Genelec monitoring systems power the Sound Recording Studio at the Tallinn College of Music and Ballet, a music and ballet academy in Estonia’s capital. The institution, widely known as MUBA, formed through the merger of three historic schools — the Tallinn Music High School, the Tallinn Ballet School and the Tallinn Georg Ots Music School — and now operates from a 26,000-square-meter campus that includes music halls, auditoriums, ballet studios and teaching spaces.
The Sound Recording Studio includes two control rooms equipped with Genelec monitoring solutions. msonic Baltic supplied and installed the systems to support recording and mixing activities for both music and sound engineering students.
Control Room 1 serves as the main recording and mixing space. The room centers on a Rupert Neve Designs 5088 console. It uses a pair of Genelec 8341A nearfield monitors alongside the room’s main monitoring system, allowing students to work in an analog studio environment while developing mixing skills.
Andres Olema, sound studio manager at the Tallinn College of Music and Ballet, said the setup allows students to gain experience with traditional recording workflows while completing their early course assignments on analog equipment. “Control Room 1 houses our Rupert Neve Designs 5088 console and takes the user back to the age of analog consoles for recording and mixing,” Olema said. “It serves as our main control room for recording from our studio room, allowing our first course sound engineering students to do their mixing assignments fully analog with the Neve and outboard gear for the first half of the year.”
Olema said the Genelec nearfield monitors provide the level of accuracy required for long mixing sessions. He added that the monitoring system helps students evaluate their work precisely while operating the analog console.
A Genelec heritage
The second control room supports surround production and software-based workflows. The room uses five Genelec 8351B monitors together with a Genelec 7370A to create a 5.1 monitoring environment that allows students to gain experience with multichannel mixing. “This space functions more as our ‘working in the box’ room, together with the possibility to get acquainted with 5.1 surround mixing,” Olema said.
The academy also uses Genelec monitoring across other parts of the campus. Genelec 8000 Series monitors support production and classroom spaces, while a pair of Genelec 4430A Smart IP loudspeakers provides talkback during recording sessions when musicians do not use headphones.
Olema said the department’s relationship with Genelec predates the creation of MUBA and traces back to the earlier Georg Ots Music School. That institution used Genelec monitors in its studios, which influenced the decision to continue with the brand’s three-way models from The Ones series. “The Ones family offered us a familiar and trusted sound with even more precision,” he said. “With The Ones, you can always rely on getting the optimal sound from your setup.”
Olema also highlighted the role of Genelec’s GLM loudspeaker management software in optimizing the monitoring systems. He said the software allows engineers to calibrate the loudspeakers to match the acoustics of each room. “GLM software really helped us calibrate and refine the monitoring systems in both rooms, which is especially important with the 5.1 surround system that we have in Control Room 2,” Olema said.
Preparing students for professional studio work
Jürgen Urbanik, marketing and business development manager at msonic Baltic, said the monitoring systems support the institution’s goal of preparing students for professional studio work. He said reliable monitoring plays an important role in developing listening skills and critical decision-making. “For an educational institution shaping the next generation of audio professionals, dependable monitoring is not just a technical choice but a long-term investment in quality listening and critical decision making,” Urbanik said.
Urbanik said the combination of the analog console and Genelec monitoring creates a studio ecosystem that reflects professional production environments. He added that students now use the facility daily for recording, sound engineering training and ensemble sessions.
Olema said the studio supports multiple disciplines across the academy, including sound engineering, ensemble recording and music production. He added that the facility’s versatility is important in a teaching environment where students work across different production styles. “We feel that in addition to just being a really nice studio, it’s also very versatile as a whole, which is much needed in a school setting such as ours,” Olema said.
Urbanik added that the installation provides what he described as a “future-proof monitoring environment” designed to support teaching and creative work at the academy.
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