COMPOSER GLENN JORDAN MIXES IT UP WITH MACKIE XR824 MONITORS

Glenn Jordan's musical footprint covers decades of film and TV, from HBO dramas to popular animated shows on Nickelodeon. He's won an Emmy for his role as musical director on Pee-wee's Playhouse, and has worked with everyone from Sha Na Na to Shari Lewis, and TV shows like The X-Files and Six Feet Under.

In the busy world of film and TV scoring, he lives by the almighty deadline. "It's Monday morning, and I need to have 22 minutes of music ready to be recorded Friday morning," he observes. "I need to be able to work quickly and efficiently, and I need to have equipment I can count on."

For Jordan, that includes a small arsenal of stringed instruments, his DAW and sample libraries, and his Mackie XR824 monitors. "You need to know that your speakers are going to sound good, but not so good that it disguises what you're actually hearing," he offers. "What you need is something that's going to sound transparent, true, and accurate."

With an ever-changing roster of projects and clients, Jordan never knows what his mixes will be listened to on, making the need for accuracy even more critical. "One producer may listen to the tracks on a high end stereo, but more often they're evaluating and making decisions based on hearing things on a laptop or a set of ear buds," he reports. "That means my mixes have to translate well to any medium."

Like most artists, Jordan acknowledges the potential to fall into habits, and wasn't necessarily inclined to add a different set of speakers to his setup. "I've got a set of monitors I've used for quite some time," he explains. "I know them, and I like the sound I get out of them. But when I listened to the XR824s, I was very pleasantly surprised. They really sound good - very precise, very clear and accurate. They really give me everything I need."

← Back to blog