Electronic musician and sound designer Richard Devine’s work spans his electronic album releases and sound assets for companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Google and other Silicon Valley giants, as well as Sony Media and the video game, Doom. One thing he needs consistently is sonic accuracy – for which he has used Genelec for more than a decade.
Starting out with a pair of Genelec 6010s bought in 2006 as portable travel monitors, he has arrived at the 8331A Smart Active Monitors and 7350A Smart Active Subwoofer acquired for his main stereo 2.1 editing system. These and additional Genelec surround set-ups are prevalent throughout his Atlanta studio.
‘What I do is definitely off the beaten path, and for what I do I need absolute, brutal sonic honesty from my monitor speakers,’ he says, mindful of a listening base ranging from apps through electric cars to AI and VR environments. ‘There’s a tremendous amount of detail in the sounds I build, and they have to work across an incredibly wide range of uses and in any environment anywhere on earth – that’s what Genelec gives me.’
Since he first worked on the 6010s, Devine has built an entire monitoring environment around Genelec’s monitoring technology, with a 5.1 array of 8020Cs and a 7350B sub for his VR mix room, 8030As and a 7370A sub for game and video mixes, and now the 8331/7350A system for editing, which makes these his most-used speakers on a day-to-day basis.
‘I’m really drawn to Genelec’s technology, such as the auto-alignment feature of the GLM software,’ he says. ‘The ability of the speakers and the software to run a quick but accurate room analysis and calibrate each speaker on the spot has been a lifesaver for me. In the past, I’ve had issues around speaker placement and phase, especially with subs; Genelec solves those problems for me.’
Devine says accuracy is his single most important criterion: ‘The 8331s are like a micro lens on audio for me,’ he says. ‘I’m blown away by how much detail you can hear through them. It’s almost clinical, but that’s what’s needed for some of what I do. It’s all in the detail, and those are always in the Genelecs.’
More: www.genelec.com
