About Monitoring 23
About Monitoring
The MD8 features a flexible monitoring system, allowing you to monitor signals at various points. You can monitor sounds through a pair of stereo headphones connected to the PHONES jack, or through a monitor amplifier and speakers connected to the MONITOR OUT jacks. The MONITOR SELECT switches are used to select the monitor source, and the MONITOR LEVEL control is used to adjust the level.
2TR IN—This switch selects the 2TR IN connection as the monitor source. This allows you to monitor signals from a stereo master recorder connected to the STEREO OUT and 2TR IN. Selecting [2TR IN] during mixdown allows you to monitor the output of a master recorder so you can make sure that the master recorder is receiving the signals correctly.
GROUP—These switches select the Group buses as the monitor source. This allows you to monitor signals that are assigned from inputs 1 to 12. Use these switches to monitor what will be recorded. For example, if you’re recording the sounds from three input channels to one track simultaneously,you’ll need to listen to a mix of the three sounds in order to balance the levels correctly. You can do this using the GROUP switches.
When only the [1–3] or [2–4] MONITOR SELECT GROUP switch is pressed, the monitor signal is set as mono. This ensures that the signal being monitored appears in both the left and right monitor speakers. So even when you monitor a single group signal, it will be heard through both speakers. When both the [1–3] and [2–4] MONITOR SELECT GROUP switches are pressed, however, the monitor signal is set as stereo. So you can monitor stereo signals on Groups 1 and 2 or Groups 3 and 4.
STEREO—This switch selects the Stereo bus as the monitor source. This allows you to mon- itor the STEREO OUT signals and is typically used during mixdown. It can also be used to monitor signals that are not going to be recorded by the MD8, such as a MIDI tone generator that is controlled by a MIDI sequencer. In this case, the tone generator is only monitored while other sounds are recorded on the MD8.Then for the final mixdown,the tone generator sounds are mixed with the sounds recorded on the MD8 and mixed down to a stereo master recorder.
CUE—This switch selects the CUE bus as the monitor source. This allows you to monitor track signals. Unlike the other monitor sources, the CUE monitor source changes when the MD8 starts recording or rehearsing. For example, during normal playback CUE allows you to monitor the sounds recorded on disc. Obviously, if nothing is recorded, there’s nothing to monitor. When either record or rehearse is started, however, CUE allows you to monitor the sounds that are assigned to tracks for recording. The application of this may not appear very obvious at the moment, but all will become clear in the punch in/out and ping-pong recording sections.
Note: Although you can monitor GROUP, STEREO, and CUE all at the same time, there is a possibility that you’ll monitor the same signal from two different points in the signal flow. At first, you may find it less confusing to select just one monitor source at a time.
