Masta Simon [Mighty Crown]Award-winning Japanese dancehall reggae crew rely on ADAM Audio S2V monitors

ADAM Users

Industry veteran Masta Simon is the MC and mastermind of Japan’s award-winning dance hall reggae sound crew Mighty Crown.

Originating in Yokohama all the way back in 1991, Master Crown went on to win the Global Sound Clash event eight times while Masta Simon’s record label went from strength to strength, releasing a raft of successful albums with the man himself taking on production duties.

Among the most impressive aspects of Masta Simon’s long, successful history in the music industry is his enormous stylistic repertoire. He has worked with a variety of musicians across hip hop, reggae, funk, pop and rock from Japan, Koerea, Jamaica and beyond, including Fire Ball, Pushim, Crazy Ken Band, Rhymester, Tha Blue Herb, Ozrosaurus, Anarchy, FOH, E-Girls, PKCZ, Tarrus Riley, Morgan Heritage, Jesse Royal, Romain Virgo and Wayne Wonder. A mainstay of his production workflow is ADAM Audio’s flagship S2V monitor.

How does his production style and the genres he works in inform his choice of speaker? “I mostly produce dance hall, reggae, hip hop and club music, so the bass is of course crucial. But being able to clearly hear the mids and the highs is also very important. You can only trust monitors that are honest and well balanced. Ideally, it would be best if you could monitor on three different monitors, switching between large, mid- and nearfield.”

“With its compact size, the S2V sits perfectly in my studio which isn’t that big, but the low end is so powerful that it sounds like a bigger sized speaker.”

Masta Simon first heard ADAM Audio monitors while recording at a facility in New York. “I thought the sound was really great, and immediately knew that I need it in my studio,” he recalls. At the same time, he auditioned other competing brands as well. “I compared various brands of speakers, but ADAM Audio’s highs and the bass sound left the best impression.” Comparing the sound with that of several different ADAM Audio models, he selected the S2V as the best fit to his studio and workflow. “With its compact size, the S2V sits perfectly in my studio which isn’t that big, but the low end is so powerful that it sounds like a bigger sized speaker. Also, I like the sound quality of the mids and the highs.”