Argentina. Javier Fracchia's studio in Buenos Aires has become the first mastering facility in Argentina to feature Genelec 8361A studio monitors, the flagship of "The Ones" range of three-way point source coaxial models.
When Fracchia was looking to move away from its previous 2.1 system in its mastering studio to full-range monitors, Genelec was not originally a brand it had considered. 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 feedback about The Ones intrigued me," Fracchia recalls. "When I was able to hear them at Caper's show in Buenos Aires, I immediately wanted to hear more."
Genelec's local distributor, Equaphon, agreed to mount a demonstration of the 8351s at the Fracchia studio in order to get a clearer picture of the capabilities of The Ones range. "Listening to the 8351 in my studio made me smile," Fracchia says. "The stereo image was just amazing and I didn't need to hear anything else to make a decision. All the information I needed was there."
While the 8351s were almost perfect, there was a problem. Fracchia works mainly with urban music and needed his monitors to play the lowest frequencies at high levels, to eliminate the need for a sub. The 8351 did not provide enough bass for Fracchia in terms of both frequency range and SPL.
Alternatively, the Equaphon team suggested the 8361 insignia. Having already listened to the 8351, Fracchia knew that the technical specifications of the 8361 could solve the minor problems he had and agreed with the solution proposed by Equaphon, keeping the 8351 in his studio until the 8361 arrived.
The acoustic treatment that is already installed in the studio made Fracchia worry less about the calibration of the monitors. However, you have found GLM speaker management software to be a very useful tool. Since the mastering process is based on monitoring at consistent and well-defined levels, it uses GLM's powerful monitoring control functions. "Controlling volume is an essential part of my job," he explains. "So I connect a microphone to GLM so I can get a real-time SPL reading of my listening level."
