Tips and Tricks for Audio Engineers: Channel Path Vs. Monitor Path

The Terms “Channel Path” and “Monitor Path” are used in audio engineering to describe the two paths any audio signal runs through in order to be recorded and heard. Usually channel path describes the source signal most likely starting with a microphone plugged in to a microphone preamplifier and ends at some kind of a recorder – most likely a multitrack recorder. The monitor path is the path through which we monitor what we are recording. In other words it starts with the return or the output signal of the recorder and it ends at your speakers or headphones – (not the artist’s headphones). The way audio consoles deal with both of those paths - we have two main types of mixers – “In-line” and “split”. Split consoles are easy to understand – lets say you have a vocal microphone plugged in to channel 16 and routed to your multitrack recorder input 16 – That’s your channel path. The output of your recorder on the other hand is connected to channel 1 of the same console. Channel 1 is now routed towards the speakers, which serves the function of a monitor path. So the console gets split by the engineer. He/she decides what modules of the console to be used as monitor paths and which other modules as channel paths. Inline consoles, also referred to as dual path consoles have both the channel path and the monitor path built in to the same module. Meaning you may have a vocal microphone plugged in to “channel” 16 going towards your multitrack recorder and probably being recorded on track number 16 while the output of track 16 is also connected to “channel” 16 of the same mixer (this time the monitor path of it) and controlled by a separate fader going towards the speakers for monitoring. If that sounds confusing – it is because of play of words, which is always the case in the audio industry. A lot of times the terms “module”, “channel”, “monitor”, “track”, “buss”, “sub”, “group”, “send”, “return”, and many more are misused, misinterpreted or simply interchanged. And not from the lack of knowledge – Audio gear manufacturers seem to be trying to confuse everybody on purpose. Even professional console companies like SSL and Neve seem to have an internal disagreement. SSL for example calls their multitrack busses – “groups”. On the same console you may also find a “VCA group” and a “software group” which are completely different things. Also most large format consoles, like the SSL 9000J in MIX Mode use their dedicated channel paths and NOT the monitor paths for monitoring. So if someone in the middle of a session asks: “Is the vocal on group 5?”, or “Is that bass on channel 13?” - the question itself would mean absolutely nothing, because of the existence of multiple “group 5s” each one with a completely different function, as well as the term channel a lot of times implies both channel path and monitor path at the same time and it is also somewhat interchangeable with the term “module”. After a few years of dealing with multiple recording consoles people get a sense of all that misused terminology and no longer find it strange that the inputs to Pro Tools for example on the patch-bay are labeled as “Multitrack Sends”. On the other hand a lot of manufacturers simply mislabel or are absolutely wrong with their concept. For example Tannoy, which is a well respected speaker manufacturer, labeled their input gain knob on their Reveal 6 active monitors as going from the range of “-10dBU/+4dBU”. Every audio engineer knows that professional Line level standard is +4dBu and NOT +4dBU, and if Tannoy meant consumer standard, then it is -10dBV. Let alone the fact that -10dBV input is a lot more sensitive than a +4dBu input, which means the label should have been +4/-10 and not -10/+4 because that means the knob would be attenuating your signal as you turn it clockwise, which is not the case on the “Reveal 6”. Not to mention the whole issue of the entire recording industry of Phase vs. Polarity. When it comes to channel path and monitor path it is up to the user to deal with every manufacturer’s crazy idea of the use of those two paths and terms. As long as we understand what their function is, and how to use the channel and the monitor path, audio gear manufacturers will continue to intentionally confuse their main consumers, as different companies will never agree on a standard terminology.

References:

Phase vs. Polarity - http://avstomusic.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2011-08-16T13:12:00-07:00&max-results=15

Reveal 6 - http://www.amazon.com/Tannoy-Reveal-6D-Active-Monitor/dp/B000Z78BZO

Tannoy - http://www.tannoy.com/

SSL 9000J in Mix Mode - http://avstomusic.com/index.php?p=2_4

SSL - http://www.solid-state-logic.com/

Neve - http://www.ams-neve.com/Home/Home.aspx

Inline Consoles - http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20091017130601AASBKju

Split Consoles - http://www.dilettantesdictionary.org/index.php?search=1&searchtxt=split%20console

Audio consoles/ Mixers- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixing_console

Monitor Path - http://www.gearslutz.com/board/so-much-gear-so-little-time/462514-inline-split-dual-path-inline-consoles.html

Channel Path - http://www.gearslutz.com/board/so-much-gear-so-little-time/462514-inline-split-dual-path-inline-consoles.html