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U2 Producer Barlow Surrounded by Genelec

Working on U2's latest album led Andy Barlow to update the Genelecs in his studio.

Brighton, UK (January 22, 2018)—Record producer Andy Barlow didn’t work on U2’s latest album in his kitchen…but he could have, as that’s where he keeps a pair of Genelec 8030 monitors. They’re not alone, however; over in his home’s studio, there’s Genelec 1238 main monitors and a set of 8331 coaxial 3-way monitors, used as his mobile system for mixing on the road.

Andy Bensley of UK-based Genelec distributor Source Distribution set up the new 1238s in the Brighton studio “where I do pretty much all of my mixing, from U2 to David Gray and Lamb in just the past year,” said Barlow. He wanted them after working with a pair during several months co-producing U2’s new album, Songs Of Experience.

“We used the big 1238CF monitors in a makeshift studio inside the Canadian Embassy in Dublin,” he said. “It was opposite Bono’s house, in a huge room that needed all the acoustic help it could get. The 1238s and the use of GLM software were a huge bonus in that respect. The album was mostly made in places like that—mansions, hotels, venues. The only purpose-built studio we used was Rick Rubin’s place, the Shangri-La in Malibu, where I had a pair of 8050s. The band members really like Genelec, too.”

Much of his production time was spent in a smaller room at the Embassy “where I preferred to mix because [Genelec 8351s] sounded great in there,” said Barlow.

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Now his home studio is set up with 1238s. “The 1238s are absolutely amazing; I couldn’t imagine a better sounding monitor in this context,” says Barlow. “They sounded great straight out of the boxes, but then we ran the room through the GLM processing and they sounded 30% better again. We made a few further adjustments by ear, as opposed to the GLM microphone, and now they just light up the room in such a beautiful way. You can feel every frequency, and play them really loud yet still talk at a normal, relaxed level. The mix is wide and smooth and there’s not a hint of distortion. I’ve never heard anything like it.”

Genelec • www.genelecusa.com

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