Prince in 2007 at the O2 Arena in London
Photo: Kevin Mazur/WireImage
The Professional Monitor Company (PMC) reports that a full-featured 2-channel BB5-XBD-A Large-Scale Reference Monitoring System was recently purchased for Prince’s Los Angeles–based composing facility. PMC also states that the BB5-XBD-A system will eventually make its way back to the artist’s state-of-the-art Paisley Park recording complex in Minneapolis.
According to PMC’s sources, Prince first heard the BB5-XBD-A system at Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis’ Flyte Time Productions in Santa Monica, Calif., and wanted to give it his own test. After contacting Maurice Patist, PMC USA’s president of sales and marketing, arrangements were made to install a BB5-XBD-A system.
Patist himself completed the installation, to ensure that Prince would be happy with the results. “I checked and double-checked everything,” Patist recalls, “so that everything was perfect.” After working with the PMC reference system, the singer/songwriter/producer was said to be highly enthusiastic about its sonic performance, offering that the BB5-XBD-A was exactly what he’d had been looking for, but never found. Rather tongue-in-cheek, Prince offered that he always wanted his sound in the studio to be as loud and clear as when he plays live gigs.
Prince’s L.A.–based facility includes a number of custom-designed systems that can be used to create a portable recording environment. “We need to be versatile and offer the ability to create whatever setting Prince needs to work in,” offers Dave Hampton, the producer’s longtime technical consultant. “Many recording situations today do not resemble the traditional custom facility.”
“The studio is based around a [Digidesign] Pro Tools HD3 digital audio workstation,” says session engineer Ian Boxill. “Because we use the space for basic tracking of demos and remixing, high-precision monitoring is essential. The BB5-XBD-A system is perfect for our needs.”
“We are very pleased with the new PMC BB5-XBD-A system,” Hampton states, “because of three main factors. Firstly, the BB5 sounds wonderful! Secondly, it doesn’t hype the sound—frequency the response is ultra-flat across the entire frequency spectrum. And thirdly, the BB5-XBD-A system produces a full, large sound—just the way we like to work while tracking and mixing. When you’re supporting the creative efforts of an artist like Prince, it is crucial that you have a monitoring system that can give you consistent results. PMC gives us that and more.”
For more information, visit www.pmc-speakers.com.
