In this article, Sound Designer And Re-recording Mixer, Roger Guérin cas*mpse, takes a first look at GroundControl Sphere - a professional multichannel audio routing and control room application from Ginger Audio - the developers behind GroundControl Room and Caster Live.

Reinventing A Better Wheel

Throughout history, the wheel has been the symbol of Man’s ingenuity. To keep with the metaphor, many different wheels exist in the monitoring world, beside the one that came with your interface. My first independent monitoring plugin was Waves’ M360 Surround Manager (Circa 2002). I was able to control my 5.1 loudspeaker setup and establish an elegant bass management scheme. Why would I need anything else?

Well, Let Me Count Thou Ways

With the advent of Dolby ATMOS, having the ability of switching from your big loudspeakers to a consumer-grade setup, could be arduous. In comes Ginger Audio with their GroundControl Sphere (GCS), it can accept up to 128 different inputs and outputs assigned from mono to 9.1.6. And at a click of a button being able to switch to a multitude of compatible outputs (Atmos, 7.1, 5.1, Stereo, to name a few). Sweet.

The GCS is comprised of different “sections”. We will be looking at all of them.

On the top row, you have what they call CR Peak Meter, then a representation of your loudspeakers set up chosen by the pop-up menu (in our example where it says 7.1.4), and the CR Loudness Meter with different presets depending on your destination platform. The most popular are listed in the drop-down menu. Unfortunately, choosing a different Preset doesn’t affect the listening volume. It would have been a nice touch, although you can always configure one of the Ref buttons to accommodate the level difference. But that’s two clicks and the human error factor is relatively high by forgetting to change the Platform Preset and the corresponding Ref button.

On the bottom row, on the left-hand side, you will notice 8 input buttons, preconfigured by you for immediate use (in our example the first two are). Next, we have the immense volume knob topped off by different solo groups and other functions, additionally, you can click to add any loudspeaker. Personally, I would have loved to have the ability to solo in X-Or rather than always in Latch. Maybe in an update?

Finally, on the right-hand side, the module is divided in two. In the outputs window, you will notice only one row of 4 buttons switchable to another 4 via the Main, B-E buttons (in our example, three different configurations are already setup). Then, the Master module with its three-user defined reference levels. When you first load the app they are labeled -6dB, -9 dB & -12 dB, You can relabel them to reflect your reality, I redefined them for my type of work : FILM, TV & WEB. Sharing that module, you will find a Dim and a blinking Cut button, and for those who might need it, a latchable or not, talkback button.

But That’s Not All That It Does, Too Simple A Wheel

After installing GCS, three (3) Audio Devices will be available in your Audio MIDI Utility (SPHERE 16 mon, 32 mon, and 64 mon), and that’s where the magic begins! They become Inputs or Outputs for some sophisticated routing.

Once your input choice has been settled, you have access to a lot of fine tune possibilities.

You can reconfigure the order of your loudspeakers to accommodate a different configuration (Film vs TV, for example). While you are setting up, you will find it convenient to have the solo and mute buttons on the same page. Although this window allows you to trim the Volume and Delay per loudspeaker, I am one to leave the inputs alone and work on the outputs. Even though I find it strange to have CR Peak and a CR Loudness meter for the monitoring, modifying the value of any of the individual loudspeakers it modifies its reading. I prefer to see the full value of what’s coming in.

Once you are satisfied, you can personalize the name and give it a color for fast access.

As I mentioned earlier, I prefer to work on the outputs to fine-tune my listening environment.

Here, the window is pretty much the same as the input one, with a couple of differences suitable for outputs. I started off by choosing the output type, in this example I am using Dante Virtual Soundcard hooked up to my MTRX Studio. Contrary to the Inputs window, I will individually match and change my loudspeaker’s level, fine-tune the delay time between them in sub milliseconds and activate the Bass Management feature. Once the Bass Management is activated, you have access to a High Pass and a Low Pass filters on each of the speakers with your choice of Butterworth (6dB to 48dB per octave) or the Linkwitz-Riley (12dB to 48dB per octave) filter curve. They are initially set at THX recommended 80Hz, very industry like.

But the feature that knocks it out of the park is the ability to insert your own AU EQ, the only thing: you must choose your EQ wisely. Meaning that although your favorite EQ does wonders to the sound of a bass drum, it might not be appropriate for EQ’ing your room; the chosen EQ must be “transparent”. I found that McDSP’s EQ Channel set to Post is transparent enough. You don’t want an EQ with an attitude. You should be looking for at least 5 band parametric with a high frequency shelf, and very low latency. Of course, if the best one you have is in a channel strip model, disengage everything not related to the EQ, you wouldn’t want to take your decision using a compressor-gate in your monitor chain. The scroll down available plugins menu will show all AU plugins. That is the reason why you will not see Avid’s own, because they are AAX.

The Perfect Wheel, You Might Say

Yes, there’s more! And this one is a welcome surprise. You can finally stream Apple music in your studio, in your own Dolby ATMOS environment! You just need to:

A - Select Sphere Mon 16 in your output Sound Volume.

A’ – In the Audio MIDI setup, double check that Sphere 16 mon is selected.

B – If it’s not already done: Configure Speakers to match your setup.

And finally, the setting in the Apple app needs to be set to Automatic.

As you can imagine, this software is sophisticated. Too much, in fact, to elaborate on all the things it does, such as MIDI control, hot keys even when it’s in the background, and the list goes on.

All in all, it is a versatile and easy to implement powerful tool. As with the wheel, more features will be asked for, like radiating graphics in the Control Room window making the user’s experience that much better.

Coming back to the wheel allegory, the wheel has evolved from boulder carrying to high-speed F1 car racing, already Ginger Audio’s GCS is impressive, racing into my workflow.

As previously mentioned, this App is Apple only – Mac OS X 10.14+, Native Apple silicon support, compatible with any DAWs environment, HDX – Pro Tools 2022.9 and later (Aux IO).

Looking into the future, I am being told that EUCON, Stream Deck control support, and multi-format fold down are coming.

So, which part excites you or which one do you desperately need?

Being able to switch between different sources?

EQing your room without a rack full of expensive EQs?

Personally? Being able to listen to Apple Music in my studio, where I can geek out, and study different approaches to Atmos music mixing. I have been waiting for this!

A 14-day trial is available. When you’re done, write your comments down below.