J. Robbins is a lifer in the indie music scene. Starting out in the late '80s with DC hardcore legends Government Issue, he rose to prominence as the singer/guitarist of Jawbox, whose mix of dissonance, melody, and rhythm became a hallmark of post-punk indie rock. Jawbox released records on Dischord and Atlantic, before disbanding in the late '90s.

After Jawbox, Robbins co-founded Burning Airlines and quickly became a sought-after producer, working with influential bands like Jets to Brazil, Braid, and Texas is the Reason. At his Magpie Cage studio in Baltimore, he’s produced an eclectic range—from Clutch to French rockers Daria.

As a solo artist, Robbins has released two acclaimed albums on Dischord: Un-Becoming (2019) and Basilisk (2024). His current band, a tight power trio featuring Brooks Harlan and Peter Moffett, toured extensively in 2024, including major festivals and support slots with Sunny Day Real Estate. With a third solo album underway and tours lined up in Europe and the U.S., Robbins shows no signs of slowing down—only evolving.

After working with the SC208 for some time he upgraded to a big pair of SC3010 monitors. They took over the Magpie main control room while the SC208 got moved to another mix room.

The SC208s were an immediate hit when we first set them up in the Magpie Cage control room - just immediately easy to relate to, super fun to work on. When the SC3010s arrived, I put them up and moved the SC208s into my smaller mix room. The SC3010s are insane! The most detailed monitors I have ever used. The filters are invaluable and weirdly useable (I say weirdly because I'm always skeptical about onboard DSP - I assume it's like a “bells and whistles” thing that’s more distracting than ultimately useful - or I fear I will find a way to do more harm than good with it. I tend to default to ”simpler is better.” But in this case I am pleased to be wrong on all counts as the SC3010’s controls are very clear and intuitive). I did some tone sweeps and measurements of the SC3010s in the Magpie Cage main control room, and the few bumps and dips ended up being largely correctable using the on-board filters, so now the measurements are the flattest I've had here.

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But with the SC3010s as the mains in here it does not seem to be necessary. I was able to ditch my sub as well. Tracking with the SC3010s has been a total joy. I like to track with the musicians in the control room whenever possible, so they are using the speakers to monitor, rather than relying on headphones. The SC3010s have so much power and so much headroom, they have really helped players to feel more “in the music", while also being noticeably less fatiguing over time, even when things are cranked up. But I also feel that the SC3010s have helped me to capture tones at the beginning that are ultimately more useable and easier to mix on the other end of the process.

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I'm sure part of this is that I've typically used 2-way mid-fields rather than 3-way speakers in the past, but for whatever reason, with the SC3010s I can hear so much more of what’s happening across the full spectrum, and how the elements are relating to each other. I was talking with my studio partners Brooks Harlan and Matt Redenbo in the first couple of weeks of using these speakers, and I likened working on the SC3010s to doing surgery in an operating theater, whereas working on the SC208s feels more vibey, like you’re in an artist’s studio making a charcoal drawing or painting. Both very cool and useful, and in my case, with the SC3010s in the tracking room and the SC208s in the mix room, very complementary. I honestly feel both sets of speakers feel like a step forward for me and they are allowing me to do some of the best work of my life.