Lifelong KRK User Equips Latest Studio With the Brand’s Monitors and Subwoofers to Create Iconic Beats for Stereo and Dolby Atmos Applications
MIAMI ― Five-time GRAMMY® Award-winning Recording Engineer and Producer Jimmy Douglass has a prolific career spanning over four decades. Throughout his time in the music industry, Douglass has worked with renowned artists like Aretha Franklin, The Rolling Stones, and Foreigner, to contemporary performers such as Jay-Z, Justin Timberlake, Timbaland, Pharrell Williams, and many more.
Jimmy Douglass in his Miami studio.
As someone who lives and breathes music, Douglass has always felt the most creative when he taps into the feeling of the music. He says his goal is to create music that makes everybody in the room feel good. “Music is all about the vibe,” he shares. “Whether it’s rock, R&B, or soul, when you get that certain feeling, that is when it’s right.”
Douglass’ Miami studio consists of two stereo rooms and one Dolby® Atmos room, which requires gear that can withstand various musical applications. A longtime KRK user, his studio currently consists of a collection of V-Series V8 Powered Studio Monitors, Classic 8 Powered Studio Monitors, and S10 Powered Studio Subwoofers.
“KRK speakers can handle the levels required for hip-hop. I can blow them up, and they can really push that power out,” he shares. “They have tone even without a subwoofer and are nice and crisp sounding. I use them a lot in both my Dolby and stereo rooms.”
After nearly two decades of using KRK in his workspaces, Douglass knew it was the only brand he would trust when it came time to build his Dolby Atmos studio. “I had about 20 KRK monitors in my inventory, so I decided to use those to build my Dolby system, and I love how you really get to hear the definition and the distance in the surround production,” he says. “Another advantage of KRK is that I can move them around with ease. I have them on stands around the room, which makes it a portable configuration. I can break it down at any time, and I don’t have to commit. To me, that is the beauty of that system.”
Douglass also appreciates the aesthetic appeal of the KRK brand. “One of my favorite elements of KRK is the easily identifiable color of those woofers; the yellow really stands out,” he adds. “My KRKs also take punishment well. Durability is a major consideration when using a speaker, especially doing a lot of hip-hop with all the extra energy that is being pushed out,” he adds.
Douglass has had a long-standing relationship with KRK since the early 2000s and has used his KRKs on a few recent projects, and he does not plan to stop anytime soon. “I was lucky enough to get to redo Justin Timberlake’s catalog in Atmos,” he says. “My KRKs were very instrumental to that project. The songs sound amazing when you get to hear them on the speakers in the immersive environment. I tried to listen back on my phone in binaural, but I was not getting the spatial dimension that I was experiencing from listening through speakers. So, those were very important throughout the whole process. Whatever projects I have coming down the line, I am working on them with my KRKs.”
Jimmy Douglass continues to display his versatility by remaining current while drawing from his years of experience. He is best known for bringing unconventional techniques into the studio and encouraging artists to transcend genre restrictions. Douglass is credited with bringing a raw edge to sound and specifically bringing a heavy funk bass sound into rock music. His hard work and immense talent have carved a place for him among some of the most respected engineers and mixers in the world.