Known for his work with the likes of Don Henley, Taylor Swift, Maren Morris and Megadeth, producer/engineer Jeff Balding recently began working with a pair of Genelec 8331 three-way Smart Active Monitors.

Part of the Ultimate Point Source monitoring series The Ones, he auditioned the 8331’s in his new dedicated workspace in Franklin, Tennessee, where he has been using Genelec’s 8351s for the past year,

‘When creating my ideal home environment, I had this vision of a real clean room set-up, that was comfortable, a little bit modern, but not sterile – my speakers in front of me, a monitor, chair and a small laptop table that I can set my keyboard and mouse on,’ he says.

‘To me, the whole concept is if you can’t hear what you need to do, then you can’t get there. It doesn’t matter if you’re using one plug-in on a laptop or you’ve got a whole array of outboard gear and the whole set-up. If you can’t hear it, you can’t do it. So my whole focus was getting to the point where I feel like I’ve got a monitor set-up where I can hear exactly what I’m doing.

‘As a Genelec 8351 user, I was curious about the 8331s,as they are the next logical choice for accurate monitoring in a smaller format. I got the 8331s, tuned them to the room using Genelec AutoCal, and started mixing on them immediately. The first thing I noticed was the detail in the high end, especially when I was listening to low-level monitoring. While fine-tuning a mix, it really struck me that I could hear all the detail at a low level and hear the full spectrum of, and most importantly, the mixes transferred accurately to whatever format I chose to listen on.’

Using the 8331s, Balding has mixed three tracks for American country music singer/songwriter  Cole Swindell. ‘Considering their small size and footprint, I was extremely surprised that they’re “beefy speakers” that will definitely crank up and translate well at a low level as well as high level,’ he reports. ‘The other thing I love about them is the size – if I want to go portable, I can take my rig with the 8331s. With the Genelec Loudspeaker Manager, I can tune them wherever I’m at and I know they’re going to be accurate. That’s huge, to be able to travel and be inspired, whether you’re mixing on the beach, in a hotel or my room here – they’re totally consistent.’

Part of the recently introduced Genelec The Ones Series of compact coaxial Active Monitors, the 8331 was developed in response to the need for increasing audio perfection for close-field recording and mix environments. Offering unique size and technological innovations, the 8331 breaks new ground in electro-acoustic engineering, as the mechanical, acoustical, and signal-processing designs are linked closely together. The result is a system that is completely unique in the professional monitoring industry and represents a bold step forward for the active monitoring pioneer.

More: www.genelec.com