UK-based trip-hop producer Andy Barlow has added Genelec 1238 main monitors to his home studio alongside a complementary set of 8331 coaxial 3-way monitors from The Ones range, which will form his mobile system for mixing on the road.

Barlow has owned and used Genelec monitors for more than 20 years, in a career that has combined critical and commercial success with vocalist Lou Rhodes – his partner in renowned electronic duo Lamb – along with production and remix credits for works by artists such as David Gray, Elbow, Placebo and, most recently, U2.

Andy Bensley of Genelec distributor Source Distribution set up the new 1238s in the Brighton studio. “It’s where I do pretty much all of my mixing, from U2 to David Gray and Lamb in just the past year,” explained Barlow.

Meanwhile, the 8331s were immediately packed for a three month winter sojourn in Goa, where Barlow will be preparing tracks with Lou Rhodes for the next Lamb album. Both the 1238 and 8331 use Genelec’s SAM technology, which allows Barlow to use GLM calibration software to optimise each monitor’s performance for his own personal acoustic environment.

Barlow’s latest investment in Genelec monitoring comes on the back of several months co-producing U2’s new album Songs Of Experience, already a Number One hit in 20 countries. “We used the big 1238CF monitors in a makeshift studio inside the Canadian Embassy in Dublin,” Barlow revealed. “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.”

"I’m going through all the tracks I’ve produced and finding new sounds and touches that I’ve not heard before.

– Andy Barlow

Of his new 8331s, he added: “I’ve been putting them through their paces in my Goa studio these past couple of weeks, and I could honestly rave about them all day. The definition is second to none. The room is far from perfect with little in the way of acoustic treatment, but with GLM weaving its magic, the 8331s fill the room in an amazing way.

“Also, for such a small speaker with no sub, the bottom end is physics defying. The top end is refined and smooth, and the stereo sweet spot seems much bigger than any other speaker I’ve used. I’m going through all the tracks I’ve produced and finding new sounds and touches that I’ve not heard before.”