Morplay Studio 'Drops Beats' With KRK ROKIT

Morplay Studios Audio Engineer and Studio Manager Franklin "Frank" Socorro is a music industry veteran who has shared his knowledge and love for music and production for 25 years.

Socorro first started out freelancing, crafting songs for Latin artists like Ricky Martin, Julio Iglesias, and Enrique Iglesias. It wasn't long before Socorro moved into the hip hop and R&B world, where he worked alongside Producer Salaam Remi and a variety of artists, including Faith Evans, Nas, 50 Cent, and the late Amy Winehouse. He also taught audio courses at the SAE Institute for nearly a decade before joining Morplay Studios in Miami.

It's in the Studio Manager role that Socorro required a high-quality studio monitor that offered both reliable sound and visual appeal to match the space. He ultimately selected the KRK ROKIT 10-3 G4 Midfield Three-Way Studio Monitors to support the reggaeton and urban music produced at the studio, which makes the size and low end of a studio monitor a priority.

"Due to space limitations in the room, we needed to have the low end without also using a sub," he said. "With these considerations, choosing the ROKIT 10-3s was an easy decision. Overall, even at a loud volume, the monitors reproduce well. They don't alter their sound sonically as the volume increases, and that makes it easy for us to trust what's happening when we play the music through the speakers. It's a good reference at different volumes, which is important."

Socorro also uses two pairs of the KRK GoAux Portable Monitors to assist with mobile referencing. "The ability to go anywhere with the GoAux is really great," he explained. "I was especially blown away by the bass response, which is obviously hard to pull off in such a small speaker. I find that the accuracy you get from the low end is impressive and extremely useful, especially for a speaker that can be moved around."

The mobility and sound quality of the GoAux have proven especially important for playback applications. "Right now, we have the GoAux monitors sitting in a non-treated office made out of a container with metal walls, which is the worst listening environment, ever―yet the monitors still sound good," he shared. "That is a testament to what the KRK GoAux can do; the room becomes less of an issue, which is important when you're trying to listen to something that's critical."

From a usability standpoint, Socorro says that having portable monitors that are easy to set up and work on has made for a much smoother-running studio. "Anyone who is not super familiar or technologically savvy with audio equipment can easily set the KRK GoAux monitors up and make them work," he added. "They also have Bluetooth, so anyone can connect and play their music without the need to continually unplug, which is an added bonus."

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