Many interfaces offer this facility and software solutions such as Loopback exist but having this very simple implementation of an essential feature is a welcome bonus. Only one input is presented in ListenHub when using it as an audio device (as opposed to using the Plugin version) this loopback input is incredibly useful because it is so simple. The Reference input can be used to route a reference track from within your DAW. Route your DAW to ListenHub’s Main inputs and your system audio to the System inputs and you’re in business. ListenHub presents three inputs: System, Main and Reference and if you set your DAW’s audio preferences to Listen Hub the three outputs are available in your IO. To use ListenHub you need to route ListenHub’s outputs to your interface and set ListenHub as your system audio device. By presenting itself to macOS as an audio device multiple apps can be routed to it.
ListenHub comes as a systemwide stereo audio device and plugin for Mac, but to get the full experience, systemwide is the way to use it. I could go on but suffice it to say that there’s a lot here but for all its features the experience is streamlined and uncluttered. Also included are automatic level matching of sources, plugin hosting on outputs for speaker and headphone calibration. Useful metering is supplied with a LUFS and dynamic range meters. This might sound like a limitation but in these days of calibrated monitoring isn’t it a useful simplification?Įssential channel operations like mono sum and L/R swap (useful for checking whether the centre of your stereo recording is actually in the centre) are covered as are tools for examining areas of the frequency spectrum both visually, courtesy of the spectrum analyser, and aurally using the band solo controls.
Instead, as well as Mute and Dim, ListenHub has a series of four switches labelled loud, normal, quiet and soft, each representing a -6dB reduction in level from full scale. I was surprised to find no volume fader or knob. Touchscreens have no tactile feedback and while touchscreen switches are fine, touchscreen faders don’t work for me. Having control of source and output switching under your fingers is accompanied by level control, which I was expecting to hate.
Using desktop software isn’t attractive is it means that you have to juggle your on screen real estate between DAW and controller so ListenHub is accompanied by a free iOS and Android App which can run on a tablet or a phone.
You route your DAW to it in the same way as you would route the outputs of your interface to your hardware monitor controller and alternate input sources such as a mix reference and alternate output sources such as secondary monitors or headphones can be routed to and switched between in the same way as a traditional monitor controller. In exactly the same way as a hardware monitor controller sits between the DAW and the speakers, so does ListenHub. The important thing about ListenHub is that it’s an intermediary between your DAW and your speakers and headphones. Can a software monitor controller do everything I need? Sonnox certainly think so and their new ListenHub for macOS is exactly that - a stereo monitor controller which provides everything you need to mix and reference along with a few extras which bring everything you need to keep focused and fresh when mixing. Something which does occur to me is that nowhere on my list does it say that my monitor controller has to be a piece of hardware. I haven’t had many crashes which resulted in full scale noise blasting out of my speakers (or even worse, headphones!) but even one of these events is enough. Other must-haves for me would of course include an easy way to A/B between alternative sets of monitors and to be able to trim the levels of these sets of monitors independently, and a way to quickly A/B between the track I’m mixing and a reference, and to be able to easily level-match the track and the reference.Īnother big reason why I want a monitor controller is as a safety stage, and intermediary between my DAW and my speakers and headphones. This is one of the reasons a really top quality monitor controller is so expensive. This is surprisingly difficult to do with analogue hardware as level discrepancies between the left and right will tend to occur using standard components. All audio interfaces have a volume knob, why do so many of us duplicate it by buying a separate monitor controller? Considering this for a moment some reasons which spring to mind include having a conveniently located, high quality volume control which doesn’t influence the sound.