Pricetone Studios (Los Angeles) inaugurates a second room equipped with Genelec

Based in Los Angeles, Pricetone Studios continues a decades-long tradition of relying on monitoring Genelec for a wide range of client services, including music recording, mixing, ADR, mastering and film sound.

Since first entering the world of professional recording and audio several years ago, Sean Price has built increasingly sophisticated versions of Pricetone Studios, from a (literal) base in the Bay Area to the current facility that he largely designed and built himself in Burbank, California.

Recently, a second room, which expands the capabilities of recording, mixing, mastering, ADR and other audio services on which Pricetone Studios has built its success.

Genelec monitoring is a constant in Price's career as an audio professional. As soon as he finished his training in 2010, Sean acquired a pair of Genelec 8250A Smart Active Monitors, which literally became the foundational components of every facility he has created since. “In school, we used a lot of different monitors for training, including Genelec 8240As,” Price recalls. "But the mixes that sounded the best were the ones I made with the Genelec monitors. When I was starting out, I knew I needed them."

Today, Pricetone Studios' main room is dominated by a massive, acoustically transparent 130-inch UHD screen, giving the facility the weight it needs to compete in Burbank's competitive cinema audio industry.

The set Dolby Atmos 7.1.4 of Studio A is composed of Genelec 8361A for the left and right of the L-C-R matrix; 8350A for the center channel and surrounds, four Genelec 8340A for overheads and a pair of smart active subwoofers 7380A, managed by a interfaz multichannel AES/EBU Genelec 9301A, which also expands the AES/EBU I/O of the 7300 Series Smart Subwoofers from stereo to eight channels.

And the Genelec 8250A Sean's originals? Those same monitors are still there, serving as the main stereo pair for the newly opened Studio B. “And they still sound as clear and punchy as they did 10 years ago!”

Calibration with GLM

Both rooms also share another unique Genelec advantage: Genelec Loudspeaker Manager (GLM), a sophisticated software platform that automatically manages the levels, distance delays and frequency balances of more than 80 networked monitors, all in a single intuitive interface, along with Genelec's AutoCal algorithm, which automatically measures, analyzes and adjusts monitor settings and ratios.

“Thanks to GLM, I can continue to use all of my Genelec monitors in any configuration,” says Price, who also designed and manufactured all of the acoustic treatment panels used in the studios, including the diffusers, in his woodworking shop. "No matter what monitors you want to use, they will always be correctly calibrated for the room through the GLM software. This has allowed me to continue using Genelec monitors for many different applications throughout my career. The monitors I purchased a decade ago continue to produce excellent results and can continue to be used in future critical listening scenarios." That capability also significantly helps the ROI of your monitor investment, he adds. “Updating by adding new monitors over time never makes existing models obsolete,” he says.

“Of all the equipment and technology I have purchased over the years, Genelec monitors have been one of the few things that have been worth every penny and have only increased in value,” he concludes.