Flying Lotus – aka Steven Ellison and sometimes just FlyLo – has installed Ocean Way Audio’s (OWA) HR3.5 monitor system, including dual S18A powered 18-inch subwoofer cabinets in his LA studio.
‘For me, the test of a good monitor system is how it sounds on other speakers,’ he says. ‘The first place I go is out to the car and take a little ride. These monitors sound great in my studio and when I finished a song, I listened in my car and it was perfect.
‘Now I know what I’m hearing in the studio is what I’m going to get wherever it is played – that’s always the most important thing, Before how big everything sounds, or how clean it is, translation comes first, and with Ocean Way the translation is perfect.’
FlyLo’s studio now houses a pair of HR3.5 speakers with subwoofers personally tuned by speaker designer Allen Sides. A-4100 amplifiers power the monitors with both analogue and digital inputs, 96kHz and 24-bit sampling, tri-amped delivering 3.4kW/channel of clean power. At the heart of the acoustic design is OWA’s geometrically complex, composite dual/hybrid waveguide system. His two S18A powered 18-inch sub woofer cabinets are powered with 2.4kW each.
‘I love the system,’ FlyLo continues. ‘The bass is crazy. It has a lot of potential to be crazier, but I actually had to tone it down just because it can be a little overwhelming if you want it to be. I just want that sweet spot where it’s intense enough, but won’t destroy the whole house.’
Rich Avrach, Director of Business Development at Westlake Pro, supervised FlyLo’s new studio project. ‘We worked with Steve and Yanchar designs on the studio design,’ he says. ‘I handled sales for the new equipment and brought in our design group for the integration and project management of the build-out. We recommended the Ocean Way speakers because we thought they have terrific clarity, punch and low end. I also thought they would fit the studio well by making a statement with their size, but not be over large for the space.’
Multi-talented FlyLo is a successful record producer, as well as musician, DJ, filmmaker, and rapper. He has released six studio albums to date: 1983 (2006), Los Angeles (2008), Cosmogramma (2010), Until the Quiet Comes (2012), You’re Dead! (2014) and Flamagra (2019).
In addition to his album work, FlyLo has also produced much of the interstitial music on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim programming block. For his studio, he explains: ‘Everything goes into my Grace M905 monitor controller, and I use a Universal Audio Apollo 16-channel sound card, Mac computers and a lot of synthesisers.’
