Lexicon LARC2
The controller that made the 960L feel like an instrument instead of a rack unit. It has eight motorized faders, a joystick, and a color screen that finally let you see what you were doing.
Overview
The LARC2 is not a standalone product. It is the remote controller for Lexicon's 960L multichannel digital effects system, the second-generation successor to the original LARC. Lexicon shipped the 960L with the LARC2 as its dedicated interface, and most of the system's tactile experience lives here: eight touch-sensitive motorized faders, an assignable joystick, a high-resolution color LCD, and a bank of dedicated function keys. It all fits in a package measuring 8 inches wide by 10.5 inches long by 5.5 inches deep.
The design brief, as described in Lexicon's own literature, was to carry over the intuitive workflow of the 480L-based LARC while replacing its controls with something far more capable. The result behaves less like a menu-driven remote and more like a small digital console. Rows of eight parameters map one-to-one onto the faders. Touch a fader and it highlights its parameter and adjusts it, with the current value shown at the top of the screen, in the parameter's grid box, and above the fader itself. Move down a row with the arrow keys and the motorized faders go straight to their new positions, the same way a moving-fader console recalls a scene.
The color display shows program category (room, hall, plate, and wild spaces among them), bank number, register number, and current settings for as many as 32 parameters at once. A joystick grid with position indicators for left, right, front, and back is mirrored by a complementary joystick built into the controller. It handles source panning and placement within that field, which is aimed squarely at surround work. Around the faders sit eight soft-function keys and 29 dedicated function keys, with hot keys for instant access to machine setup/select, program and bank, edit mode, register, store, system control, fader label/value, soft key, mute/bypass, and tap tempo. A set of eight LED meters runs across the top of the angled panel, one per input channel. Each has a three-segment display: green for signal present, yellow for 6 dB below clipping, and red for overload.
The LARC2 can sit several hundred feet from the 960L rack chassis. The processor can live in an amp room or machine room while the controller stays on the console or production desk. Lexicon used the same concept on the 300L and 480L before it. EQ (July 2000, p.98) noted the nine-pin port on the 960L's rear panel dedicated to connecting the LARC2, alongside MIDI in/out/thru and word clock in/out/thru.
The controller also has a Fine adjustment mode for when the standard resolution is too coarse. Selecting it drops all the faders to their central positions without altering their values, then lets small incremental amounts be added or subtracted from the existing settings. Per preset, a favorite row of parameters can be assigned to what Lexicon calls the V-Page, shown above the faders and available regardless of which screen is currently displayed. That mirrors the fast-access-versus-expert-control split Lexicon used on the PCM81 and PCM91.
The LARC2 exists to drive the 960L. It is not a general-purpose Lexicon remote, and a 960L without one is largely unusable from the front panel. When Version 2 software arrived for the 960L, it added dual LARC2 support among a longer list of upgrades (16 channels of I/O, global mix and I/O control, enhanced reverb algorithms, multiple reverb card support, mappable I/O, enhanced input metering, and additional presets), so a serious 960L rig can carry two of these controllers. The flip side, as Mix (June 2001, p.177) observed in its review of the 960L system, is that attention has to be given over to the LARC2 during a session. That is less than optimal if you are making a simple tweak in the middle of a high-pressure film mix.
Build and condition are the practical concerns for anyone hunting one today. The LARC2 is a purpose-built piece of studio furniture with motorized faders, a color LCD, and a joystick, and all of those are wear items in a working room. Units that lived in post houses will show it. The controller is useless without the 960L it was designed for, so the realistic market is 960L owners looking for a spare or a second control surface, not general collectors. That narrows the buyer pool considerably and should inform both pricing expectations and how long a listing may sit.
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