Recorded on location at London’s legendary Strongroom Studios, Will and Chris ask Strongroom’s Technical Manager Jake Murray and Studio Manager Brendon Harding (Little Simz, Ghostpoet, Loyle Carner) to jointly envision their Forever Studio. Will these knowledgeable studio engineers be able to compromise on just six bits of studio gear to use for the rest of time?
Chris Barker: Hi, I'm Chris Barker.
Will Betts: And I'm Will Betts, and this is the MusicTech: My Forever Studio podcast.
Chris Barker: In this podcast we'll be speaking to producers, studio engineers, and fellow gear heads about their dream studio.
Will Betts: They'll choose their dream location, describe the studio vibe they're going for, and crucially the six pieces of gear that they will have in the studio forever.
Chris Barker: Yes. Those are the rules. They get a computer, an audio interface of their choice included. Then they will choose six pieces of gear and one non-gear related item for the studio, so sort of a luxury item.
Will Betts: This time we are at the historic Strongroom in Shoreditch, London to have a little chat with studio manager Brendon Harding and technical manager Jake Murray. As well as running the studio, both Brendan and Jake are engineers themselves.
Chris Barker: That's right. Before joining Strongroom, Brendon was head engineer and studio manager at Red Bull Studios in London for eight years and then has been instrumental in setting up programmes designed to get women into music production. He's worked with the likes of Little Simz, Jessie Ware, Ghostpoet, Loyle Carner, and loads, loads more.
Will Betts: Jake, meanwhile, came up as a freelance engineer and has worked across London with a focus on instal, including the re-fit of Paul Epworth's The Church Studios. He's now technical manager at Strongroom, a studio with more credits than you can shake a stick at. The singles from Jilted Generation were mixed here, FKA Twigs, Bjork, Skrillex, Depeche Mode, Nick Cave, Radiohead. The list goes on.
Chris Barker: Yep. So there's a lot to talk about, but here we go. This is MusicTech Magazine's My Forever Studio with Brendon Harding and Jake Murray.
Will Betts: Welcome.
Brendon Harding: That was really good. I enjoyed that. Thanks.
Chris Barker: So you heard some of the rules there. First thing we need to do is choose, and there's going to be a bit of an argument. This is the first time we're doing a duo.
Jake Murray: Don't worry. We argue a lot.
Chris Barker: Where are you going to put this studio?
Brendon Harding: It's not going to be in Helsinki?
Jake Murray: No.
Will Betts: Why not?
Jake Murray: No. Well, we thought you were going to pick for us, and I thought-
Chris Barker: No.
Jake Murray: ... you were going to say Helsinki for some reason.
Will Betts: Why? Why would you pick Helsinki of all places?
Will Betts: It's a location.
Chris Barker: Would that affect the other choices?
Jake Murray: What's wrong with Helsinki?
Jake Murray: 24 hours of sunlight.
Will Betts: Oh, perfect.
Brendon Harding: And 24 hours of darkness.
Jake Murray: All right. Don't be negative.
Chris Barker: Two albums a year. That sounds like.
Will Betts: It's a double album. Every album is a double album. Starts really well, gets really sad.
Jake Murray: Well there we go. We've got our model. It's a concept album studio in Helsinki.
Brendon Harding: As a niche.
Chris Barker: You've both worked in various studios, and I'm sure not just full-time, but you've visited many studios and gone to events at studios and visited art studios, are there any particular ones where you just thought this is the spot?
Brendon Harding: Do you know, I just saw a picture that Fraser T. Smith posted on Instagram the other day, because he's leaving the Matrix, and I went to see that room. I've only been there once I went to see Manon [Grandjean], who's his engineer there and I genuinely thought that was the perfect control room for me. It was just the right size. You could fit enough people in there but you could still have two separate conversations. It was great for vibe ... loads of space to put stuff.
Chris Barker: Where is it?
Brendon Harding: It's in Matrix Studios in Fulham.
Jake Murray: So you've got anywhere in the world and you've chosen Fulham?
Brendon Harding: No. I'm just saying that's probably my favourite control room.
Chris Barker: So we've got vibe maybe.
Brendon Harding: I'm going to go for Jamaica.
Jake Murray: I knew you were going to say Jamaica. It's too hot for me though. So if we're doing this, I can't go to Jamaica.
Will Betts: We need a compromise place, then don't we?
Jake Murray: Look, it's been ... what's the temperature been recently?
Chris Barker: Kingston upon Thames.
Jake Murray: Thirty degrees in London recently?
Brendon Harding: Kingston upon Thames.
Chris Barker: It's a compromise.
Jake Murray: It's been 30 degrees in London this week, and I had to hide in the studio in the air conditioning, so Jamaica's not going to work. We need to find a middle ground.
Brendon Harding: Okay, so if 25 degrees all year round.
Jake Murray: Perfect. Love it.
Brendon Harding: Okay, so that's?
Jake Murray: London.
Jake Murray: No.
Brendon Harding: South of France?
Jake Murray: Studio La Fabrique?
Brendon Harding: South of France?
Jake Murray: That could work. South of France.
Brendon Harding: Okay.
Jake Murray: Maybe.
Brendon Harding: Well I'll go for South of France.
Chris Barker: Some Chateau in the south of France maybe?
Brendon Harding: I'll take that.
Chris Barker: Yeah.
Brendon Harding: Yep.
Jake Murray: Do they do good vegetarian cuisine in the south of France?
Brendon Harding: Mate, we've got a luxury item, that should be the Chef.
Jake Murray: Oh.
Chris Barker: Wait. Hold your horses before we get there.
Brendon Harding: But we could get one.
Jake Murray: Ooh.
Will Betts: But you can't sell them on that thing if you've got something else as your additional item. You need to be close to what kind of food?
Brendon Harding: Vegetarian.
Jake Murray: Non-meat.
Will Betts: Non-meat. Okay.
Chris Barker: France might not be a strong choice.
Jake Murray: Yeah, that's what I was thinking.
Chris Barker: Quite a carnivorous country.
Jake Murray: Well you don't eat dairy. France is terrible for you. How are you going to live there?
Chris Barker: Scandinavia seems like the option for good vegetarian rooms.
Will Betts: Helsinki it is.
Jake Murray: If we've got to live there forever, we've got to be able to feed ourselves and our clients, who will also be vegetarian.
Brendon Harding: What clients?
Chris Barker: So your forever studio is going to be a commercial facility that's the plan.
Jake Murray: Oh that's a point, are we going-
Chris Barker: Because it doesn't have to be, it could be just you two guys in Jamaica.
Brendon Harding: Or the South of France?
Chris Barker: Yeah.
Jake Murray: South of France.
Brendon Harding: I think South of France would make a-
Chris Barker: Okay.
Jake Murray: Okay. Let's stick with South of France. It's green, it's warm, it's lovely.
Brendon Harding: Exactly.
Jake Murray: It's close to England if we get lonely.
Brendon Harding: Exactly. There's wine.
Will Betts: End of sentence.
Jake Murray: Brendon needs wine. Brendon's discovered wine recently, now he needs wine.
Brendon Harding: Yep. So, yeah I'd go-
Jake Murray: Okay, I'll meet you in the middle.
Brendon Harding: As a middle ground.
Jake Murray: Yeah, let's go South of France.
Brendon Harding: A middle ground South of France.
Will Betts: South of France.
Brendon Harding: Tick.
Will Betts: Tick.
Will Betts: The next question is, this isn't one of your six. Which DAW do you use?
Brendon Harding: Pro Tools on a Mac.
Jake Murray: Yeah. But-
Brendon Harding: What do you mean, but?
Jake Murray: Because it was-
Brendon Harding: Where's the-
Jake Murray: ... something you said a minute ago that made me start thinking, right.
Brendon Harding: Where's the but?
Jake Murray: Now, if you say it's two guys making tunes all day, and we got to do MIDI instruments and synths and get creative, I'm not doing it in Pro Tools.
Jake Murray: I'm going to do Ableton. But I want to engineer in Pro Tools. Can we do both?
Chris Barker: No.
Will Betts: No.
Jake Murray: But Ableton's not a DAW.
Brendon Harding: They're twins over there. That was great, "No."
Chris Barker: No.
Jake Murray: Ableton's not a DAW. I don't think it's a DAW.
Will Betts: Oh, I think Ableton would have something to say about that.
Chris Barker: Feel free to have that as one of your six items but the DAW is free, so.
Jake Murray: You call it a DAW?
Chris Barker: Well, it doesn't have to be-
Brendon Harding: To be fair.
Chris Barker: I'm happy for it not to be DAW but then it will be in your six items, so.
Brendon Harding: It is.
Jake Murray: I just don't see it.
Brendon Harding: It really is, it really is.
Jake Murray: I just don't see it as being the same.
Chris Barker: Those are the rules guys.
Brendon Harding: Do you work with digital audio in it? Yes. It's a digital audio workstation.
Jake Murray: It's so much more creative than that though.
Chris Barker: It just depends what you want for free. This is free this one.
Will Betts: This is a freebie. Yeah, this is-
Jake Murray: Free?
Chris Barker: So you can have Ableton or you can have Pro Tools but if you want one of them later on.
Jake Murray: Pro Tools is more expensive, let's go for Pro Tools.
Will Betts: I don't ... This is a dream studio you realise, price is not-
Brendon Harding: Forever.
Chris Barker: Yeah.
Will Betts: Money is no object.
Jake Murray: But you said for free?
Brendon Harding: Yeah.
Jake Murray: Okay. Let's stick with Pro Tools because then we're both happy.
Brendon Harding: Yeah.
Jake Murray: Because we can both work in Pro Tools all day.
Brendon Harding: Yeah.
Jake Murray: So we're recording or mixing then.
Jake Murray: Yeah, okay.
Chris Barker: Yeah. Doesn't new Pro Tools work with MIDI well?
Jake Murray: I think it's just a bit uninspiring-
Brendon Harding: I've not used the new one.
Jake Murray: ... to do anything musical with it.
Brendon Harding: I mean we've got forever. So-
Jake Murray: We can find the vibe.
Brendon Harding: We can find inspiration in Tools. There's no rush, evidently.
Jake Murray: All of time to make music in Pro Tools.
Brendon Harding: Yeah.
Jake Murray: Okay.
Will Betts: Yep.
Chris Barker: Okay. So we've got Pro Tools on a Mac.
Jake Murray: I do like Pro Tools.
Chris Barker: So the next thing, which is a free item that you can choose is the audio interface for that.
Jake Murray: Burl Mothership.
Chris Barker: Yeah?
Jake Murray: Done. Easy.
Chris Barker: And why that interface? You must have tried many, many interfaces during your careers.
Jake Murray: I just really rate them. I love the sound of their conversion. They're doing something interesting. I like Burl. Let's go for that.
Jake Murray: I just I think part of it is you don't necessarily need to have HDIO's anymore. I know you often say and think that, you don't really think that we need to be-
Brendon Harding: No.
Jake Murray: ... [crosstalk 00:07:41] as we used to.
Brendon Harding: Yeah, native is fine.
Jake Murray: Yeah, native's fine.
Brendon Harding: Nine times out of 10.
Jake Murray: And I think I guess because I love the sound of the Burl. And that's the multi-channel version. Let's go for that.
Chris Barker: Cool.
Brendon Harding: Fair enough.
Chris Barker: No arguments there from Brendon as well.
Brendon Harding: No, I mean [crosstalk 00:08:01] in my experience it was either going to be an Orion, an Antelope Audio or Linx Aurora-
Jake Murray: Linx Aurora is another one.
Brendon Harding: Yeah, or something like that. Just because they're good, they're small.
Jake Murray: Yeah.
Brendon Harding: And sound fine, sound great, but I'll take a Burl Mothership.
Jake Murray: Yeah, well just-
Brendon Harding: Modular.
Jake Murray: ... get them all in and then try them out.
Brendon Harding: Exactly.
Jake Murray: But it's probably going to be the Burl.
Chris Barker: Okay.
Brendon Harding: Yeah.
Will Betts: I mean you can't do that because you've only got one.
Brendon Harding: Yeah.
Will Betts: [crosstalk 00:08:28] You can't get them and try them out, you've got to just pick it.
Jake Murray: Yeah but can't we demo-
Will Betts: No, you've got to pick now.
Jake Murray: I demo everything [crosstalk 00:08:31] before I get it though. Fine.
Brendon Harding: But you have demoed the Burl, you like the Burl, so.
Jake Murray: Yeah, fine, fine. I think we're going to commit to Burl.
Will Betts: Okay.
Chris Barker: That's your free-
Jake Murray: We did go with South of France so we can go with Burl from those.
Brendon Harding: Yeah.
Will Betts: It's give and take, isn't it this relationship?
Brendon Harding: Yeah.
Jake Murray: Yeah.
Chris Barker: Those are the three items gone.
Brendon Harding: Fine.
Chris Barker: So I would assume the next time you would need, it's not for free though. So it's going to take one out of your six.
Brendon Harding: Yeah.
Chris Barker: You're going to need some monitors or some headphones, you're going to need to hear some things, so.
Brendon Harding: Well, I'll go straight in. The six luxury items should just be six, Neumann FET 47s.
Chris Barker: And no speakers. Nothing to hear it.
Will Betts: He drives a hard bargain.
Jake Murray: That's all he wants.
Chris Barker: No monitoring.
Brendon Harding: I mean you can barter me down.
Chris Barker: You can just tell from seeing the waves in Pro Tools.
Brendon Harding: You can barter me down, but I'm going to start there.
Jake Murray: Now, what is it? Twenty past. We've now got 40 minutes of trying to get Brendan to release even one FET 47.
Brendon Harding: Why though?
Brendon Harding: No, we've just been hiring new runners and one of the questions I've put to them is, if you could only have one microphone what would it be?
Chris Barker: And if they don't say FET 47 they don't get the job.
Jake Murray: Yeah it's not happening.
Brendon Harding: Here's the door.
Jake Murray: He's got a good point though.
Brendon Harding: Obviously with runners, their experience with microphones is relatively minimal. So a lot of them said SM7B or relatively smaller stuff. But for me, I always loved FET 47, and I think you can record anything with it. And it sounds good on anything. So that's why I always go with FET 47.
Chris Barker: Jake, are you going to let him have one of those at least, though?
Jake Murray: No, because we've done this exact debate on the FET 47 for a few weeks now, he's actually won me over the FET 47 is probably the most versatile mic you'll get in the room.
Chris Barker: But you are going to need something to hear [crosstalk 00:10:21].
Brendon Harding: Fine. Yes.
Chris Barker: Fine.
Jake Murray: Yeah, I'm going to-
Brendon Harding: Jake can do monitors.
Jake Murray: I am quite limited on mics.
Brendon Harding: Because I think you've listened to a lot more than I have.
Jake Murray: Yeah. It's going have to be either ATC SCM25's or the Kii Threes, but I don't know which one. I find that the Kii's have done really, really well since we've started using them and I work faster on them. If I'm mixing on the Threes, my mix is done in half the time.
Chris Barker: Wow.
Jake Murray: Because I can hear everything I need to hear, but it doesn't sound ugly and surgical. I think I'm going to go with Threes because also you said it's whatever we want, money no object. Give me the Kii Threes, let's go. They'll be really happy with that.
Chris Barker: Just on that point, though. I think it's interesting how every time you think you've found like, I know these monitors, I've done interviews with people, engineers for years and producers for years. And they'll be like a new set will come out and it's like, "These are the ones, these are the ones," and then the Kii's have done that all over again.
Jake Murray: Yeah.
Chris Barker: Because they're relatively new and do you think that can continue this continual of breaking down boundaries of monitoring technology?
Jake Murray: Just technology, people will continue to work on what's been done and innovate further. And that's just always going to happen.
Brendon Harding: It's just making things smaller.
Jake Murray: Yeah.
Brendon Harding: No, but it is, but what we ask of speakers now is completely different now to when speakers were first designed. Do you know what I mean? Speakers started out really big, and then we've gotten smaller and smaller because the rooms that we've got available have gotten smaller and smaller, but we still expect them to do a similar job.
Brendon Harding: That's why the Kii's are working really well because you've got full-range sound in a smaller format box. I think that in the same way that processes will get smaller and smaller up until a finite point. Phones were getting smaller and smaller and now they're getting bigger and bigger, so it's just a technological advance.
Chris Barker: I mean but a speaker must have to be pretty impressive for a studio like Strongroom, for you to go. Yeah, let's-
Will Betts: Let's make a switch.
Chris Barker: Let's make the switch from what we've got already, because what you have already must be really good at that point, so.
Jake Murray: Yeah. We talked about that a bit earlier, when we were showing Will around in Strongroom two. We relaunched two at the end of last year and I demoed pretty much every major manufacturer of monitoring you could think of, and I almost went for the Adam's. PMC's were on the shortlist, there's tonnes ... we just tried everything that we could. And there was a lot of people talking about the Kii's and trying to get me to try them. And I eventually did put them up and they just were exactly what we needed. Some monitors that we tried they worked with some of the older recordings but not the modern pop production stuff didn't feel right.
Jake Murray: Although some of them was the other way around, pop stuff sounded great, but they were too hyped and you couldn't really feel like you're working on them accurately. When the Kii's came in, it just easily sounded transparent and clear and just obvious what was going on. And the transient details amazing, the stereo imaging was great. And it was underwhelming, how good they were actually I was after trying so many pairs of monitors, I thought, okay, I'm ready to fight these because everyone's talking about them and I'm a bit of a contrarian and apparently an expensive contrarian as well.
Jake Murray: And I said to Jed to just leave them with me. Okay let's buy them. Let's go. Let's do this.
Chris Barker: So for people [crosstalk 00:13:50] that don't know about the Kii's, they're a relatively modern speaker. I don't think we've reviewed them yet in MusicTech, probably one is on the way. But they are a dream studio item, like most of the people listening to this. It's not a home studio purchase for most people is it?
Jake Murray: No.
Brendon Harding: No.
Jake Murray: They're what £5000, £3000 pounds something like that a pair?
Jake Murray: 11000 Euros a pair.
Chris Barker: There we go yeah. There we go. Yeah, yeah.
Will Betts: Yeah. That's dream studio territory.
Chris Barker: Yeah. That's a dream studio. Yeah. I need some security [crosstalk 00:14:14]
Brendon Harding: There in the bracket of Barefoots.
Chris Barker: Yeah, yeah.
Jake Murray: I was sceptical of the price and of the hype but it was also new hype. They still haven't quite reached mass market, they're still something that people who are obsessed with monitoring are talking about, not people who are buying them for every single studio.
Jake Murray: I became interested in them and when I heard them, that was kind of what did it for me. But I didn't have a wow effect. I've always been an ATC guy up until I heard these, and I still am and still do favour ATC's in most rooms but that was a one-off shot that we got and they work so well. Normally I would consider ATC's the best you can get, but it's just something different. They're different speakers.
Jake Murray: You could easily have both in the same studio and it'd work well, just like in there we still have the main monitoring, the boxes in the wall, and I, when I'm working now will alternate between the boxes and the Kii's because we've got old traditional Farfield's and then the Kii's which are modern, full range, all about the clarity. And working between the two makes a lot of sense. But yeah, they're great.
Will Betts: And do you find you have to monitor against anything else additionally? Like an NS10 or anything like that?
Jake Murray: I'm just going to say this, NS-10s are unusable.
Chris Barker: Yeah, they're not going to be in-
Brendon Harding: End podcast.
Chris Barker: They're not going to be in the forever studio.
Brendon Harding: Not in ours.
Jake Murray: We've got NS-10s in every room and in [Strongroom Studio] Two. We've got them in there with a QUAD 405 and a really good sub as well from BK Electronics. They're matched really well – feels great –As NS10s go, I'd say they're the most listenable they can be. But why would you buy a speaker that sounds bad?
Jake Murray: Just to justify that you've listened to it on a worse sounding system. If you want to hear a mix on something that isn't studio speakers, play it on your phone, that's where everyone else is going to hear it. There's no point getting an NS10 anymore. It's £500 for a bad sounding speaker, I'm not doing it.
Brendon Harding: I think they're becoming less of a requirement.
Jake Murray: Yeah, it's pointless now.
Brendon Harding: I think because there is so many options for monitors now. People are getting used to different types whereas before it was where you could only make music in the studio you needed a constant that would work across rooms. And I get why NS10s are necessary still, to a point, but I think they're becoming less, increasingly less necessary.
Chris Barker: I guess especially if people are putting them with Bryston's or with subs, from room to room, they're becoming less of the same monitor anyway.
Brendon Harding: Yes. Yeah.
Jake Murray: You're having to do so much with them to make them fit in a space. Why don't you just get a DAB radio over there or play a mix on your laptop. Play on your phone. I'll check on all different speakers in the studio, then I'll listen on my headphones on the bus home.
Jake Murray: I'll walk around in the courtyard with it playing on my phone speaker because that's how someone's going to hear it. They're going to be watching a video on their mobile phone. It's got to sound good that way, then if you can hear your kick, your base, your vocal on a mono-speaker on a phone. It's the same thing that people were using S10s or Aura 10s for. It's just how many people have already Aura 10s or S10s at home?
Chris Barker: Yeah. Or hi-fis at home.
Will Betts: Yeah.
Jake Murray: They're meant to be book shelf speakers, right? [crosstalk 00:17:19] They're meant to be there for people because they were cheap range speakers that would have been in someone's living room. Never seen a pair of NS10s in anyone's living room ever.
Brendon Harding: No.
Will Betts: No.
Jake Murray: They're pointless.
Brendon Harding: And if I did, I'll be like, "Oh, come on."
Jake Murray: Yeah.
Brendon Harding: Come on. [crosstalk 00:17:32] It's like have you ever seen somebody walking down the street in like a DT 100s and you're just like, oh, come on.
Jake Murray: Desperate times.
Brendon Harding: Dudes. Dudes.
Will Betts: Get over it.
Brendon Harding: Honestly, you do see that though, don't you?
Will Betts: I see it.
Brendon Harding: And they're like, "Oh, these are studio headphones." No, no, no.
Will Betts: Yeah. Yeah. No.
Jake Murray: They served their purpose.
Will Betts: They're for drummers.
Jake Murray: They're done.
Brendon Harding: Yeah, maybe the guy was a drummer, walking down the street with his DT. Maybe he forgot. He'd left the studio and he kept them on.
Will Betts: It's a kind of drummer thing to do. To be fair.
Brendon Harding: So that's one item down.
Will Betts: Okay.
Brendon Harding: Are we counting the FET?
Jake Murray: Two.
Jake Murray: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Will Betts: Two down.
Jake Murray: Two items done.
Brendon Harding: Four to go.
Will Betts: Rapid.
Jake Murray: So we've got a studio in the South of France running Pro Tools with Burl Mothership, FET 47 and Kii audios. This is a good studio.
Brendon Harding: Man, we're banging. It's banging.
Jake Murray: I'm liking this studio. Can I propose the next obvious one?
Chris Barker: You're going to need a pre, aren't you?
Brendon Harding: Obviously, I think we should have a desk, at which point we would have a shit tonne of pre's.
Chris Barker: Yeah, you can do that. [crosstalk 00:18:23]
Jake Murray: I'm a desk person, very much so I think we can skip the pre thing and just go to a console.
Brendon Harding: Okay, console.
Chris Barker: Hacking the system as well, you get your EQ's, you get your pre's, you get loads of stuff.
Brendon Harding: Exactly, yeah.
Chris Barker: All in one item.
Brendon Harding: G series, 4000 G Series.
Jake Murray: Vintage new.
Brendon Harding: I knew we were going to have this conversation. I knew this was going to come up.
Jake Murray: We can meet in the middle for a [inaudible 00:18:50].
Brendon Harding: No, let's not do that. Let's not do that.
Jake Murray: Okay.
Chris Barker: So tell us reasons why about both first. Like Brendon said, why the 4000 G series?
Brendon Harding: I mean I've just used it. That's-
Jake Murray: It's been the desk you use.
Brendon Harding: That's what I've used all through my career.
Jake Murray: Same as me for a VR.
Brendon Harding: So that was always my experience.
Chris Barker: So, if you had to sell your choice to Jake and vice versa, then you've got to do that. Because yes, you've used your whole career but why the [crosstalk 00:19:20]?
Brendon Harding: Don't get me wrong-
Chris Barker: Is it just laziness, you don't want to learn a new console? Come on.
Brendon Harding: Neither of them are bad desks.
Jake Murray: No.
Brendon Harding: And we've got forever. So I could learn [crosstalk 00:19:32] and so can Jake. See what I mean?
Jake Murray: I'm kind of happy using this G Series, it sounds great. I think it's a bit boring on the pre's, and someone's going to kill me for saying that, but-
Will Betts: You've only got one mic though, so.
Jake Murray: Yeah. But a FET 47 sounds good on everything, so.
Brendon Harding: Exactly. Yeah. And my pre choice was going to be a manly VoxBox.
Jake Murray: Ooh. That's an interesting idea, but why would you need a pre if you've got a desk? We've only got one mic.
Brendon Harding: We've only got one mic, so just have some fun.
Jake Murray: Why do we have a desk if we've only got one mic?
Brendon Harding: So we can mix.
Jake Murray: Yeah. Yeah fair.
Will Betts: That other thing that you guys do.
Brendon Harding: Yeah. The other thing, yeah.
Jake Murray: Yeah. The thing I prefer doing, okay.
Brendon Harding: I love how you completely missed that. "What are we going to need a desk for?"
Will Betts: "What are we going to need a mixing desk for?"
Brendon Harding: Oh yes, yes, yes, that.
Jake Murray: Well what about ... we were talking about API's recently, do we want to meet in the middle and get an API?
Brendon Harding: No.
Jake Murray: No?
Will Betts: Why?
Jake Murray: He's not having it on the API?
Brendon Harding: Well because if ... do you know API's?
Jake Murray: Yeah. Not really.
Brendon Harding: I don't know APIs, why would you pick something... We're already in the South of France.
Chris Barker: I suppose at least if you choose a Neve or the SL you can teach each other if you know that desk inside out, whereas if you don't have a desk you don't know how to use-
Brendon Harding: I'm happy with the VR. I'll take a VR. Again, neither of them are bad options.
Chris Barker: Toss a coin?
Brendon Harding: It's not like we're SAE again where you get like, "Oh, well, if you like ... I like the Neve-
Jake Murray: Ah yeah.
Brendon Harding: ... or I like the SSL, you know."
Jake Murray: How binary.
Will Betts: It's like the Sharks and the Jets is it?
Brendon Harding: Yeah. Just it's like, "I'd never track anything on an SSL. Track on a Neve and mix on an SSL." And you're like, "Mate, get over yourself."
Chris Barker: He says, walking out the studio with his DT 100s on.
Brendon Harding: Which half a million pound mixing decks you want to record or mix on? Oh, what a problem to have.
Jake Murray: What a problem to have.
Brendon Harding: Fuck's sake.
Brendon Harding: So I'll take the VR. It sounds great.
Jake Murray: Are breakdowns a thing? Is component-level fixing a thing? Do we have to do maintenance on this console?
Brendon Harding: Is everything functional at all times? [crosstalk 00:21:37]
Chris Barker: It'll be functional forever.
Jake Murray: Functional forever [crosstalk 00:21:39]. There we go. That's the apprehension that both of us have is that we've run the VR and we know what's going on there. So if it's ... if technical upkeep is not a thing: VR.
Brendon Harding: Also because I'm not going to ... I'll learn a desk. I'm not going to learn Tech. So would be you having to do all of the servicing, and me just polishing a FET 47.
Jake Murray: You can do all the booking.
Brendon Harding: Yeah.
Jake Murray: Fine. Yeah, cool we'll do a VR.
Brendon Harding: Okay, a Neve VR.
Jake Murray: Wicked. Bit weird they're having a big Neve VR in just Kii Three is on the ... can we get the BXT full-range Kii's?
Brendon Harding: Yeah.
Jake Murray: Yeah. [crosstalk 00:22:16] The Kii's are going be the with the BXT extension.
Chris Barker: The whole shebang.
Brendon Harding: Yeah.
Jake Murray: Because we're going to need full-range speakers.
Chris Barker: Whole shebang.
Jake Murray: Yeah, yeah. There we go.
Brendon Harding: Yep.
Jake Murray: Yeah, so we got the [crosstalk 00:22:26].
Chris Barker: What about sounds? You're just going to wander around the south of France with a FET-
Brendon Harding: [inaudible 00:22:32]
Chris Barker: ... recording the sounds of nature?
Brendon Harding: Exactly.
Will Betts: I love that you land into the mic to do that as well. That was great.
Brendon Harding: Well, I hadn't thought about back line.
Chris Barker: Otherwise you've just got the-
Brendon Harding: Arrangements.
Chris Barker: ... instruments that are in Pro Tools and that's it.
Brendon Harding: Oh, that's not the dream.
Chris Barker: Unless you're both Bobby McFerrin.
Jake Murray: Well hang on. This comes back to the thing though. Are people going to come in that we're going to work with or is it just-
Chris Barker: Sure.
Jake Murray: ... Brendon and Jake super band in the south of France?
Chris Barker: You can choose that. So I guess you can bring people in.
Jake Murray: I mean, I still have some back line if we went, but it takes off a lot of pressure-
Brendon Harding: Yeah.
Jake Murray: ... if we are recording everything with one FET voice.
Jake Murray: I mean we could do it. It'd be slow, but it's doable. Drums and one FET 47.
Brendon Harding: I've done it.
Will Betts: Disco drums.
Brendon Harding: I've done it.
Jake Murray: The man's done it.
Brendon Harding: It worked once. It didn't the second time. But it would definitely work once.
Will Betts: If you're into music production, you should also check out MusicTech magazine. In this month's issue we share 100 tips from the pros on songwriting production, mixing, recording and loads more.
Will Betts: We also give you our verdict on the Moog Matriarch. Two mics from newcomers Austrian Audio, and we also try out the Behringer VC340 Vocoder.
Will Betts: In our interviews we talked to up and coming house producer, Cody Curry, about process and ping pong. We find out about London producer O'Flynn's sampling approach. And we have a stack of tutorials for Logic, Cubase, Live, Reason and Studio One.
Will Betts: You'll find all that and more in this month's issue. Subscribe now and MusicTech.net.
Jake Murray: We've got three left.
Brendon Harding: So we've got a desk, we've got speakers and we've got one microphone.
Will Betts: One microphone.
Jake Murray: I think we should put 1176 on there.
Brendon Harding: 1176 or LA-2A?
Will Betts: I like the way you said that.
Jake Murray: 1176.
Will Betts: The way I'm hearing that it's like you're conferring on University Challenge. Like, "What's the 1176?"
Brendon Harding: Yeah. Jake's just going for the ASMR ... audience.
Brendon Harding: LA-2A.
Brendon Harding: Buy an LA-2A.
Brendon Harding: Because I started out loving 1176s, and then I came to find the joy that is in LA-2A.
Jake Murray: Yeah.
Brendon Harding: And-
Jake Murray: They're both good.
Jake Murray: Let's come back to that.
Will Betts: Come back to it.
Brendon Harding: Okay.
Chris Barker: Okay.
Jake Murray: We have to mull on that one.
Brendon Harding: Conundrum. Okay.
Jake Murray: I don't know.
Chris Barker: Maybe other choice as well. Influence that.
Jake Murray: I think every decent studio needs a piano somewhere.
Will Betts: Yeah, I was going to say piano.
Jake Murray: Every studio needs a piano somewhere.
Will Betts: I was going to say piano.
Chris Barker: Upright, grand, baby grand?
Brendon Harding: Grand.
Jake Murray: Upright.
Brendon Harding: Really?
Chris Barker: I love that the fact that you two are just counter opposites on every single thing so far.
Brendon Harding: That's mental.
Chris Barker: Helsinki. Jamaica.
Chris Barker: SSL. Neve.
Chris Barker: Grand. Upright.
Brendon Harding: [inaudible 00:25:30] Forever studio? Forever.
Jake Murray: Too flashy.
Brendon Harding: Too flashy?
Brendon Harding: Says the Neve VR over there.
Jake Murray: I really like the sound of uprights. I really like the sound of uprights.
Brendon Harding: We've got forever to work out how to make an upright ... oh, how to make a ground sound good with one FET 47.
Brendon Harding: We've got time.
Jake Murray: Stick it under.
Jake Murray: I mean I wouldn't be averse to a grand I wouldn't have a problem with it. I like grands, but if it's do you want to grand or an upright? I'm probably going to go for an upright.
Brendon Harding: Well I ceded to you on the VR. So I'm-
Jake Murray: This is how this works by the way is democracy.
Chris Barker: So somebody's now going to get 1176 after this I think.
Brendon Harding: Well, and you got the monitors as well so.
Chris Barker: Yeah.
Jake Murray: But you got the 47.
Brendon Harding: Yeah I'm getting two now.
Jake Murray: That's fine as long as we get three each. It's fine.
Brendon Harding: Yeah. Yeah.
Chris Barker: Okay.
Brendon Harding: I've come done from-
Chris Barker: Upright piano.
Brendon Harding: No.
Jake Murray: What grand?
Will Betts: Oh, we're going grand, are we?
Chris Barker: Going grand.
Jake Murray: [crosstalk 00:26:34] Which grand though? You want to get Steinway? Where do you want to go? [inaudible 00:26:37]
Brendon Harding: I would say a Steinway. But-
Jake Murray: It's your grand.
Brendon Harding: Again for my sins I've not tried a huge amount of grands. There aren't that many rooms.
Chris Barker: So off the top of your head to expert engineers at Strongroom studios, if you did have one FET 47 and a grand piano. Where would you put that?
Will Betts: Yeah.
Jake Murray: I would open the top up and [crosstalk 00:27:08]
Chris Barker: Mic the room?
Jake Murray: Somewhere kind of near the middle. Find the sweet spot between the strings, the hammers, the low and the high.
Chris Barker: So you'd go on the piano and you'd sort of mic the room. You'd more mic the piano, get close.
Jake Murray: Yeah.
Jake Murray: But depends on the song.
Chris Barker: Oh, okay.
Jake Murray: Depends on the song.
Brendon Harding: But also, yeah, with one mic you've got to ask it to do everything so you've got to ask it to be a spot mic and a room mic-
Jake Murray: You've got to figure it out.
Brendon Harding: ... so it's always going to have to be a compromise. Ultimately, does it sound like a piano?
Brendon Harding: Yes.
Jake Murray: Yeah.
Brendon Harding: Sweet.
Chris Barker: And you don't have any headphones so it's going to be annoying going backwards and forwards.
Jake Murray: Yeah, but I'll be in the control room-
Chris Barker: Okay.
Jake Murray: ... and he'll be in the live room.
Chris Barker: Doing this.
Jake Murray: And sometimes he'll be in the live room and I'll be in the control room.
Chris Barker: Okay.
Brendon Harding: Yeah.
Brendon Harding: Shouting at each other.
Brendon Harding: [crosstalk 00:27:50] We should've got an SSL! Just bickering the whole time.
Will Betts: Forever.
Jake Murray: Doors open.
Chris Barker: Okay, so that's good. We got the grand. So are we ready to revisit the 1176 versus LA-2A? Now we know we're going on the Grand, would that affect the choice the fact that you're mic'ing the grands?
Brendon Harding: Now that we're at this point, if we've got a FET 47 and then Neve VR, what sits better in between the two? LA-2A tubes, 1176 no tubes?
Jake Murray: I'm more inclined to go for the 76. See with the Neve pre you can smash it and then get lots of cheap saturation as well. It might be a bit overkill for some stuff. Then 76 at least you don't have to go too hard or you can go too hard and just absolutely destroy it.
Brendon Harding: Yeah.
Jake Murray: I've had more good results with the 1176 than I have with an LA-2A, but maybe that's just because I'm not as good an engineer as you.
Will Betts: On what though? On a piano specifically or on just everything?
Jake Murray: I don't think I've tried an LA-2A on a piano. Have you?
Brendon Harding: No.
Jake Murray: Well, there you go. Neither of us have tried LA-2A on a piano.
Will Betts: The 1176 it is.
Jake Murray: We've got some homework.
Brendon Harding: You've got forever to figure out.
Jake Murray: You've got forever to figure it out.
Chris Barker: Okay, so we're going to go for that? 1176?
Brendon Harding: Yeah. Yeah.
Brendon Harding: So we've got one thing left.
Jake Murray: Have we?
Will Betts: Yeah, and technically that's you, Brendan.
Chris Barker: If you want it to be fair.
Brendon Harding: Ooh.
Will Betts: If you want it to go three and three. If you want to give him four. And he has double what you have in the studio.
Jake Murray: Well we can still talk it out a bit. Let's be reasonable. Let's not be [inaudible 00:29:26] about this.
Brendon Harding: Yeah.
Brendon Harding: I mean I'm inclined to reinstate my second FET 47.
Chris Barker: Oh god.
Brendon Harding: But I feel like I might be banging the same drum. I mean we don't have a drum kit. I mean there are so many things that we don't have right now.
Jake Murray: Yeah.
Brendon Harding: We don't have headphones.
Jake Murray: Yeah.
Chris Barker: [crosstalk 00:29:50] But do you guys play instruments? Would you want your own instrument in there beyond the piano? I mean do you play pianos, guitars individually.
Jake Murray: I can't play drums. As much as I love them, I can't play them for shit, so I'm not going to be-
Brendon Harding: We've got forever to live.
Will Betts: [crosstalk 00:30:06] Yeah, you'll be banging around in that studio for ages.
Brendon Harding: Yeah.
Jake Murray: But then is it one drum or is it drum set?
Chris Barker: We'd allow you a drum set.
Jake Murray: A drum set.
Jake Murray: See I think I'd rather have some sort of synthesiser than a drum kit.
Brendon Harding: Fairlight.
Jake Murray: I was thinking that new Moog. The Moog One.
Brendon Harding: Ooh. Going new.
Jake Murray: 'Cause it's everything. Well I thought about this. I thought, ah it's got to be a model D, and I thought ah but it's only mono. If I ever want a poly, what am I going to get? I was like, oh they've done a new poly and it sounds wicked.
Jake Murray: So maybe I'd go for that. I don't know. But then also the sound of Moog's quite specific. You could go for a Profit. It depends what you want to do. Do you want something versatile?
Will Betts: What do you want to do?
Jake Murray: I don't know what I want to do. This is the planning of this studio in Helsinki.
Will Betts: I'm pretty sure in the south of France, but it's fine.
Jake Murray: [crosstalk 00:30:55] Turn the air con down.
Brendon Harding: Yeah.
Jake Murray: And just close the lights off. Close the shutters. You'll think you're in Helsinki.
Brendon Harding: No.
Jake Murray: It could be anything. A chair even.
Will Betts: That'd feel like that would be a luxury. Like an additional item.
Chris Barker: I think we'd give him a chair.
Jake Murray: [crosstalk 00:31:09] A stool maybe at least.
Will Betts: You can have a stool.
Chris Barker: Otherwise some of our other guests previously have-
Will Betts: Oh they've, yeah-
Chris Barker: We've not let on that and they've-
Will Betts: They've assumed.
Chris Barker: They've got a Slush Puppie machine and then-
Jake Murray: A Slush Puppie machine.
Chris Barker: ... didn't realise they have to stand up drinking it all the time.
Chris Barker: So I think chairs must be included.
Will Betts: [crosstalk 00:31:32] Okay, fine, fine.
Brendon Harding: Yeah, I think furniture should be a thing.
Jake Murray: What else has been given away? By the way, in the past podcast episodes?
Brendon Harding: Don't you worry [crosstalk 00:31:43] about this. Don't take him through it.
Jake Murray: No, I want to know what else we're getting in this arrangement.
Will Betts: You push on me. You push the boundaries we'll tell yeah.
Chris Barker: Trying to hack the system there. I mean, the rules.
Brendon Harding: No, because we've strayed onto luxury item again.
Jake Murray: [crosstalk 00:31:53] Okay let's go back. Let's go back-
Brendon Harding: The last six.
Jake Murray: ... to functional-
Brendon Harding: Let's finish the six.
Jake Murray: ... so we've got a desk, we've got speakers, we've got a FET 47, we've got 1176, we got a piano.
Brendon Harding: Yeah.
Jake Murray: Tape machine?
Brendon Harding: For my sins, I've never used tape.
Jake Murray: Well then-
Brendon Harding: I missed the tape era.
Jake Murray: Let's get an Ampex ATR-102, and you've got forever to learn.
Brendon Harding: Okay.
Will Betts: Yeah? No extra plugins or anything in software realm?
Brendon Harding: From Moog One to tape machine.
Jake Murray: If you record it properly, it will sound good.
Brendon Harding: Yeah, that's our modus operandi.
Chris Barker: Yeah.
Jake Murray: Yeah.
Chris Barker: And the only thing they'll be recording is a piano.
Jake Murray: To tape.
Chris Barker: In mono. Through [crosstalk 00:32:30] 1176.
Jake Murray: That's going to be a damn good sounding piano. And monitored on the keys, so you're going to hear the [crosstalk 00:32:39].
Will Betts: You've found your niche. Surely.
Brendon Harding: Yeah, the problem is-
Jake Murray: The people in the south of France are going to come to us.
Brendon Harding: The problem is it's going to be one of us playing it.
Jake Murray: Well we've got forever to get better.
Chris Barker: That's life.
Brendon Harding: Anybody else coming in? Like friends and family?
Jake Murray: Well I think it's gonna be-
Brendon Harding: Anyone else coming who can bring their own stuff?
Jake Murray: Yeah, I think anyone else is going to be coming in, but no one's going to be carrying a grand so you're right. But people will drive a drum kit in a van.
Brendon Harding: Yep. Yep. And they will also bring additional microphones and the headphones.
Jake Murray: Yeah, we'll ask them really nicely.
Brendon Harding: Yeah.
Chris Barker: Okay, we've got-
Jake Murray: We'll ask them really nicely to bring some headphones with them.
Brendon Harding: We've got good friends like that.
Jake Murray: Well hang on a minute. We personally, as individuals, have headphones. The studio is separate, right?
Chris Barker: Okay.
Jake Murray: We've got our own things. We've got our own headphones.
Brendon Harding: Ooh, he's gone meta.
Will Betts: What are you using? What are your personal headphones you'll be using the studio?
Jake Murray: I mean I've just got some M-
Brendon Harding: DT-100s.
Jake Murray: Yeah, I can't ... my personal headphones are [inaudible 00:33:32], so that's not going to work for a session.
Will Betts: It's a hygiene issue.
Jake Murray: Well, I-
Will Betts: I mean not to disparage.
Jake Murray: With my earnings in this lucrative studio, I will purchase some personal headphones.
Brendon Harding: Yeah.
Jake Murray: And I'll ... I don't know what I'll get, but we'll figure that out along the way.
Brendon Harding: Yeah once we've nailed the mono piano market.
Chris Barker: So we've got the studio rigs.
Brendon Harding: Yeah.
Chris Barker: Now you get your non-gear related luxury item for the studio.
Jake Murray: I thought of this earlier, and I don't know what you're going to say.
Brendon Harding: Go on.
Jake Murray: Big window. [crosstalk 00:34:04] Really big window.
Brendon Harding: Hmm, no.
Will Betts: Thank kind of goes in with the studio bit.
Jake Murray: Really?
Will Betts: Yeah, you have a window.
Chris Barker: [crosstalk 00:34:07] Yeah, yeah we'll give you that one.
Brendon Harding: Yeah, that's design. [crosstalk 00:34:09]
Will Betts: You're allowed a window.
Jake Murray: We're allowed a window.
Brendon Harding: That's design. We can handle that. [crosstalk 00:34:11]
Jake Murray: I've been to a lot of studios that don't have windows and having been here for years and used to having windows in every studio, I'm not going back.
Chris Barker: So let's go back. Before the luxury item, we can do a bit of décor-vibe kind of chat. So you can have windows in the studio, and it's going to be in the south of France. What's going to be on the other side of the window? Is it fields? Is it a cliff edge? Is it a lake? Is it sea? What's there.
Jake Murray: Trees and a river.
Chris Barker: Trees and a river?
Brendon Harding: Yeah. I was going to say a lake, but I actually like-
Jake Murray: Well the river can trickle onto lake. Yeah.
Brendon Harding: ... trees and a river that goes to a lake.
Jake Murray: Yeah, there we go.
Chris Barker: Okay.
Brendon Harding: It's some natural life. We want to see birds and stuff.
Jake Murray: And we can drive 20 minutes to the nearest town because I ain't being lost and stranded. I want to be able to get back to humanity as well.
Brendon Harding: Yeah.
Chris Barker: [crosstalk 00:34:52] Everybody that knows Strongroom knows it has a vibe. If you don't know Strongroom, Google it and you'll see that it definitely has a vibe. It's a visual vibe and a vibe of the studio.
Will Betts: Google image is our friend.
Chris Barker: Yes.
Jake Murray: Instagram, too, followers.
Chris Barker: Obviously there's studios that look like spaceships. There's big plastic-y white studios. There's basement studios. So what's the vibe of your studio? You've got the window, you've got the trees, you got the lake. What's the inside like?
Chris Barker: Is it all wooden and natural or are you going quite modern?
Brendon Harding: I would go wood.
Jake Murray: I'd probably go for some kind of wood. I'd still like colour in there for sure.
Brendon Harding: Yes, definitely.
Jake Murray: It'd still have to be somewhat colourful. But it doesn't have to be an assault. Like this room, for example, that we're in is probably the more natural end of Jamie's work in decor in SL4, where it kind of fades into the background. If you look at it, you're like wow, that's kind of inspiring. But if you stop looking at it, it goes away as well.
Brendon Harding: Yeah.
Brendon Harding: You don't have to look at it.
Jake Murray: Yeah, yeah. Some of the rooms here at Strongroom Jamie has done a little bit more of that and some of them are very loud. And I think you know if we went for something that was kind of like this, and it doesn't have to be like this, but you know colour-
Brendon Harding: But like a creative space.
Jake Murray: ... some kind of design, creative element in a nice natural wood with wildlife outside.
Chris Barker: Because some studios they can have the wood, but they can still feel like an office. Can't they? Some studios. You know-
Jake Murray: It can't feel like an office. It can't feel like an office.
Brendon Harding: I would also ban colour change LEDs.
Jake Murray: Yes. They're awful. Particularly if you've spent a lot of time choosing the colours for your studio.
Brendon Harding: And we've got forever to tweak it.
Jake Murray: Yeah, and we'll have [crosstalk 00:36:26] a lot of paint in case we're fickle.
Brendon Harding: Yeah.
Will Betts: You're going to ban those outright? Is that what you're saying?
Brendon Harding: In our studio.
Will Betts: In your studio.
Brendon Harding: Forever people. That's perfectly acceptable. That's just a matter of taste. My and I think Jake's taste is that-
Will Betts: They should be eradicated from the universe.
Jake Murray: Abolition.
Brendon Harding: Have we strayed into room 101? There's a lot we could put it that.
Jake Murray: The only studio you'll find at Strongroom with coloured lights is the white one. All the others, it's just plain natural lighting more or less. Blinds for the windows. That's it. That's fine.
Jake Murray: If you have people just getting lost doing all kinds of Las Vegas lighting, it just becomes sickly. It's not pleasant.
Brendon Harding: Right time, right place.
Chris Barker: Now it's the luxury then. Now it's the kind of the non-gear related [crosstalk 00:37:11] or the item for the room. You know it could be something like a fridge full of something nice or you know.
Brendon Harding: Popcorn machine.
Jake Murray: Whoa, no.
Chris Barker: In south of France?
Jake Murray: Too unhealthy.
Brendon Harding: Unhealthy?
Jake Murray: Yeah.
Brendon Harding: You make it yourself. [crosstalk 00:37:22] It can be as healthy as you like.
Jake Murray: You don't have to rinse it in sugar.
Brendon Harding: Salt-bet it.
Will Betts: You can salt-bet it. Just a sprinkle.
Jake Murray: Oh speaking of sorbet, we've been hammering the ice cream recently. Maybe we-
Brendon Harding: Ooh.
Jake Murray: ... should have a gelato machine.
Brendon Harding: A gelato chef.
Jake Murray: When we're done here, we should go and get ice cream because we've got a-
Chris Barker: Okay, we're done.
Will Betts: It's been great, guys.
Brendon Harding: Yeah.
Jake Murray: Yeah, no, we have got some banging ice cream. We should get gelato.
Brendon Harding: Shut the front door. We should do a gelato chef.
Jake Murray: Yeah, gelato chef. Oh, not even just a machine. An actual gelato chef. We're talking like Willy Wonka gelato.
Brendon Harding: Well, then why don't we just have a banging chef full stop?
Jake Murray: Yeah, actually just a great kitchen and a great chef.
Brendon Harding: Let's not limit this to just gelato.
Jake Murray: Yeah because they might not want to do gelato everyday.
Chris Barker: Okay.
Jake Murray: They might want to spend forever-
Will Betts: Don't force them.
Jake Murray: ... honing their skills.
Chris Barker: You can choose a celebrity chef. Then it's something that people know. One celebrity chef. That's your luxury.
Jake Murray: Don't say Heston Blumenthal.
Brendon Harding: I wasn't gonna say Heston.
Chris Barker: Who's the studio chef?
Brendon Harding: I'm just trying to-
Chris Barker: It's got to appeal to your guests as well if you're bringing people into record.
Jake Murray: I don't watch television so I don't know any celebrity chefs apart from that one.
Brendon Harding: It's got to be someone like [crosstalk 00:38:22]-
Jake Murray: And the angry guy.
Chris Barker: [inaudible 00:38:23]
Jake Murray: Gordon someone.
Brendon Harding: Gordon Ramsay.
Jake Murray: Yeah, and-
Chris Barker: Well, I guess it doesn't have to be a celebrity. It could be-
Brendon Harding: So in touch.
Will Betts: Someone you know.
Jake Murray: Can't we ... I'm going to be lame, but can't we just have our families there?
Chris Barker: Ooh.
Brendon Harding: That's not a luxury item. That's just standard.
Jake Murray: But ... yeah. Okay, that's fine. I don't know who's going to be the chef.
Brendon Harding: Like we're going to need other people to talk to.
Jake Murray: Well they'll get sick of talking to us as well, so they can talk to the chef.
Brendon Harding: Yeah, exactly.
Will Betts: So a chef slash counsellor. That's what we're after.
Jake Murray: We all need that.
Brendon Harding: Yes.
Jake Murray: I think everybody can benefit from that.
Chris Barker: That is your mum, isn't it? A chef slash counsellor.
Will Betts: Sad face.
Brendon Harding: Yeah. I don't know I want a celebrity chef.
Jake Murray: Yeah.
Brendon Harding: Because-
Jake Murray: Too much ego.
Brendon Harding: Yeah, it's like a lot of-
Jake Murray: We've already got a lot of ego going on.
Brendon Harding: Yeah.
Will Betts: Also you don't want people coming for the chef and then forgetting the studio exists.
Chris Barker: Well you might need people to come for the chef because they've got a piano recording mono and that's it.
Jake Murray: How many studios have you drawn up on this wish list game, where they've had more than one microphone?
Chris Barker: Nobody's had microphones other than it being in the box producers.
Brendon Harding: Ah.
Jake Murray: Ah.
Chris Barker: So nobody's recording [crosstalk 00:39:29].
Jake Murray: This is so ... they can't record anything!
Chris Barker: Nope.
Will Betts: No.
Jake Murray: Boring.
Chris Barker: No.
Jake Murray: Yeah, come back when you've got another sound engineer.
Brendon Harding: All right, Jake. Just ... it's okay. We're not trying to piss the industry off.
Jake Murray: I feel like I've got-
Brendon Harding: We still have to-
Jake Murray: ... I've got a reputation for that though.
Brendon Harding: We might not make friends through this podcast, but let's not lose any.
Jake Murray: Yeah, okay great.
Chris Barker: Okay.
Brendon Harding: First do no harm and all of that.
Will Betts: Chef.
Brendon Harding: No, I'm down for a chef.
Chris Barker: Okay.
Jake Murray: I like it.
Brendon Harding: Like chef for like fully-stocked kitchen.
Jake Murray: I like to eat as well as I can.
Brendon Harding: Yeah.
Jake Murray: And we both have dietary requirements.
Brendon Harding: Exactly, yeah.
Jake Murray: So actually that solves the south of France problem.
Brendon Harding: Yeah, exactly.
Brendon Harding: You-
Chris Barker: Oh, the high five.
Jake Murray: The high five. That's it. It's signed.
Chris Barker: All right. There it is. So Will run us through what we've got as the final forever studio.
Will Betts: We have a studio in the south of France, running Pro Tools on a Mac with a Burl Mothership converter. One FET 47 for mics. For your monitors, you have Kii threes and the BXT extension, which is ... yeah. You've gone bold there. It's a rich one.
Will Betts: Console Neve VR. Processing you have an 1176. A Steinway grand. An Ampex ART-102, and a chef.
Jake Murray: Sounds like such a good studio.
Brendon Harding: I'm hungry.
Chris Barker: There we go, right.
Brendon Harding: I feel like we have just basically taken Studio La Fabrique and minimised it.
Brendon Harding: We've just condensed-
Jake Murray: Strongroom La Fabrique.
Brendon Harding: Condensed Studio La Fabrique into a niche mono piano recording market.
Jake Murray: It is a wicked studio.
Chris Barker: Yeah, there we go. Well, thanks very much guys.
Brendon Harding: Yeah.
Will Betts: Cheers, guys.
Jake Murray: Thank you.
Brendon Harding: Thank you.
Jake Murray: Thank you.
Will Betts: If you're enjoying the podcast, make sure you subscribe using your favourite podcasting app. And also think about rating and reviewing music text my forever studio. Don't forget to check back every Thursday for new episodes. Thanks for listening.