SAMSON C-Control

Samson C-control control room matrix A unique solution for studios with multiple monitors, headphone mixes and tape or digital sources. Provides easy, heretofore impossible to achieve, instant monitor mixes or dubs. Select from three pairs of speakers with dim and mute. Use the talkback mic to give instructions to the musicians in the headphone mix. Push-to-talk also records slates. Includes a headphone amp with level control. Three sets of stereo ins and outs are included, with dubbing capability to three outputs

C-Control� another in the line of compact and affordable C-series processors from Samson.

This unit offers the functionality of a master section as found on large studio mixers- capability to select different stereo sources and route them to different 2-track recorders, or different pairs of speakers for monitoring.

Samson C-Control features 4 inputs (mix + 2track a/b/c) and 3 stereo outs plus 3 monitor outputs, a headphone amp, mono summing function, plus a talkback section with slate mode.

First impressions are very good. its a sturdy little half-rack box made of aluminium and feels nice and quite solid to the touch. all connections are attached directly to the casing, so nothing wobbles when attaching/detaching cables. even the RCA plugs are nice and big and stick out far enough from the casing for even the most demanding rca cable you'd care to connect to them.

So at least physically, it feels like at least twice the money i paid for it.

Headphone amp sounds much better to me than on my old Yamaha Promix, with good definition and stereo imaging and is loud enough to blow your head off, quite literally!

I tested the unit using the Edirol FA101 audio interface, running various signals (sine tones, narrow pulse tones, and a 16hz-20khz sweep) to and from the unit. i can say that at least on paper the unit performs well- output levels stayed even, and frequency response was flat enough for home studio use. Also, transient response didn�t seem to be any worse than that of the Edirol.

Noise levels don�t seem to be the problem either- i turned it all the way up with no music playing and while i did detect noise it was nothing that would bother you at normal listening levels. it was certainly lower than the noise of my (relatively) quiet-ish pc and only audible when i pressed my ears very close the speaker.

All in all� I�d say this unit makes a nice addition to a mixerless studio, allowing a LOT of functionality and flexibility for very little money.

Of course� if you�re running a pro facility, using top quality gear in a controlled acoustic environment you might wanna look into a Mackie Big Knob or Presonus Central Station instead, which offer more �pro� features and better audio quality, but I�d say for home studio use this unit offers just the right performance at a great price.

One word of warning tho: the first unit I brought home had a noticeable level mismatch on monitor outs at low volume! left channel would become audible first, and then the second one would join in when I moved the knob further. The other one I got works flawlessly, so maybe this is not a common problem�