Javier Fracchia’s Buenos Aires mastering facility is the first in Argentina to adopt Genelec 8361A studio monitors – the flagship of The Ones range of coaxial three-way point source models.
When Fracchia was looking to move on from his previous 2.1 system to full-range monitoring, Genelec was not originally in the running. However, having researched the technology behind The Ones and then heard the monitors in action for himself, he was convinced that these would provide the perfect solution to meet his needs.
‘My background is in live sound, so I know the advantage that coaxial systems bring to stage monitors, and reading all the positive comments about The Ones intrigued me,’ he says. ‘When I was able to hear them at the Caper trade show in Buenos Aires I immediately wanted to hear more.’
Genelec’s local distributor Equaphon arranged a demonstration of the 8351s at Fracchia’s studio so he could get a clearer picture of the capabilities of The Ones range.
‘That just made me smile,’ says Fracchia. ‘The stereo image was just amazing, and I didn’t need to listen to anything else to make a decision. All the information I needed was there.’
There was, however, one issue – Fracchia works mainly with urban music and needed his monitors to reproduce the lowest frequencies at high levels, to remove the need for a sub. The 8351 didn’t provide quite enough low end both in either frequency range or SPL. The Equaphon team proposed the flagship 8361 as an alternative. Having already heard the 8351s, he knew that the technical specs of the 8361s would solve the minor issues he had, and agreed with Equaphon’s proposed solution, keeping the 8351s at his studio until the 8361s arrived.
The acoustic treatment already installed at the studio meant that Fracchia was less concerned with the calibration of the monitors. However, he has found the GLM loudspeaker management software to be a useful tool. Since the mastering process relies on monitoring at consistent and well-defined levels, he is making use of GLM’s monitor control features. ‘Controlling volume is an essential part of my work,’ he confirms. ‘So I connect a microphone to GLM so that I can get a real-time SPL reading of my listening level.
‘The extra headroom in the low frequencies, the pristine stereo image and the wider sweet spot all provide clear improvements to my mastering work,’ he reports. ‘I am now able to perceive even 1dB of difference at any frequency, and I can now work at high levels without distortion.’
More: www.genelec.com
