The control room section of a mixer is one of the key elements in every studio. No matter if it’s just about controlling the level of studio monitors, switching between different sets of monitors, communicating with musicians in a recording booth, or quickly switching to an external source like CD, DAT or DVD player: The control room section of a professional mixing desk brings all these signals together and distributes them within the studio.
Equally important and often missed on smaller mixing consoles is one or more independent monitor or headphone mixes, especially when recording a live band or multiple musicians at the same time.
 
Cubase 4 completely redefines the computer-based recording and mixing workflow in music production systems by recreating the complete Control Room section originally found only in high-end hardware mixing consoles. With the addition of this virtual Control Room and suitable multi-channel audio I/O hardware, Cubase 4 offers all the functionality needed directly within your software production environment - without having to use a hardware mixer.

The Control Room section in Cubase 4 includes the following functions:

• Completely separate output busses for Control Room and Headphone Monitoring, leaving the main mix output untouched by control room specific settings.
• Four user-definable Monitor Setups allow for quick switching between monitor systems including “Foldback” and convenient solo functionality for surround setups such as “Solo to Center” or “Back to Front”
• Up to six External Inputs for external sources such as DAT, Tape, CD or DVD can be played through any Studio, Track, Headphone or Control Room Bus.
• A total of up to four separate Studios/Monitor Mixes, each getting their signal feeds from any audio channel, group channel, or FX return channel within the Cubase mixer. All of these channel types are now equipped with four independent Studio Sends, each offering level and pan.
• Talkback function allowing producers and engineers to speak directly to musicians/artists in any or all of the studios. This includes automatic Dim as well as manual Dim button to reduce Control Room output levels by 20dB.
• Copy function to apply the main mix to any of the Studio mixes with a single mouse click or key command.
• Separate Click Bus allows for individual distribution of a metronome click to Studios, Headphone and Control Room busses.