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GENELEC MONITORING GIVES PRODUCER/ENGINEER/MIXER CLARK GERMAIN AN IDEAL AUDIO SETTING FOR RECORDING UNIQUE INSTRUMENTS USED ON STING’S NEW HOLIDAY ALBUM— From harps to bagpipes to lutes, If On a Winter's Night… is a highly nuanced collection of uniquely exotic acoustic instruments that was recorded on two continents – an undertaking tied together by the consistent and detailed Genelec Active Monitoring —
127th AES CONVENTION, NEW YORK, NY, October 9, 2009 — Like other records in his long and eclectic career, Sting’s If On a Winter's Night… will have plenty of nuance and detail for audiophiles to dig into. The album, due out on the Deutsche Grammophon label October 27th, is inspired by his favorite time of year and offers two original compositions as well as traditional seasonal songs, carols and lullabies from the British Isles. The album features a wide array of acoustic instruments, including bagpipes, harps and lutes, and was recorded in studios in New York, London and Southern California. Holding all of this together was a pair of 8050APM Bi-Amplified Active Monitors from Genelec, the world’s longstanding pioneer in active monitoring.
If On a Winter’s Night… finds Sting collaborating with Robert Sadin, who produced and arranged Herbie Hancock’s GRAMMY®-winning Gershwin’s World, and a host of guest musicians including his longtime guitarist Dominic Miller. “It’s a very acoustic record, which meant that there would be a lot of interesting microphone choices and placements,” explains Clark Germain, Engineer for the disc, who traveled with the production from Sting’s studio in Tuscany and Mark Knopfler’s British Grove Studios in London to Clinton Recording and Manhattan Center Studios in New York, as well as Malibu Performing Arts studio in California. So did the Genelec monitors. “They went everywhere with us,” says Germain. “It was how I was able to achieve consistent monitoring in all of the various environments we were in during this record. The detail we got day after day was incredible.”
Nuance is important to Germain, who has worked with such diverse artists as U2, Brian Wilson, XTC, Julio Iglesias, Poncho Sanchez, Counting Crows and Bonnie Raitt, and most recently with Sting, Chick Corea, the Fray and David Benoit. A veteran of Ocean Way Studios in Hollywood, Germain received a GRAMMY in 2004 for his work on Wayne Shorter’s Alegría record as well as an EMMY® nomination for his broadcast mix of the 63rd Academy Awards. His feature film scoring credits include tracks with Babyface, Marcus Miller, Wendy and Lisa, Michelle Columbier, Bill Conti, Nicholas Pike, Ry Cooder and T-Bone Burnett. “The sounds of the instruments could change day by day, hour to hour, since they’re sensitive to even small changes in temperature and humidity, so absolutely accurate monitoring was crucial, and the Genelecs delivered on that,” he says.
At the Malibu studio, the control room had only video to allow those in the control room and the tracking room to see each other. In order to see even slight changes in musicians’ positions that could dramatically change the tone of the instruments, Germain set up an alternate control room in tracking studio area with sightlines between engineer and musicians. A second set of Genelec 8050APM monitors assured that the consistency of the sound never wavered. “The Genelecs sounded great and performed fantastically,” says Germain, who plans to use them on an upcoming album with David Benoit. “I record a lot of acoustic instruments, and it’s imperative that I have a monitoring system that is extremely accurate. I need to hear every overtone and every movement of the musician, as well as how room tone and reverbs are changing. The Genelec speakers really achieve all of that and more.”
For more information, please visit www.genelecusa.com and Clark Germain’s site at www.wonderworldstudio.com.
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Photo File: ClarkGermain.JPG
Genelec, the pioneer in Active Monitoring technology, is celebrating over 30 years of designing and manufacturing active loudspeakers for true and accurate sound reproduction. Genelec is credited with promoting the concept of active transducer technology, which many manufacturers are just now incorporating into their products. Since its inception in 1978, Genelec has concentrated its efforts and resources into creating active monitors with unparalleled sonic integrity. The result is an active speaker system that has earned global acclaim for its accurate imaging, extremely high acoustic output from small enclosures, true high-fidelity with low distortion, and deep, rich bass.
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—For more information on the complete range of Genelec Active Monitoring Systems, contact: Genelec Inc., 7 Tech Circle, Natick, MA 01760. Tel: (508) 652-0900; Fax: (508) 652-0909; Web: http://www.genelecusa.com/.
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