move the speakers around, they have been placed where they are for optimal monitoring positions, and everything has been tested for the correct running of 2.1 and 5.1 mixing.
- Do not start messing around with the connections at the back of either the 003 control surface, or the O2R. A lot of time and effort has been spent on getting everything patched into the correct places in this room, there is no need for anything to be swapped around at all.
- Remember there is no level meter for the BlueSky monitor system at this time, so please be aware of the level you are monitoring at. Please be aware that there is a sub bass unit on this system which is ALWAYS active so please keep the level to a sensible level during peak university times, be considerate to other students and staff to avoid getting any complaints.
- Please don’t unplug anything from the back of the iMac, if it’s plugged in it’s for a reason (Obvious I know but you never know).