Patchwerk Recording Studios’ Nick Bassani Keeps On Track With HARMAN’s JBL LSR308 Studio Monitors

ATLANTA, Georgia – Patchwerk Recording Studios is one of the top recording and mastering facilities in the United States. The Atlanta studio has recorded more than 60 platinum and gold albums and worked with a who’s who of rap, hip-hop, R&B and pop artists including 50 Cent, Sean Combs, Pit Bull, Flo RIda, Jay-Z, Madonna, Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, Kanye West and dozens of others. It’s music based on bass, and producers, artists and listeners want more and more of it, notes Patchwerk’s tracking engineer Nick Bassani, which is why he relies on HARMAN’s JBL LSR308 powered studio monitors as his go-to near-field loudspeakers.

Bassani recognizes in the urban music scene “there’s an insatiable appetite for more low-end response in the music and this creates a challenge for urban market producers and mix engineers. Many monitors and even headphones out there cater to this appetite with low-end response that’s often misleading and just plain inaccurate.”

Bassani feels the JBL LSR308 is the perfect solution to the need for for bass-accurate near-field monitors. “Accuracy and clarity tend to be expensive – but not in the case of the LSR308. They’re not ‘boomy’ or exaggerated in the bass, yet have more low-end response along with far better high-frequency extension—all the way up to 24kHz—than any other near-field I’ve used.”

The powered-bi-amplified LSR308 employs a long-throw 8-inch woofer and a 1-inch woven-composite neodymium tweeter that is mated to JBL’s exclusive Image Control Waveguide™, developed for the company’s new flagship M2 Master Reference Monitor.

“The LSR308’s wider frequency response and clarity and ability to let me ‘hear into’ the mix at lower volumes has caused me to make huge improvements in my overall mixing technique,” said Bassani. “Thanks to the exceptional definition of the woofer and tweeter and the accurate on-and off- axis coverage pattern of the waveguide, the stereo image is deep and wide and the clarity is phenomenal. I can hear reverbs and delays extremely well.” Bassani also found the LSR308 “a godsend” when its improved resolution allowed him to begin experimenting with mid-side panning in his mixes.

Bassani asks: “Suppose an artist or producer wants to be sure that what they hear in their mixing environment translates accurately to the next studio they work in, or in their car or home?” “To be honest, that’s what really sold me on the LSR308. During a project, we were tracking in a studio that had a nice vocal booth but the control room was not the best. We replaced the existing control room speakers with a pair of LSR308 monitors and I noticed an instant improvement in the transferability of my rough mixes between the studio, my home and another professional studio where I work.”

After that experience, Bassani installed the LSR308 at Patchwerk’s Studio 9000 (one of Patchwerk’s main tracking and mixing rooms) and has never looked back, saying he is “unable to part with them.” He now takes a pair of LSR308 monitors to every room on any project he’s involved with, whether it’s a small project studio or a multi-million-dollar facility. He concluded, “I know that if I get my mix sounding great on the JBL LSR308 monitors, I’ll never have anything to be worried about.”

HARMAN (www.harman.com) designs, manufactures and markets premier audio, visual, infotainment and integrated control solutions for the automotive, consumer and professional markets. With leading brands including AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon® and Mark Levinson ®, the Company is admired by audiophiles, musicians and the entertainment venues where they perform. More than 25 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a workforce of approximately 16,000 people across the Americas, Europe, and Asia and reported sales of $5.3 billion for the twelve months ended June 30, 2014.