Monitor controller

The monitor controller gives every room the keys of a studio monitor controller: check a mix in mono, listen to the side signal, drop the level for a talk, and set up headphones and amplifiers. You find it in Now playing under Monitor, on a phone behind the monitor key at the foot of the screen, and on a desktop also as the monitor key in the player bar.

The monitor controller is a plugin. An admin switches it on in Settings › Plugins › Monitor controller. While it is off, its controls are hidden and nothing in it changes the sound: switching it off also switches off what was on in every room.

Every control works per room. While any of them changes the signal, the room’s badge says DSP instead of Bit-Perfect; the player computes in 64 bit with dither, so this is sonically uncritical. Switch the control off and the room plays bit-perfect again.

Mono check

Plays left and right added together on both speakers. Use it to hear whether the mix still works on a single speaker, a phone or a club’s mono PA: parts that get quieter or hollow in mono cancel out, usually because of a phase problem or a stereo widener.

Side only (L−R)

Plays only what differs between left and right. Everything in the centre (usually vocal, kick and bass) disappears, and you hear the reverb, the width and phase problems on their own. Side only and Mono check cannot run together: switching one on switches the other off.

Dim

Turns the room down by the dim amount (20 dB unless you change it) for a talk or a phone call, without moving the volume. Press it again and the room is exactly as loud as before.

Loudness

At low volume your ears hear less bass and treble than at a normal level. Loudness adds back as much as the volume took away, so quiet listening does not sound thin. At full volume it does nothing. It follows bitwerk’s own volume only: when an amplifier sets the volume, Loudness cannot know how loud the room is.

Headphone crossfeed

On headphones each ear hears only its own channel, so hard-panned parts sit inside your head instead of in front of you. Crossfeed lets each ear hear a little of the other channel’s bass, a little later, as it would from speakers. Light is subtle, Medium suits most recordings, and Strong is closest to speakers. Use it for headphones only; on speakers the room already does this.

Dim amount

How much quieter Dim makes the room, from 0 to 60 dB. 20 dB is about a quarter of the loudness you hear; 60 dB is close to silent.

Output trim

A fixed level offset for the room’s output, from −24 to +12 dB, that stays while you change the volume. Use it to match one room to another, or to give an amplifier that is too loud or too quiet the right starting level. Set it once: it is not a second volume control.

From a Stream Deck or a mixing desk

Mono, Dim and the other switches are also keys for a Stream Deck and messages for OSC, so you can switch them without touching a screen. An admin creates the token under Settings › Access.