Drawmer CMC2 Compact Monitor Controller Reviews

I swapped this out from a Mackie Big Knob passive controller that I used since 2018.

At first I had similar "noise issues" as with the Big Knob. But it was my own fault really using crap cables. Once I swapped out the cables and figured out where the noise floor was on my powered monitors I could crank the volume to the max and not induce noise.

On to the good.

You may not see this as a big feature but being able to "BLEND" input source, AND the outputs was an unknown for me. It has changed everything.

I own Yamaha HSA monitors and (2) Friedman ASM12 FRFR floor units. Once I realized I could blend the signal to both sets of speakers it really changed my experience completely.

The ASM-12s have been known to be a bit on the dark side when not playing very loud. By blending the HS8 with the ASM12 now the HS8 almost act as tweeters for the ASM12s .... I can't describe enough how awesome this sounds.

Conversely blending the inputs of my AXE FX III and my PC makes it real awesome for things like playing with backing tracks etc on the PC.

Just love this thing.

The ONLY gripe I have is that I wish it was not laying flat like it does so the big knob in the middle actually blocks your view to the speaker selection buttons. Wish it was like a wedge. Easily corrected by just propping something under it... but it would be nice if manuf. did that for us.

I downsized my private studio in 2019 to a small project, yet still pro, studio.
I had the Dangerous ST system for years that was flawless.

I wanted the same passive flawless sound of the ST but in a compact size.

I decided on the CMC2 on 5/21/2019 and have NOT regretted it one bit. Built solid, no cheap plastic, does not get hot or overheat. The big knob is solid as a rock.

Still to this day, 4/21/2021, this unit is a work horse. Its held up under normal use and zero scratchy pots or any gremlins to worry about. Sounds as good as it did the day i bought it.

Very nice simple desigñ that makes it really easy to use. Solid as a rock feeling switches and knob. And clean sound without pops or scratchy sounds out of the pots. Unlike the two Heritage Audio unit that I returned defective out of the box.

Drawmer CMC2 is a little box but it sounds BIG yet transparent, solid steel built, very easy to use - love it !

Very happy with the Drawmer CMC2. It provides seamless integration with my monitor setup, and provides a very clean and transparent sound. Super versatile. You can monitor your iPhone or other MP3 players through the AUX input and you can easily switch between mono and stereo while mixing. Even if you have on set of monitors, the mono feature is a great selling point.

Best purchase I made since I built my home studio three years ago. Previously, I always had issues with monitor control, including volume and monitor selection. Using the digital mixer of my audio interface is super complicated and difficult, and can be creatively soul sucking. With this simple, straight-forward monitor controller, I can switch between inputs, choose two different outputs (speaker groups), and even use a sub-woofer (if I had one). Simple, click to use buttons make it a dream. Plus, I absolutely love the ability to quickly check for phase issues, as well as throw the mix into mono -- one button is all that's needed! Need to mute everything? Hit the mute button - boom! So easy and simple. Having a separate headphone output and volume control is another big plus, instead of having to fumble around for the audio interface controls which are hidden behind the instrument and guitar cables plugged into the front of the interface. A single box, sitting in front of me, to handle volume, headphone, and monitor selection duties has literally made my studio life easier and more productive. Don't underestimate the value of this piece of equipment; it is my favorite studio item, bar none.

The CmC2 is awesome piece of gear!!!

For years I have sworn by the Presonus Monitor Station V1. I have an older Apollo Quad and I prefer to have a secondary point of attenuation out to my monitors; mostly so I keep grimy my hands of my expensive interface. After my second Presonus died on me I decided to shop for a better option. I know the Drawmer name and have seen their gear in some of the higher end studios I used to assist in. Right away I can tell how much my old monitor station was coloring my signal going to my monitors. The Drawmer is flat at low and high volumes. I'm an old school head so of course I threw Aja up on them and wow. The way it self balances L/R drops you right in the center of almost perfect stereo field. All the clarity and separation is as it should be with this content. I highly recommend for this price point! The only complaint I could see people having it no attenuator on the individual outputs, but for me it's better so I leave it alone once I get my room balanced. Then it's just nice flat level up and down with the main knob here! Good stuff!

Really makes it easy to divvy up sounds to monitors, sub, etc... great quality too.. Thanks to my great salesman, Alan Moon as always for his recommendations that are making my recording life so much easier.

This Drawmer speaker selector is awesome.
I've been using it for several weeks now and notice zero audio coloring.
There are plenty of inputs and outputs phase mute mono switches... if I had to nitpick I wish the volume controller knob had a slight increase in resistance and wish there was a fader knob from front to rear.
Subwoofer output is so nice!
If you are considering a studio volume controller look no further built like a tank and performs flawlessly I 100% recommend this item.
Much thanks to Ian of Sweetwater for recommending this.

I"m not often compelled to write about a piece of gear but… I"m a fan of my new Drawmer CMC2 Monitor Controller. I was a bit reluctant to get a unit without XLR connectors —thinking I would have to use 1/4" TRS adapters— but upon installation I (re)discovered that the fanout from my Apogee Symphony I/O was already 1/4" TRS, so… Bonus! First impressions were favorable; the metal chassis is hefty, all of the buttons engage solidly, with no objectionable play, and the three knobs feel "creamy" (the large master volume knobs feels lighter than the two smaller knobs, probably due to its larger radius, leverage and all). For me, the unit inspires confidence; I have no concerns about my heavy-duty metal plugs overwhelming the MCM2"s rear panel jacks (and I"m using them all). I"d read a few comments wherein the sturdiness of the jacks was called into question —especially the aux input and headphone jack, which are mounted on the front panel— but I don"t share that concern. Unless the unit is abused I don"t see any problems arising. The top panel is very clean, logical, and attractively laid out. Every button features an LED status indicator, further aided by the use of four colors. And now the sound… In a word, excellent. Upon plugging the unit up, the first thing I wanted to check was the left/right balance at very low levels. I"d heard so many complaints about many other monitor controllers on the market, but the CMC2 performed flawlessly. From wide open the image was undisturbed as it tapered nicely down to utter silence (between .25 and .5 on the silkscreened scale of 0 to 10). This performance was repeated at the headphone output as well. The switched subwoofer output allows the A and B monitor sets to benefit from the sub if desired; very cool. Rounding out the feature set is a phase reversal switch, a much appreciated mono switch, and dim and mute switches. All in all, I find the CMC2 to be a very well-designed unit, one I"m happy to have added to my system. Nice work, Drawmer!

I had been using the JBL MCS1 in my studio for a number of years. The integration with the JBL speakers I use set a very high bar for sound reproduction and monitoring of tracks and mixes. My ability to switch between the JBL 2.1 system and my Event 2.0 system on the fly to check mix quality has saved me a lot of time and energy in crafting mixes for my clients.

When the MCS1 failed, I immediately began searching for a replacement. Looked at the JBL replacement options, and finding them lacking in the features on the original, I expanded my search to include other brands.

Having recently purchased a Drawmer gate (DS201, being impressed with the build and sound quality) I decided to check out the CMC series of monitor control systems.

The CMC2 not only replaces the MSC1 for me, but does so with some extremely useful additions. And at a great price.

The phase, mono, and dim switches in the "mix" section means I can remove three plug ins from my master bus since these switches allow me to check for issues with the push of a button, or multiple buttons (the mono and rev buttons for mono sum and mono subtractive evaluations). The ability to engage any and all input sources and output sources, vs. single I/O toggles, allows me to set output levels and monitor levels on my other devices so much more easily. The construction of the CMC2 mirrors the build quality of the DS201, takes up less space on my mix desk, and meets all my requirements for replacing my JBL.

And, perhaps it is simply the fact that I have been able to tweak all the devices, in and out, to a level I could not before, but the overall sound quality of what is coming out of the monitors seems to have improved as well.

Highly impressed with this device. Right price, right features, excellent built quality, awesome sound. Exactly what I was looking for in a monitor control system. Definitely glad I made this purchase.

I had no idea changing my monitor controller could make such a huge difference. Was previously using a Presonus Monitor Station v2. I never noticed it until I tried the Drawmer, but I had issues with the image staying consistent as the volume knob changed. I used to think that my room was the cause of my less-than-stellar imaging, but turns out that wasn't the case.

With the Drawmer, the image is solid all the way through the sweep of the volume control.

As far as sound goes, there's more clarity over what I was using before. Definitely a step up.

Also, when you hit the phase reverse and mono buttons at the same time, you solo the sides (in mono) but it's a very useful quick way to check your sides. Love this.

Compared to other controllers in it's price range, it has a couple less features, but honestly, it doesn't need them. This is a killer product at this price point. This should be the new gold standard for affordable monitor control.

I had a problem of logically plumbing two pairs of powered monitors through an Apollo 8. UA accommodated such a thing, but I wanted a simpler solution. Ed Nystrom suggested the Drawmer CMC2. It seems everyone runs into this or a similar problem with multiple monitors, multiple sources, and the best way to work a sub into the monitors.
This worked, right off, no fuss or bother. I hadn"t "expected" to need this, but such is life. I can"t hear any coloration of the sound, nor hiss or ... anything. It just worked.
I looked at the more capable units Drawmer produces, and while I have no need at the moment, I know where to next time.
Thank you Drawmer for producing this nice, compact, solidly made, simple solution. It made my life easier. And allows me options i didn"t have before.
And thank you Ed for making me aware of Drawmer.

I recently made some changes to my studio, and I no longer needed the Presonus Central Station I'd been using for monitor control for years. I basically just wanted a volume knob and a minimal amount of I/O. I was on the hunt for a compact controller and settled on the CMC2. I'm glad I did!

The thing is built like a tank; everything seems sturdily built; I love the big volume knob; AND it has all the options I was looking for. If it had one more set of outputs, it would be perfect! I thought about taking a half-star off for that, but I knew it only had the two outputs when I bough it.

As for the sound, it seems pretty transparent--it definitely sounds better than the Central Station.

If you're looking for an affordable, compact monitor controller, look no further!

I was looking at one of the Mackie passives but after doing more research on the suggestion of my sales rep Joe, I reconsidered and am very happy that I did. It's only been a few days but the CMC2 is a revelation after what I was using (HOSA SLW333). The rating is 4.5 because after reading the other reviews I do think it may have benefitted from its own 2nd headphone output; which would make it perfect for smaller setups, bedroom studios, etc. where you might have a collaborator or client in the room with you. Other than that minor detail, I don't feel short-changed at all with the features you get at this price point. It is a very no-nonsense, super practical tool that feels almost essential once you use it. Being able to listen to any or all sources through any or all speakers, and being able to separate the monitor and sub signals with just a click of a button is so convenient, and the mix check features are the icing on the cake! It feels well built, the knobs are solid and move smoothly and the buttons are firm not totally solid. Hopefully the reviews that mention the jacks were simply shipped defective units which we know happens; but it would be nice to know if they did anything to reinforce the jacks, since the aux and headphones jacks may see quite a bit of use and the rear jacks would have some pressure on them if you don't have a means of supporting the cables a few inches out from the rear of the unit. Overall, I am completely satisfied so far and really appreciate Joe's recommendation- Sweetwater's service and support has been 5-star, top notch as it always has been!

First off, it's a lot cleaner than other monitor stations/controllers. It's well made and all of the knobs/buttons are tight. The main volume knob is very responsive. You'll never turn the knob to the twelve o'clock position. It's not a big issue but I rated this product 4.5 stars solely due to only having one headphone input. Two headphone inputs would of been way better because clients what to hear what you hear after recordings.

We needed the ability to A/B test our mixes with our Focal Solo6s and some crapy 1970's shelf speakers. Drawmer was one of the higher end controller brands referred to us. I noticed the MC3.1 had good review marks all over the web. The CMC2 was about 1/3 the price and was brand new ... I did some searching and found that the electronics were identical but in a 2.1 instead of a 3.1 configuration. It's all analog, there's no digital connection as offered in the other Drawmer solutions, but for what we wanted, I felt like it was a fair trade-off.

Having a sub control separate from the a/b is a huge plus. Being able to add or remove sub frequencies from either set add some comparison value we hadn't before considered.

The mono button has helped us identify phase issues when mining-up drums ... so on the way in we're getting better recordings to start with.

Dim is wonderful when the one soft-spoken band member sits in the back. Why do quite people sit in the back?

The only thing I don't care for is the flat case. I always stick something under the back feet to give it a slight tilt forward ... feels so much better ergonomically. So 4.5.

Solid through and though. Highly recommended.

Just what I needed. I use the sub-woofer DSP and a second set of reference analog monitors so this works great for me.

Only 4 stars because it lacks local speaker volume control. Not a big deal,, once your speakers are tweaked there's no none need for this control. Aside from that it's perfect. Awesome clarity on sound (which is most important). Simple, friendly controls. Love the fact that it has a separate output for my sub.

Great monitor controller! The headphone level is a little hot, but not unmanageable. I love having the mix check buttons, the dim button is amazing to have. having a mono sub out is awesome, I can run my mains in full range and balance my sub to the speakers without having the sub do the crossover. I wish we could have gotten left/right cut buttons, but I can live without them. The mono and phase reverse is a handle mix check tool I never thought to use.

Looks like I"ll be sending a second one back. First one had a short and static issue due to no nut on the jacks on the back. They wiggle around a lot. Also, on both, sometimes the monitors don"t come on when I push the button. I emailed them. Waiting to hear back. It"s a shame cause it sounds great and it"s the only one I"ve found that lets you run all 4 monitors at the same time. Hopefully they fix these issues.

Really wanted to love this piece of equipment but it is so noisy and the buttons are fragile. In one year of use I've had 4 buttons break. They are plastic and split down the middle. When this happens they get stuck under the casing which makes for an annoying task having to get them out in order to use the buttons. Bought it for all the great input options and subwoofer out, but unfortunately it's become a hassle to use.

Not great. And you're definitely not hearing the same audio that your pushing into it.

I have never left a review on a piece of gear in the 20+ years I have been doing music. This unit changes that. I was so excited for this controller but after a year of owning it, the right side started dropping out intermittently and it gets noisy and crackly. I thought it was my monitor going out but it is the drawmer unit. The headphone jack on the front drops out intermittently as well and you are stuck with one side off while working which is impossible. After testing my entire headphone collection, it was clear that the jacks on this thing or not meant to last. Save your money. Buy something else.

I have always been a fan of Drawmer, but this unit is built poorly. With less than a year of light use the B speaker outputs are sending out uneven levels and the right channel cuts out periodically or has distortion. Great features and the size is perfect, but I can not trust it any longer to accurately monitor mixes. I will be searching for a replacement from a different brand. Dissapointing.

I've experienced the same noisy pots mentioned by other reviewers. The main volume pot started producing loud crackling in the left channel within a week or two out of the box, and now it's crackling in the right channel as well. I've taken to muting the output whenever I need to adjust the volume, which nobody should have to do on any monitor controller. And as other reviewers have also pointed out, this unit's jacks are connected directly to the PCB, which means that they will have a very short life unless you hook everything up and never touch it again.

One other gripe would be the way the inputs and outputs are labeled. Why aren't the jacks labeled on the top panel, so you don't have to climb around behind the thing? Not only are the jacks only labeled on the back panel, they're labeled below the jack, not above, so you can't see them if there's anything plugged in. Strange design choice.

It really is a shame that Drawmer cut corners on the pots and build quality here, because this unit has something close to the perfect feature set for a monitor controller in a small project studio.

Save up your money a bit longer and buy something by SPL.

The features, layout, size and feel of this unit is awesome and seemingly ideal for most people. Unfortunately there are major shortcomings with the build quality. Within 6 months of standard use, I started experiencing intermittent signal loss, crackling pots, and hiss. I'll only get signal on the left in my headphones until I press down on the top of the unit to fix the connection. This is no surprise due to the fact that the jacks are not mounted to the chassis and you can tell that each connect/disconnect strains the connections to the PCB.

I gave up and recently replaced mine with a Palmer Monicon XL. Similar price and feature set but with 2 headphone outs, built in talkback mic, and on board metering, and other extras. I did enjoy the CMC2's smaller footprint, larger volume knob, dedicated sub on/off switch, but it seems like the Palmer will be much more reliable long term.

The features in this controller are great. It includes the practical tools you need, without features that drive up the cost. I replaced a behringer monitor controller that had unacceptable high-frequency noise and crosstalk problems with the CMC2, and everything sounded great for the first 6 months.

The problem is the build quality. As soon as you plug into the speaker outputs, you can feel how cheap it is. There aren't nuts to stabilize the 1/4" jacks -- there are just holes in the back and the jacks are obviously mounted directly to the PCB. You can feel them wiggle a little bit when you plug a cable in.

After 6 months of light use (unplugged my monitors and input cables in the rear literally once), the right channel became intermittent, with some occasional static. Pressing the mono and dim buttons cause the signal in the right channel to cut out, and plugging/unplugging headphones also interrupts the signal.

My assumption is that the headphone jack, being a surface-mount component with no reinforcement, has resulted in a bad connection or a broken solder joint. Since it's right by those buttons, it seems the problem exists near there.

I can get it fixed of course, but with the design flaws it surely will happen again. This controller is designed down to a price point, unfortunately. I thought this would be an upgrade over a Mackie big knob or behringer controller (sonically, it is), but the build quality really ruins it.

I would not recommend this product.

Carl from Thousand Oaks posted he found cracks in the buttons on his Drawmer speaker controller, and that the button covers were cracking and jamming the button in place. I thought about this and it made sense to drill a small hole in the button covering and just remove the button cover, the switch works perfectly. I use a TRS 1/4 inch adapter to switch the buttons on and off and it works fine.

I thought I would splurge when setting up my home studio and buy a nicer monitor controller. Drawmer is well known in this space, and this unit was expensive for being just a monitor controller, but still within range

After just 6 months of use, however, I ran into my first major problem. I pressed the "mono" button and the button dome cracked, causing the button to become stuck in the ON (mono) position.  After a closer look, the phase/rev button was also cracked. That likely happened a few months prior, but I use that button less and had not noticed.  The guitar pick in the photo is there to make the crack more visible.  Eventually, both buttons fell completely out (photo 03). It turns out these buttons are cheap plastic. Very cheap plastic.

I have been very gentle with this unit; it had been installed in my home studio and was only lightly used.  Also, these buttons were rarely pressed, maybe a few times per week when I am checking a mix.  It is possible they were damaged during the initial assembly, and the cracks propagated when the buttons were pressed.  Unfortunately, without the buttons, the switch sits too far down in the unit to be pressed without using some sort of tool (pen tip, etc.).

When I reached out to Sweetwater support, even though I was well within the warranty period, they required me to ship the unit back at my own cost and with no swap-out. They were going to examine the returned unit and then work with the manufacturer to repair it. Meanwhile, with no replacement, I would have to pull all of the cables out of my studio desk and re-route each to some other borrowed mixer while I wait for a repair. No thanks. Looks like I will be using a pen cap to press these buttons.

The next major issue started around 8 months. The volume pot for the headphones started to emit static noise whenever moved. Apparently the cheap potentiometer they selected only has an ~8 month life span. The static has continued to get more prevalent over time, and I am starting to notice it on several other pots as well. What a complete and utter disappointment.

The first Drawmer I received worked great for a few months before totally malfunctioning. As a result, any button that was selected or deselected would send a near fatal pop through my monitors. Secondly the headphone jack would send random distortions to the sub channel some how. I ordered a replacement in the meantime and the second one had a broken headphone jack.

These have a lot of good features on paper but unfortunately are overpriced and can't seem to make it out of the box without some sort of issue. Save the headache

I was expecting this controller to be much better than anything else in this price range. It looked simple basic. Exactly what I needed.... but It was incredibly Noisy. The volume knob crackled when I touched it.