In a very special episode recorded for Guitar.com Live, we invite rock recording guru Romesh Dodangoda to spec up his fantasy Forever studio. Having made records with Motorhead, Funeral For A Friend, Bring Me The Horizon and Twin Atlantic, he knows a thing or two about capturing impactful guitars and sculpting the perfect tone in the studio. Learn which famous live room he would steal for his dream recording studio, which pedal he can't live without and why Metropolis Studios are going to be very unhappy with his choices.
To learn out more about Romesh's online production community, Control Room, visit www.control-room.net.
Keep up with Romesh Dodangoda at romeshdodangoda.com and follow @longwaveromesh on Instagram.
Read more about the Klon Centaur pedal.
Recording a tiny Marshall MS-2, documented on Instagram.
Chris Barker:
Hi, I'm Chris Barker.
Will Betts:
And I'm Will Betts, and this is a very special edition of the MusicTech My Forever Studio podcast coming to you from Guitar.com, live.
Chris Barker:
In this podcast we speak with producers, DJs, audio engineers, and industry figureheads about their fantasy Forever Studio.
Will Betts:
And just like every other episode, this studio will have to be imagined within our semi-strict rules and importantly, our guests will have to live with it forever. But what are these rules?
Chris Barker:
Well, our guests can select a computer, a DAW, and an audio interface first, then they can only choose six other bits of studio kit, plus one luxury item.
Will Betts:
Quick question Chris, what if somebody thinks they've found a loophole in our fool-proof system and tries to pick a selection of plug-ins as a single item?
Speaker 3:
No bundles.
Chris Barker:
No bundles.
Will Betts:
Speccing out his Forever Studio this week is rock production genius Romesh Dodangoda. Having made records for Motörhead, Funeral for a Friend, Bring Me the Horizon, and Twin Atlantic, he knows a thing or two about capturing impactful guitars and sculpting the perfect tone in the studio.
Chris Barker:
That's right. Romesh's Long Wave Studio in Cardiff is absolutely jam-packed with guitars, amp heads, mics, and virtually every conceivable bit of studio hardware, so he might have a tough time slimming down his rig to just six items.
Will Betts:
So with a heavy nod to the word of guitar recording, let's discover Romesh's Forever Studio.
Chris Barker:
Welcome Romesh.
Romesh Dodangoda:
Hello.
Will Betts:
Welcome to My Forever Studio podcast. How are you?
Romesh Dodangoda:
I'm good thanks, how you guys doing?
Will Betts:
Very well, very well.
Chris Barker:
We are good. We are good. Remotely doing our thing. Yeah, so, you heard the rules there. I mean, does it sound like a scary prospect? Look at all that kit behind you, what stacks of gear, and imagine how we're going to slim that down to just six items.
Romesh Dodangoda:
I've got to pick six, have I?
Chris Barker:
Yes.
Will Betts:
Yes. That's the concede.
Chris Barker:
As you heard in the rules there, we give you three free ones to start with. But before we get to the sort of free items, let's talk about the vibe of the studio. I mean we can see the studio, your studio behind you, I mean studios come in different shapes and sizes, and forms, and vibes, and décor.
Chris Barker:
What's your vibe and if you could have a studio anywhere in the world, where would it be?
Romesh Dodangoda:
I mean I guess when I built this place it was just for me. So everything that I want to use is all set up. I don't have to worry about having it set for anyone else coming in, really. I wanted to build somewhere which had a vibe where it had lots of amps, it had lots of drums, and the whole idea being that as a band, when you come here you don't... You're not stuck with the gear that you've got, you can try different things.
Romesh Dodangoda:
I love the fact when we do guitar recording, if one amps not working, it's like oh, we'll just try another one. Yeah, I mean that's kind of the vibe of this place really.
Romesh Dodangoda:
In terms of if I could build a studio anywhere-
Will Betts:
Yeah, the fantasy. The Fantasy Forever Studio. So we're building the studio now, and where's it going to be?
Romesh Dodangoda:
Probably LA, because I love the weather there.
Will Betts:
Okay. Okay.
Romesh Dodangoda:
Yeah.
Will Betts:
What part of LA? Are we talking the Hollywood Hills mansion or are we talking grimy Downtown basement?
Romesh Dodangoda:
It's got to be somewhere fantasy I think.
Will Betts:
Are we talking... Oh it's got to be in the middle of the Hollywood Hills, I'm thinking. I'm picturing you sort of overlooking the whole of Los Angeles with the haze, you've got an underpinned mid-century modernist place, with a couple of swimming pools, is what I'm thinking. Similar vibes?
Romesh Dodangoda:
Oh yeah. That would be fine.
Chris Barker:
Will's our resident realtor. He's our resident realtor, just giving you the sell there. Did you see that? He sold you that dream straight away.
Romesh Dodangoda:
I'd be okay with that. Yeah.
Chris Barker:
Okay, and what about shapes and sizes? Because obviously you're recording guitars and live bands and such. What's the importance of the live room in that situation and what kind of live room do you like? How lively do you like it?
Romesh Dodangoda:
My live room here is like a pretty decent size. I can put a band in together and then we have another room as well. There's basically a live room, this control room, and then there's a second control room which doubles as another live, so I can isolate a singer or anything like that.
Romesh Dodangoda:
Live rooms for me, especially in rock music, is like... It's huge because it's drums. For me, everything with rock music is based around that drum sound and if you get... My whole kind of idea is if you can get the drum sounding amazing, everything else just kind of falls on top really easily. So yeah, live rooms are really important to me especially for drum recording. just to capture the ambiance.
Chris Barker:
If you could steal a live room that you know about in the world, and put it in your dream LA Forever Studio, what studio has the live room that you've worked in or that you've heard on records that you think that's perfect.
Romesh Dodangoda:
I think it's got to be Rockfield.
Chris Barker:
Nice. Okay.
Romesh Dodangoda:
Which is actually only 45 minutes away from here, but that... Their rooms are just magical. There's just something about them. I can't even work out what it is but you just put the mics around and you just pull the faders up and it's like wow, it's incredible.
Chris Barker:
Perfect. We've got a studio in LA with Rockfield's live room jammed in it. That sounds pretty good already.
Romesh Dodangoda:
Yeah, that'd be perfect. Yeah.
Will Betts:
And that's going to be important for your sound then, because you've got so few items that the room is going to have to be absolutely the sound that you're going to capture.
Chris Barker:
Unless you're going to get several microphones as part of your six, this is going to be a tricky thing.
Will Betts:
Before we get there, what about computer? We give you a free computer and a DAW of your choice. What's it going to be? Mac or PC?
Romesh Dodangoda:
I am definitely Team Mac. I don't know, I just love the OS. I had over the years... I used to be on PC for ages, had loads of problems, at least like the Mac thing, it's made to a standard, so less can go wrong.
Romesh Dodangoda:
In terms of DAW, I use Steinberg Nuendo.
Chris Barker:
Interesting.
Romesh Dodangoda:
Which I've used since version... Since the beginning really.
Chris Barker:
And why staying with Nuendo and not Cubase? Because they overlap a lot more than they ever used to now.
Romesh Dodangoda:
Yeah. I think I just stayed in that lane really. When I was starting out, I was on Cubase from 5 and then I think it was SX. I went through all that. I even had it on an Atari.
Chris Barker:
Yes, nice. We could still do that if you want to go back. Any desire?
Romesh Dodangoda:
No. But Nuendo's just been rock solid for me and I think for me, it's more important that I don't have to think about the DAW. When I'm working on a session, I don't want to be thinking about "Oh, how do I do that?" I know the keyboard shortcuts so easily, it's just basically one less thing for me to think about when I'm working.
Chris Barker:
And you're mainly using it just for tracking right? Do you do much MIDI and programming? Do you dig in with it much or is it more of like a-
Romesh Dodangoda:
Yeah. I mainly... I mean I do all my tracking and mixing in it, but yeah, sometimes we'll do some programming or stuff in it as well. Yeah.
Chris Barker:
Okay. Then your final, of the three free items we give you that don't come out of your six, is audio interface.
Romesh Dodangoda:
Ah. Okay.
Chris Barker:
This is a fantasy Forever Studio don't forget, so no budget limitations. I mean what do you have now and what would you replace it with if you had no limits?
Romesh Dodangoda:
Well I've got two different set ups because there's two different control rooms here. In Studio A there is an Antelope Orion, the 32 which is amazing because I use that to travel a lot because I can take 32 I/O in 1U rack and that's incredible.
Romesh Dodangoda:
I use that a lot. I love the sound of that, and I've also got a UA Apollo system as well which is equally amazing.
Will Betts:
Popular choice, the Apollo on the podcast.
Romesh Dodangoda:
Yeah, I mean just because you can record through their plug-ins is... I do that on vocals all the time.
Chris Barker:
But what's it going to be for the Forever Studio? Before you choose, do you ever use the Unison plug-ins, the real time plug-ins for guitar processing? Do you ever record through those or is it all... because you've got so many other things?
Romesh Dodangoda:
Not for guitars, no. I tend to use a lot of analogue outboard for guitars. I use the Unison stuff though for vocals sometimes. I think they sound amazing. Really good.
Chris Barker:
So what's it going to be?
Romesh Dodangoda:
It'd probably be the Antelope Orion because of the huge amount of I/O that I could fit in 1U and it's just one USB out. Yeah, I'll probably say that.
Chris Barker:
Okay, nice.
Will Betts:
All right.
Chris Barker:
So now things get a bit more challenging but maybe before we move on to your first item, let's talk about all those guitar heads and stuff behind you. How do the virtual versions compare? Do you ever go down the plug-in route for guitars? I guess there's no point if you've got that gear, right?
Romesh Dodangoda:
I actually made one with... We have one with STL Tones. It's my... They do a plug-in called ToneHub and I have a pack that's out for it which has loads of my amps with all the mics in the exact places that I like them, and that is scary how close that is.
Romesh Dodangoda:
When we were kind of putting the sounds together for it and I was AB-ing between the real amp and the plug-in version, it was very, very close. I still have all my heads because I prefer to still use them, but for people who don't have a huge collection of heads, I think software has come an unbelievably long way from where we used to be.
Chris Barker:
I guess, I mean it must be useful if you are travelling to other studios to have those recreations of all your favourite set-ups.
Romesh Dodangoda:
Yeah.
Chris Barker:
And your heads so you can take them with you as plug-ins. Even if it's just for demo-ing stuff out.
Romesh Dodangoda:
Yeah, totally. I mean sometimes it's like, "Ah, I just wish I had that one amp with me," and it's like I can just load my plug-in now and it's there. So that's been incredible for that.
Chris Barker:
Let's go onto item number one of your six. Now you've got an audio interface, you've got your DAW, and you've got a Mac, and you have nothing else apart from this awesome LA room and Rockfield's live room.
Will Betts:
Apart from that. Good start.
Chris Barker:
Apart from that, what's going to be your first item?
Romesh Dodangoda:
It's got to be monitors, surely? Because I wouldn't hear anything otherwise.
Chris Barker:
I'm glad you spotted that. Sometimes people get to item number three before they realise they can't hear anything.
Romesh Dodangoda:
Well my monitors, I use Yamaha NS-10s, that has been all I've used for I don't know how many years.
Chris Barker:
That's a weak choice for a Fantasy Studio though isn't it? You can't...
Romesh Dodangoda:
I love them. I would take those every day.
Chris Barker:
Really?
Romesh Dodangoda:
Yeah. But the trick with the NS-10 is everyone always thinks they sound really thin, but you've got to pair it with a subwoofer, so I use it with a Genelec 7360 sub and those two together is killer because the Genelec gives all the low end that you miss out of the NS-10s and then the 10s are just a super fast sounding speaker where it exposes so many problems for me in the high mids. That system together is just amazing.
Chris Barker:
That's the thing though. You're talking about a system here. I mean you're going to need an amp, you're going to need NS-10s, that's three items with the subwoofer. Sounds like-
Romesh Dodangoda:
Surely you'll give me those.
Chris Barker:
No, no, no.
Speaker 3:
No bundles.
Romesh Dodangoda:
Come on.
Chris Barker:
Nope. You're bundling.
Will Betts:
Nope.
Chris Barker:
No bundling. What amp are you using though? You got a Bryston on the NS-10s or...
Romesh Dodangoda:
I'm using a Quad in one room and I got another pair of NS-10s in the other studio and that is one of the old Yamaha amps that I believe were kind of made for the NS-10s at one time.
Chris Barker:
Oh wow, okay. Not easy to find.
Romesh Dodangoda:
No, no. Yeah, they sound great with it.
Chris Barker:
Okay, so are you still choosing NS-10s for your Fantasy Studio?
Romesh Dodangoda:
Yeah, I'm going with it. I'm sticking with my choice.
Chris Barker:
Oh, okay. I think we'll give him an amp, all right?
Will Betts:
You can have an amp. I think that's kind of thrown in as part of the monitoring bundle.
Romesh Dodangoda:
Can I have an Genelec subwoofer as well?
Chris Barker:
No you can't. No that's a separate item. That's a separate item.
Romesh Dodangoda:
Oh no.
Chris Barker:
But you're still going to go for it? This is brave. You're going to go for the NS-10s with an amp, and no sub.
Romesh Dodangoda:
I'm probably the only person who's going to pick NS-10s on your show, yeah.
Chris Barker:
Yeah.
Will Betts:
I think you are, actually. Yeah.
Chris Barker:
Yeah, most people choose £60,000 Focals, or they just go what's the most expensive speaker I can get, but yeah.
Romesh Dodangoda:
I think the whole thing is, is what speaker do you understand the most? So that's it for me. I get quite confused when I put on other monitors because I'm like I don't know what I'm listening to. I just feel safe with the 10s.
Chris Barker:
Fine. Fine.
Will Betts:
And so with that, the clarity in the mid-range and how revealing it is. A lot of people say they're super uninteresting speakers or they're kind of ugly to listen to, but how important is that for you mixing rock music and understanding that middle range?
Romesh Dodangoda:
Especially for rock music, that's why it's such a great monitor for it because in rock music you got so many guitars competing with where the vocals are. That monitor just reveals everything for you.
Romesh Dodangoda:
It's that old saying, but it's true, if you get it sounding good on NS-10s, it does translate really well. I think that's the trick. Yeah, they don't sound nice to listen to, but the whole point is to get them to kind of sound good and then, you know.
Chris Barker:
This is quite a wide scoping question because obviously the genuine answer is, well it depends on the song, but do you find when mixing and layering up guitars and capturing guitars together, do you find these kind of problem areas in the frequency range where you having to carve stuff out a lot?
Chris Barker:
Like you say, especially, I guess it depends on the type of song but any advice for people that trying to stack and make that kind of thick sound without them all becoming mush and mud?
Romesh Dodangoda:
Yeah. I mean, I would definitely be careful how much you filter out because you actually... The more you start doing those notches everywhere, you just start removing good stuff. Yes, it will sound horrible if you boost it 20 dB and find this resonant thing, but sometimes that's contributing to the...
Romesh Dodangoda:
That's a tough one that you have to get right. I think you don't always need as many guitars as you think, and it comes back to what I was saying about the drums. I always notice, especially on demos and things like that, where they can't get a great drum sound or something, that they just pile on all these guitars to kind of cover it up.
Romesh Dodangoda:
I think the more you focus on the foundation bit, the less you actually need because things naturally sound wider anyway then.
Chris Barker:
I guess they get given their own room by not competing so you could turn them up or thicken them up.
Romesh Dodangoda:
Yeah. I think also try and use tones that compliment each other. Sometimes you might have a heavy guitar part but you want some clarity so you could use, say, a heavy amp, like a 5150 or something, but then use a Marshall to back down a bit, and that will give you the clarity of the strings coming through.
Romesh Dodangoda:
There's ways you can use layering to enhance a sound rather than just adding stuff that's not really adding up in the end.
Chris Barker:
Any interesting... Through your career of recording, like we said in the intro, some quite major names there, from working with others, any interesting ways and methods of working from guitarists that've come through your studio that have surprised you? The way they get their tone or the way they want to be recorded, either from them working in other studios or trying something new?
Romesh Dodangoda:
I guess when I was recording Bring Me the Horizon, Lee Malia's got amazing tone just in himself. Whatever Mikey put up he'll make it sound great. Without getting technical about it, it's his playing style, and that is such a huge contributing factor to any guitar sound really.
Chris Barker:
Do most guitarists know what they want in the studio, do you find when they come to you? Or is there...
Romesh Dodangoda:
I think most guitarists tend to be quite open in terms of what we should go for, for a record. I can't think of anyone that's ever forced a certain type of amp or whatever. Especially because there's so many heads here, most the time, most guitarists want to try things, and go, "Ah, I didn't even think about trying and using that or that. That works."
Romesh Dodangoda:
I think in the studio because you're not kind of displaying that amp out live so it's let's just go with what works on the recording.
Chris Barker:
Yeah, a bit.
Will Betts:
You said we don't want to get too technical but we're very happy to get technical. If you want to get technical about whether it's playing styles or whether it's just the nuts and bolts of the recording process, what are some of those things? You said, "Don't want to get too technical," what were you thinking? Where was your mind going at that moment when you were going to go down the rabbit hole?
Romesh Dodangoda:
Is this in relation to recording?
Chris Barker:
Yeah.
Romesh Dodangoda:
Bring Me to Horizon?
Chris Barker:
Well yeah.
Romesh Dodangoda:
It was just to get a really powerful representation of his sound and it was... A lot of the songs had, they had distinctive sonic characters to them, so it was matching the guitar tones up with the rest of it. One thing that Lee introduced me to which I now swear by is using a Klon pedal.
Romesh Dodangoda:
Luckily in the studio that we were in, they had an original one which is crazy money right now, I think.
Chris Barker:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). So are you on the hunt for one?
Romesh Dodangoda:
No. I'm not spending that much on one. But I got one. I ended up buying... J. Rockett make one called the Archer and it's one of those pedals that I was like, "Why didn't I buy this years ago?" It's so... I don't even... I can't work out what it's doing, but it just makes the guitar sound clearer and it doesn't change the tone of the amp. It's just like a clarity thing for me.
Chris Barker:
Nice.
Will Betts:
Even though it's an overdrive distortion box, right?
Romesh Dodangoda:
Yeah, but it doesn't... It's not like when you put a Tube Screamer in front of an amp and you get these kind of frequency shift. It doesn't tend to do that, it just kind of gives the amp a nice boost and you can hear the strings way clearer as they ring.
Romesh Dodangoda:
I pretty much always track with that pedal now. I think it's amazing.
Chris Barker:
Nice.
Will Betts:
Well, is that going on the list? Is that going to be your number two item?
Chris Barker:
Item number two. Let's move on and let's see where we get to. So you've got your NS-10s now. Item number two?
Romesh Dodangoda:
Item number two... Well would it be preamps next I guess, wouldn't it?
Chris Barker:
Well, it's up to you. I mean you can have a desk if you want.
Romesh Dodangoda:
Oh, okay.
Chris Barker:
You can have whatever you want. You've got six items but they can be anything. Just no bundles. No bundles.
Romesh Dodangoda:
No bundles. Okay. Desk-wise, I mean I love my Audient ASP but my all-time favourite is an SSL G series. I love that desk. I've made a lot of records on those consoles and there's just something about the sound on them. They just sound amazing. The EQs are like... I don't know, just everything about it is like rock and roll to me. I love those.
Chris Barker:
That's interesting as well because a lot of people would go... Well, might go Neve for the kind of harder, edgier, tones? But you love the SSL because the SSL is often branded as a more poppy version of a mixing desk, I guess, if you could be that. You know what I mean though, if you were going to be really cliché.
Romesh Dodangoda:
I guess so. I still prefer the SSL. I love the layout of the G, everything is in the right place for me. It's just the sound of it. You can... Every part of it has a sound. Even going out through the output matrix rather than direct, that has a different sound to it. The compressors on there are incredible.
Romesh Dodangoda:
They all... Every SSL kind of sounds a little different sometimes.
Chris Barker:
That's a good thing, right?
Romesh Dodangoda:
Yeah, it's a good thing. Yeah, I definitely, definitely love that. So that would be my console choice.
Chris Barker:
Nice.
Will Betts:
Do you have a specific one? Is there one that you've used which you above all other SSLs, if they all sound different, what's the one that you would have?
Romesh Dodangoda:
Um...
Will Betts:
You're allowed to steal from another studio.
Romesh Dodangoda:
I can steal? The one that Metropolis Studio B is one I really like. That room is also one of best control rooms I've ever heard. It sounds incredible in there. But yeah, that one.
Chris Barker:
Cool. Let's take it. Let's take it away from them.
Will Betts:
Sorry Metropolis.
Chris Barker:
Let's steal it. Sorry Metropolis. Rockfield's lost their live room, Metropolis has lost their desk, this is good. Let's decimate the industry.
Chris Barker:
Okay, so item number three is creeping up now.
Romesh Dodangoda:
Okay, item number three.
Chris Barker:
Are you going to have a guitar? You've got to have a guitar right?
Will Betts:
Surely.
Romesh Dodangoda:
Yeah, okay. Well I guess it's rock music so it's got to be something with Humbuckers. Les Paul Custom? That's a good solid guitar. Guitars are hard. You can't make me pick guitars. That's really hard.
Chris Barker:
Yeah, well, here we are. It's your Forever Studio. It's your six items. This is the nature of the podcast I'm afraid.
Romesh Dodangoda:
Okay, I'll tell you what then. I guess I'd go for a PRS because there are way more variations and tones on there, so that would keep me going, because I could get a lot of different sounds out of those.
Chris Barker:
Okay, I guess like what you were saying about the amp heads, there's kind of like the guitars and the amps that you want to be seen with on stage but the ones that actually do their job in the studio-
Romesh Dodangoda:
Yeah, yeah.
Chris Barker:
And I guess there's... Yeah.
Romesh Dodangoda:
I've got-
Chris Barker:
There's probably a lot of bands that won't want to admit what amps and what guitars they've used actually on their record.
Romesh Dodangoda:
Maybe for endorsement reasons. I've got a PRS Custom 24 s2, that takes me from lots of different tones. It's solid and feels good to play so I think that would be my choice there then.
Chris Barker:
Is it one of the ones behind you that we can see? Is it the...
Romesh Dodangoda:
Ah, no, it's not actually. It's in another rack over there.
Chris Barker:
Another rack of guitars. Nice. Ludicrous.
Will Betts:
So tell us a bit more about your own playing then. Because you've gone for this PRS, tell us about the way that... I mean how did you get into this whole thing? You must love rock music from the outset.
Romesh Dodangoda:
It started off when I discovered Oasis, who are my favourite band in the world. But they just got me into music and as most people do when they discover Oasis is try and pick up the guitar, and try and play their songs.
Chris Barker:
Guilty here.
Romesh Dodangoda:
That's what happened. They're easy to play songs and that's what got me into it and then as I kind of developed that love for guitar, I started to get into recording then, like recording myself, and then it then became about well how do I get the guitar sounds in my head to come out the speakers? That was kind of the journey for me if you like.
Romesh Dodangoda:
I don't get to play a lot anymore really. I kind of hop on now and again if I need to... If I've got an idea for a part that I want to show. Sometimes if I'm even playing on a song...
Will Betts:
So you're not like Christopher Walken in Wayne's World just going and then ripping out the guitar solo, sort of wading in.
Romesh Dodangoda:
No, it wouldn't be a good solo.
Chris Barker:
You obviously are quite comfortable with stepping back, but a lot of people are kind of like, "Oh, just give it to me. Let me play on the record."
Romesh Dodangoda:
Yeah, I think you've got to balance it. Obviously you want the artist to sound the best they can. There's often times when someone's just struggling with a part and you just know you can do it, and as long as everyone's okay with it, you know. If you need to... But most the time, well obviously, it's more important to try and get the artist to get it done.
Chris Barker:
So, item number four.
Romesh Dodangoda:
Item number four. Okay, it will probably be... Well I've got preamps now because I've got my SSL.
Chris Barker:
Yup.
Will Betts:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Romesh Dodangoda:
I'd probably take... I've got a pair of units called Roger Mayer 456, they are-
Chris Barker:
A pair you say? Is that a bundle?
Romesh Dodangoda:
I'll take one then. Fine.
Will Betts:
Brutal. Absolutely brutal.
Chris Barker:
Sometimes on the podcast when we do the bundle thing, people fight us, and you're just like, "Oh God, okay, whatever."
Romesh Dodangoda:
I'll do everything in mono. That's fine.
Chris Barker:
Yeah, it's back to mono.
Romesh Dodangoda:
But yeah, that unit is incredible. A guy Sean Genockey showed me them a long time ago. Him and another producer friend of mine, David Eringa they kept raving on about these units and their recordings sound incredible, and I was like, "Okay, what are you using then?"
Romesh Dodangoda:
And then I got one, and it's incredible. It's basically a unit that simulates going onto tape and it just does something killer. I always put it on the end of my recording chain before I hit the AD converter, and I don't know what it's doing, but when you turn them off it just doesn't sound as good.
Chris Barker:
Do you actually buy them as a matched pair? Because I think if you're buying them as a matched pair, that's kind of not a bundle, right? You buy mics as matched pairs.
Will Betts:
Oh, hang on. There's a stereo version. There is a stereo one. Maybe not.
Romesh Dodangoda:
I've got the 500 series ones which you don't buy as a matched pair, but I think you'd be stupid not to, because once you get one, you will shortly realise you need another one.
Chris Barker:
Are we going to let it slide, Will? Are we going... It feels-
Will Betts:
I've actually, I have found a stereo version so we will allow it.
Romesh Dodangoda:
Okay, I'll take that one.
Will Betts:
So we will allow it. It is permitted.
Chris Barker:
Just because you didn't fight us, we caved anyway. It was nice.
Chris Barker:
So, item number five. We're racing to... You're going to need a microphone aren't you, Romesh?
Romesh Dodangoda:
Microphone. Okay, it's the one I'm actually using now. It'll probably be a JZ V67. This is a mic that I discovered maybe a year or so ago? It's just blown me away. In here, there's a huge variety of microphones that I've got, U47, U87, loads of stuff. This mic has just beaten them all, a lot of the time.
Will Betts:
Wow.
Romesh Dodangoda:
So yeah, it's probably going to be that. It's very detailed. They did explain to me why, and I don't understand, but it's something to do with the way they make the capsule. It's super clear. I don't have to EQ it very much at all with most singers.
Romesh Dodangoda:
I've been loving them, and they're also great for overheads, and acoustic guitars, and all sorts.
Chris Barker:
And I guess if you've got that awesome Rockfield room, one mic on the drum kit-
Romesh Dodangoda:
Oh yeah.
Chris Barker:
You'll still get an amazing sound.
Romesh Dodangoda:
Yeah, absolutely.
Will Betts:
But this does limit your options slightly with recording. You'd have to... Would you actually get everybody in the room and record the whole band on the single track or are you going to start... Are you going to do them at different points?
Romesh Dodangoda:
Well, you've given me a very limited choice with the six options so I'm going to have to be creative. Yeah, put them all in the room and balance out the sound in the room and see what happens there.
Will Betts:
Like the back of old, old recordings, right?
Romesh Dodangoda:
Yeah.
Will Betts:
Sun Studios. I mean would you actually do that? Would you do that ever? Have you ever done that or are you much more close mic-ing everything. What's your approach there?
Romesh Dodangoda:
I mainly, yeah... I think with the kind of... The sound of records I make I guess, yeah, there's a lot of close mics going on. I'm totally not afraid to not though. There have been times where we just put room mics out, but most of the time, yeah, because especially with drums, I want the closeness of the snare, and the kick, and all that stuff.
Chris Barker:
Do you find yourself doing much in terms of drum replacement or over dubbing, putting amps in boxes and getting them to crazy volumes and stuff like that? Because of the options now, you can approach music recording now in a kind of really, really, cut and paste way if you really wanted to.
Romesh Dodangoda:
Yeah. For me, the whole... The most important thing to me is to get the drums as close as possible at the source. That's hugely important. Whatever it takes EQ-wise, I'll want to get it to sound how I want it to. Definitely. It's rock music. Sometimes I'll augment stuff with a sample or something if I need to, especially if I need a bit more consistency, I'll take hits of the actual kit so I can use those.
Chris Barker:
So you'll drum replace but with the same drums... Just find a perfect instance of that snare?
Romesh Dodangoda:
Yeah, I think the idea though is only if you need to really. I always try and make sure that if I'm doing that then the real mics way in front, I'm not doing a full replacement on anything.
Chris Barker:
What about things like recording to clicks and stuff, because that can... Just the entry point to studio recording for a lot of bands can be quite a different experience. You can be quite a tight band on stage and with your show, and then not be able to deliver in the studio.
Chris Barker:
Looking at... Speaking of Oasis for instance, and a lot of other bands who've got rid of drummers, or have replaced certain musicians because of the studio side of the experience. I mean look at the Foo Fighters.
Romesh Dodangoda:
I find that... I mean, I usually use a click but then we may just use it as a guide but we won't edit straight to it if the music needs to breathe a bit more. I think there's definitely some players who struggle playing to the click and that's probably where the psychology side of being a producer comes into play and there are ways to kind of...
Romesh Dodangoda:
Well I've certainly noticed, if a drummer can't play to... If I've got everyone in the room set up together and the drummer's not able to keep up with the clicks, sometimes, just recording the band as a guide and putting that in their headphones so everyone's not playing, but they're playing to the song, and nothing else is wavering, that seems to help get the drummer to play a lot closer to the click.
Will Betts:
So it's like a rough take, you just do a one pass through.
Romesh Dodangoda:
Yeah.
Will Betts:
As a rough, and then that's your guide for the others?
Romesh Dodangoda:
I've noticed if it's not working with everyone playing together then you can do it that way, or you record them, and you just map. You get your DAW to map out a click according to how they're playing it. That's another option as well.
Will Betts:
I guess I've heard of techniques where it's quite often you might put the metronome on, like that kind of click but double-timing or half-timing the metronome as well. Some people prefer-
Romesh Dodangoda:
Yeah, yeah, totally. And also another cool trick is to use a loop, or like a percussion loop, and you can have the click but then have a loop underneath which is kind of giving a groove or something, and that also helps.
Will Betts:
Yeah, it stops it making it feel so scientific.
Romesh Dodangoda:
But yeah, that's another thing. Like a shaker can be really helpful.
Will Betts:
I was just thinking of tips for people listening that maybe haven't been to the studio yet but are quite accomplished musicians or guitarists. It's kind of like, these are good things for them to try before they go to the studio because it can-
Romesh Dodangoda:
Yeah, I definitely think especially with almost everyone having the capability of having some kind of recording programme at home now. If you are going into the studio, it's totally worth just opening up that recording programme you've got and just practising playing to the click before you go in.
Romesh Dodangoda:
I think the main thing for me, when I'm working with an artist, is if I can spend less time trying to get them to play the part correctly, I can spend more time trying new things out and trying different amps and stuff. If I'm spending all that time just to get them to play the bare part right, that obviously is eating up a lot of time so the more the musician can do at home, the better. The better use of time that you'll make.
Chris Barker:
So where are we now, Will? Is this item number five?
Will Betts:
We've got one left. We've hit five.
Romesh Dodangoda:
One left.
Chris Barker:
Number six, already.
Will Betts:
Yeah.
Romesh Dodangoda:
Okay, it's got to be a compressor of some sort, I think.
Will Betts:
You've got one in the G series though, right?
Romesh Dodangoda:
I have. I have, yeah. Oh, it's a tough one. I think I'm still going to say an 1176, a Blue Stripe 1176.
Chris Barker:
Very nice.
Romesh Dodangoda:
Because I love that on vocals. That's my kind of go to.
Chris Barker:
There is a hack on this, isn't there, Will? We found the... Isn't the 1178 the stereo version?
Romesh Dodangoda:
Ah, the stereo version, yeah.
Will Betts:
Correct, yeah.
Chris Barker:
That was...
Will Betts:
That was Drew, who came up with that.
Chris Barker:
Drew Bang, yes.
Romesh Dodangoda:
Okay.
Chris Barker:
That was his selection. I didn't actually know about the 1178, because you don't see them that often.
Romesh Dodangoda:
Yeah.
Chris Barker:
What's the difference between the Blue Stripe one then?
Romesh Dodangoda:
It's just like... The Blue Stripe was the early revision of it and I think just on vocals it does something to the top end on the high frequencies on a vocal that I can't get out of a Blackface. It sounds more in your face to me. I think there's something with the high mids as well. It feels like it grabs them in a different way to the Blackface ones. So I've always loved that compressor.
Chris Barker:
Do you have that in your studio now or is it-
Romesh Dodangoda:
Yeah, I've got one in the Studio B which I use all my vocals, hit that on the way in, and then when I'm inside the DAW I may even use... UA make a great Blue Stripe plug-in and I may go even further with that again, afterwards.
Chris Barker:
Oh, wow.
Romesh Dodangoda:
I'm a big fan with vocals, we're compressing on the way in because I feel that that gives the singer the sound of that compression, is a more exciting sound than... You get a better vocal performance out of them that way, I think because they're hearing it sounding more exciting as they're singing it. I tend to always track with compression.
Will Betts:
Because you track a lot of bands where there's a lot more aggression in the vocals, should we say. There's a lot more screaming or not singing. Does the 1176 do anything in particular which is useful for that style?
Romesh Dodangoda:
Yeah, I think it's just the distortion it brings in. It just gives you a lot of aggression. I'm certainly not afraid for that needle to be slammed all the way sometimes-
Will Betts:
On the way in?
Romesh Dodangoda:
Yeah, if it sounds good. I'm cool with that. I wouldn't say I'm always doing that. I'm usually kind of, I don't know, 6-8 dB but there are times, if it is doing that, and it sounds good when I'm listening to it, then I'll commit. Especially with anything I'm recording I'm quite a bit fan of just committing on the way in.
Romesh Dodangoda:
Even when I'm mic-ing up guitar amps and I've got multiple mics, I will sum those to one channel and they will be recorded as one. I will get the blend in the recording stage and then commit it down to one.
Romesh Dodangoda:
I find otherwise that you never finish a project because you're always changing the blend later on and it becomes a nightmare to look at because for every guitar part you've got like four channels, it's just... I just want to see one guitar and that's the sound that we loved when recording.
Romesh Dodangoda:
I always take a DI as well, so I have made a wrong choice, that's my kind of undo. I can go back and send it through a different amp, but yeah, I'm more than happy to commit stuff because it makes the mix easier as well. You don't have to do so much in the mix if you've kind of made those decisions in the recording stage.
Will Betts:
Yeah, for sure. And what about some of those... Are there any times where you've done something slightly off-kilter and maybe and committed it and been like uh-oh?
Will Betts:
I saw the other day, you posted something to Instagram which was recording with the tiniest amp I've ever seen. Can you tell us what were you on about? What was going on there?
Romesh Dodangoda:
That was... I'll use those sometimes to fill in a specific frequency space. I think we using it for... We were going from a big section of the song and I wanted it to go really small, and there's nothing smaller than an amp that's this big.
Chris Barker:
What was the little amp though? What was like one of those little-
Romesh Dodangoda:
It's a little Marshall... I think it's an MS-2. It's a microstack with a very expensive Coles ribbon mic on it. But I've done that quite a bit. They're really cool sometimes to like... If you want the song to break down to a really thin sound, sometimes that's a little fun thing to try out.
Chris Barker:
It kind of makes more sense in way than taking a recording of a huge amp and EQ-ing the life out of it to try and make it sound small. It's just...
Romesh Dodangoda:
Yeah. It's kind of the equivalent of high passing the thing, but it sounds different because you're using a very small speaker that can't put out those low-end frequencies anyway. And they're also great sometimes just for, like if there's a big riff or something and sometimes you just want a little nasty frequency just tucked in there somewhere and just do a pass through that.
Will Betts:
You have one luxury item as well. Should we do the run down first?
Chris Barker:
Let's do the run down. Let's picture the scene, Will, for us, and then we can see if there's any last minute changes to the final choices before we move on to the luxury item.
Will Betts:
Okay. We're in the Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles overlooking the smog. The streets are empty, the birds are tweeting, you're looking out over your swimming pool, and then you look to your left, you have a nice big fat Mac, probably the most expensive one, right Romesh? Like the £50,000 grand one?
Romesh Dodangoda:
Yeah, of course.
Will Betts:
Done. You have Nuendo that you're recording into via an Antelope Orion 32, and you're listening back through Yamaha NS-10 monitors. You're mixing on an SSL G series stolen from Metropolis Studio B. You're rocking out with your PRS custom 24 s2 guitar with a Roger Mayer 456 stereo. You're getting the sound of tape before you actually hit your-
Romesh Dodangoda:
Yeah.
Will Betts:
A to D. With the JZ V67 you are recording and for those incredible, rich, vocal sounds, you're using a UREI 1176 Blue Stripe compressor. How does that sound?
Romesh Dodangoda:
That sounds like heaven to me.
Chris Barker:
And it's all inside Rockfield's live room.
Romesh Dodangoda:
Of course.
Chris Barker:
Brilliant. Okay, so luxury item. Luxury item isn't gear related, something that maybe you've always taken to the studio with you. Or something you wish you had in the studio every day and you're like, "Oh, I can't believe we have to go out for this." Have a think about a luxury item that's not a piece of gear.
Chris Barker:
What would you have?
Romesh Dodangoda:
That's not a piece of gear? Yeah, okay. Well I just discovered AeroPress recently.
Chris Barker:
Oh.
Romesh Dodangoda:
A cup of coffee. Yeah, that is incredible. I love that and we have one in the studio as well and I have one at home. So it's probably got to be that because everyone loves coffee in the studio, right?
Chris Barker:
Yeah.
Romesh Dodangoda:
So yeah, I think it'd have to be that.
Chris Barker:
I think the last four podcasts, or quite a few of the last ones have all been coffee. There's something... People are coffee-mad in the studios, but we've had robot baristas so just an AeroPress feels pretty lightweight. I think you've been a good guy there. You haven't asked for some sort of robot baristas like some of our other-
Will Betts:
He's got a $14,000 compressor. It's fine. He can have an AeroPress. I'm cool with that.
Chris Barker:
Yeah, it's fine. Absolutely fine. Nice, well, that's the Forever Studio. Yeah, you think you can work there? I think you can work there. It sounds pretty good.
Romesh Dodangoda:
It'd be a struggle but I think I could, yeah. Nah, that sounds great to me.
Chris Barker:
Yeah, I think our six item studio isn't necessarily the perfect experience for somebody that has how many guitar heads I can see behind you now. Like, 10?
Chris Barker:
So what's coming up for you next? Are you back recording in this current climate? Are you managing to get bands in? Have you got stuff booked?
Romesh Dodangoda:
Yeah, I'm mixing a US artist at the moment. We're just coming to the end of mixing on that record. I'd been quite busy because I run an audio community online called Control Room so I've been quite busy with that because we have Q&As with producers and stuff in there, we do a lot of things, so that's kind of kept me busy.
Romesh Dodangoda:
Obviously in these current times, I still have artists coming in here, but done as safe as we can. Those three things kind of keep me busy.
Will Betts:
Excellent.
Chris Barker:
Okay, well, Will, all that's left to say is thank you so much for coming on the show.
Will Betts:
Thank you, Romesh.
Romesh Dodangoda:
Thanks for having me.
Chris Barker:
No worries, and hopefully, I feel like it's a bit of a downer because you've ended up with less gear than you have now. I mean for some people who come on the podcast they get to get items that they... Yeah.
Chris Barker:
I suppose you've got the SSL, the SSL I mean-
Will Betts:
It's fine, you can do a lot with that.
Chris Barker:
Nice, well thank you so much Romesh.
Will Betts:
Cheers.
Chris Barker:
When things get back to normal we'll come and see you in person.
Romesh Dodangoda:
Definitely. Thanks for having me.
Chris Barker:
Okay, thank you so much Romesh for coming on the show and thank you to our friends at Guitar.com and to you, the listeners for listening. It's been excellent fun.
Will Betts:
If you've enjoyed this podcast, we've got heaps of fantastic people lined up. All of whom, we will, of course, be coercing into building their fantasy Forever Studio within our strict but completely arbitrary guidelines.
Chris Barker:
That's right, indeed. We've got loads of great guests from International superstar DJs like Claude VonStroke and Mason, to Grammy Award winning producers and engineers including Austen Jux-Chandler, Riton, and Alex Metric.
Will Betts:
We're back every Tuesday and next week we have dance music producer Tensnake.
Chris Barker:
So don't miss that and also, subscribe, follow, share, tell your friends, send us fan mail.
Will Betts:
Yeah. Send us fan mail. That's fun.
Chris Barker:
Will's not convinced on the fan mail but yeah. We'll be shouting "No Bundles" and trying to upsell some dreams every Tuesday, so until next time, goodbye.