Genelec unveils new features and unrivalled user experience with GLM 4

Iisalmi, Finland, December 2020… Genelec - the global leader in professional loudspeakers - has announced a major free upgrade to its hugely popular GLM software for audio monitor system setup, calibration and control. The next-generation GLM 4 now gives users of Genelec Smart Active Monitors the benefits of Mac Catalina compatibility, an elegant new user interface, and a host of valuable new features. By minimising the room’s distractive acoustic influence on the sound quality, GLM 4 provides an unrivalled and truthful sonic reference - wherever the user chooses to work. GLM 4 therefore powers creativity, producing mixes that translate consistently to other rooms and playback systems.

Based on decades of research data from thousands of studios worldwide, GLM 4 integrates seamlessly with the intelligent DSP hardware within each Smart Active Monitor, allowing each monitor and subwoofer to be networked, configured and individually calibrated for the user’s specific acoustic environment. GLM’s reference microphone kit allows the user’s room acoustics to be accurately analysed, after which GLM’s AutoCal feature automatically optimises each monitor and subwoofer for level, distance delay, subwoofer crossover phase and room response equalisation. At that point the user has many options for further manual adjustment, thereby achieving complete personalisation if required. This level of flexibility makes GLM 4 the perfect tool both for users looking to fine tune an already excellent room, and those working in more challenging spaces not originally designed for creative use.

Compatible with Windows and Mac OS, including 10.15 Catalina, GLM 4 comes with a brand new user interface for faster, more intuitive and easier navigation. Created in conjunction with leading industrial designer Harri Koskinen, the new user interface fuses clean, attractive aesthetics with a unique character that users will find logical and hugely satisfying. Koskinen’s inspired hexagonal design also supports the idea of natural growth, in the sense that GLM helps develop the user’s own listening skills and allows a monitoring system to be easily expanded from mono to complex immersive as the user’s needs evolve.

GLM 4 offers all the functions of its GLM 3 predecessor, with the addition of new features including dedicated setup and control functions for immersive monitoring, and excellent compatibility with the increasing number of audio monitoring standards in international mastering, broadcast, OTT and film. GLM 4 supports Cloud-based and local storage of settings, giving the user options for complete mobility, with the Cloud helpdesk always on hand to provide remote consultancy via a team of Genelec audio experts.

In conjunction with the cutting-edge DSP hardware integral to all Genelec Smart Active Monitors, GLM 4 offers the user unique benefits that no other room calibration system can offer. GLM 4 supports fully scalable systems from mono and stereo to more than 80 channels of immersive reproduction, making it the most advanced, flexible and cost-effective room calibration system on the market. The tight integration of hardware and software also ensures the best possible system performance and dynamic range, and allows the user to switch between monitor setups without having to use extra DAW outputs - or invest in costly external hardware.

Additionally, since management and optimisation of the system takes place at the end of the signal chain - in the monitors and subwoofers themselves - GLM 4 users can benefit from fixed and low latency performance without having to bypass any monitoring software sitting on the master audio buss. This eases the creative process by avoiding the need to switch between ‘record’ and ‘mix’ modes, and once calibrated, GLM 4 settings can also be stored within the monitor or subwoofer itself, avoiding the possibility of accidental changes - and thus making GLM 4 perfect for multi-user rooms and demanding production environments.

Genelec Managing Director Siamäk Naghian comments:

“GLM 4 is the distillation of many years of continuous research into the effects of room acoustics on monitoring system performance, and will help to streamline the user’s workflow and elevate the quality of their mixes. In line with our design philosophy on sustainability, GLM 4 is also completely backwards-compatible with all generations of Smart Active Monitors. This means that professional users can not only be confident that GLM 4 is the most advanced, efficient and intuitive room calibration system on the market, but it also guarantees that Genelec Smart Active Monitors are an extremely secure, scalable and future-proof long-term investment.”