German manufacturer KLANG has made a name for itself as the company taking in-ear monitoring to new levels of realism. Their psychoacoustic, binaural modeling allows sounds to break free from traditional left-right panning. With KLANG, you can position sounds anywhere around your head—even above or below the horizontal plane. Add in a pair of ambience mics, and KLANG systems come amazingly close to the holy grail of monitoring: an in-ear experience that doesn't sound (or feel) like in-ears.
KLANG's new KLANG:kontroller personal mixer gives performers direct control over most aspects of their monitor mix, whether driving a pair of in-ear monitors or a floor wedge. Up to 24 individual channels can be mixed by kontroller; you can adjust these individually or combine even more channels into up to sixteen groups. Eight knobs across the bottom of kontroller adjust the level of individual channels or groups. Above each knob is a small LCD display that shows the name of the input or group, a level meter, and level dB readout. You can select from 64 colors for the LCD backlight per input, which is a nice touch for quick adjustments.
Welcome surprises
Kontroller implements a few clever twists (pardon the pun) on volume control. In group mode, turning any volume knob increases the level of that group while turning down the others. This effectively keeps the overall output level consistent while you make relative adjustments. When adjusting groups or individual channels, levels top out at +10 dB. If you need more volume, you can keep turning the knob and kontroller will reduce the level of all other channels.
You can also push a knob to engage various functions, such as mute and solo. Press the CONFIG button, and the knobs control various parameters for each input channel. These include pan mode, position, elevation, stereo width, and more. KLANG processors offer clever "broad brush" EQ curves on inputs, so I was surprised to learn that kontroller doesn't offer control over these parameters.
Kontroller has a 3.5mm headphone output in front, plus a 1/4-inch jack on its back panel. Though few will use kontroller with floor wedges, it does offer stereo XLR outputs for IEM transmitters. A 3.5mm aux input allows a performer to add a click track, backing track, or any other source to their mix. Finally, one of kontroller's best features: it has binaural ambience mics mounted to the left and right sides of the mixer. Blended into the mix, these go a long way toward overcoming the sterile sound of in-ear monitors. Placement of the mixer on-stage makes a big difference in the effectiveness of the mics, and they do pick up button clicks when turned up high. In the right setting, however, they are fantastic.
Forward-looking design
KLANG supports Dante networking for its processors, and even offers direct processor control from certain Digico mixers. Kontroller connects to a KLANG processor with Dante, which opens up some interesting possibilities for bi-directional routing. Any kontroller mix can be sent back out on the Dante stream, for example, and any kontroller's ambience mics can also be shared. Drummers will appreciate this, being better served by ambient sound from center stage than six inches from their snare drum.
Kontroller is designed primarily for microphone stand mounting, with a threaded socket underneath. At 11 inches wide by 7 inches deep, the mixer is not small. This created a few issues where space was tight, and I found myself wishing KLANG had rethought some of the empty space on kontroller to make the mixer smaller. I also wish KLANG had added a slide-out or flip-down hook on the front of the mixer to hang in-ears or headphones when not in use. Thank goodness :kontroller can use power over ethernet (POE) from a KLANG processor, such as KLANG:vokal, eliminating a power supply from the stage clutter equation.
Sonically, kontroller is excellent. The audio quality of the headphone output is clean and uncolored, with plenty of power to drive even high-impedance headphones. In addition to the large overall volume knob, kontroller has three headphone sensitivity settings to accommodate in-ear monitors and headphones of varying efficiencies. Kontroller offers no limiting for hearing protection, a surprising omission. Perhaps in a future software version.
With a street price of just under $1,000, KLANG:kontroller won't fit into every church's budget. It's also not the only option for personal control of immersive mixes, thanks to the availability of KLANG's excellent iOS app. If you have a KLANG system and need hardware control of a personal mix, however, kontroller is a well-conceived and well-implemented solution.
