Genelec provides brilliant sound to producer and designer Ummet Ozcan

Studio designer Jan Morel has designed a unique space for Ummet Ozcan in which he has integrated a Genelec intelligent active monitoring system.

The DJ, producer and sound designer Umm Ozcan has built a highly successful career, despite the acoustically challenging spaces in which he has often made music. Now, thanks to the creation of his own private studio by studio designer Jan Morel, Ozcan finally has the ideal recording space into which he has integrated a smart active monitoring system. Genelec.

Ozcan has been making music since he was 14, when his instinctive skill with the flute and keyboard were the first signs of an emerging and prodigious talent. His first single, Chica Good, arrived in 2006, but it was the Reboot of 2011, quickly followed by The Box 2012, which solidified his reputation. In the years since, he has produced not only a string of individual hits, but also collaborations with colleagues such as Paul Van Dyk and Tiesto, while continuing to push his own creative boundaries with the development of synthesizers and sound banks.

However, most of that work was being done in less than ideal listening environments. “The first space I worked in… I'm not sure I can call it a studio, since it was in the attic of my parents' house,” Ozcan remembers. "I just had two speakers in there – actually just two hi-fi speakers! Then I moved into an apartment and I had one room, so I put acoustic treatment on the walls, some bass traps and just two monitors and a subwoofer. I made my music there for years, but when my friends came to visit I told them to stand in the corner because that's where they could hear the bass properly. If you stepped to the side, the sound changed completely."

A different world

Ozcan describes his new studio as "everything I've dreamed of for the last 15 years, I can't believe it's here. This room reflects my energy. It's an extension of myself and my music. When you close the door, you're in a different world, it's amazing."

The room itself is a celebration of neon, changing color to suit the artist's mood. Artnovion's sculpted acoustic panels adorn the walls, while Morel has even recreated the Ozcan logo on the ceiling. The system of intelligent active monitoring Genelec, which forms the centerpiece of the studio, is equally impressive, with two 1234A monitors installed as main monitors, accompanied by a subwoofer 7382A.

Adding symmetry, what appears to be a second 7382A is in fact a custom bass trap designed around a Genelec grill. Additionally, two of the newly launched 8351B coaxial point source monitors from the range The Ones They are installed on Ozcan's desk for near-field listening. The DJ describes the sound as “amazing.”

Towards the conclusion of the project, Morel and Ozcan shared the process of calibrating the Genelec monitoring system for the room. The work began with GLM calibration software from Genelec and then tuned by ear. “We got very deep into the process,” says Morel. Ultimately, however, little tuning was required. "You don't have to do much," explains Ozcan, "with almost no tweaking it sounds fantastic. You feel it in your chest and you get goosebumps because you can hear everything. I can hear things I've never heard before!"

For Morel, who has now designed private studios for some of the world's most famous DJ producers, this is one of his greatest achievements. "This is one of the three best studies I have created. Certainly because of the design, this is number one," he concludes.