May 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Eddie Ciletti

TALKING TECHNOLOGY WITH RICHARD DODD

I first met Richard Dodd in August of 1999 in Kooster McAllister's Record Plant Remote truck. That night, he was recording Tom Petty playing the Target Center here in Minneapolis. The show had already begun when I walked in with a friend. We simply enjoyed what could have been a studio recording — that classic Petty sound all the way. When I commented, “Nice-sounding desk,” Dodd turned around, surprised to hear an American call this custom-made API console a “desk.” He revealed that he was using a whopping two highpass filters, plus a few compressor/limiters — including his fave 1176 — on Petty's lead vocal.

During his career, Dodd has engineered and/or produced projects for a wide range of artists, including the Little River Band, George Harrison, Joan Baez, Roger Daltry, Del Shannon, Roy Orbison, Joe Cocker, Ringo Starr, Boz Scaggs, Sheryl Crow, Green Day, Keith Urban, Johnny Cash, ELO, the Traveling Wilburys, Red Hot Chili Peppers, John Mellencamp, the Dixie Chicks — the list goes on and on. All that — and Carl Douglas' 1974 hit, “Kung Fu Fighting” — makes for quite a varied discography. He's also an in-demand mastering engineer.

To keep himself busy between studio projects, Dodd has developed “The Motone^™.” Slated for commercial release this summer, this analog processor is designed to “reintroduce the ‘tone’ or ‘sonic soul’ to what could be called well-intentioned but wrong recording techniques.”

Since our first meeting, Dodd and I have exchanged a few e-mails, the most recent of which was coincidentally timed with this month's focus on Nashville — the place this transplanted British engineer calls home.

On the Petty live recordings, you had essentially no EQ. Is that typical for you when tracking?
Yes, very, especially when recording “people in places.” The musicians, instrument, tempo, arrangement, environment, microphone choice, placement (of player and mic), mic preamp, headphone mix and attitudes all play a more significant part than any other “gear” factor.

When you work in the digital domain, are you bouncing stuff to/from the analog world, as in capturing your outboard “to tape” after the fact?
I have Motone, which helps me a great deal as far as the “je ne sais quois” factor. My oldest friend and brilliant — well, quite good — engineer, Peter Coleman, typically works at a studio two doors away from me (Treasure Isle). He uses a RADAR 24-track digital recorder and an analog console with moving-fader automation. During the mix, Peter will selectively bounce back to a Sony/MCI 24-track. His mixes are easy to master and always sound great. I do it much less frequently, and I use my ½-inch ATR 102 more often than my Studer A800 Mk1 24-track. Although they both sound great, the 102 offers a slightly better signal-to-noise ratio and that sometimes becomes the deciding factor.

You're doing all sort of projects — recording, mixing and mastering — that come in on many formats, analog and digital.
Work arrives on everything, ranging from my favorite digital format — FireWire hard drive — to DVD, my least favorite. Digital masters arrive on iPods, thumb drives, CD-Rs, DigiDelivery and other Internet storage/transfer sites. The one that amazed me the most was a cell phone! Most analog tape masters coming my way are half-inch 30 ips, followed by half-inch 15 ips, quarter-inch and 1-inch. I'd say that 95 percent of masters arrive in a digital format, and 10 percent of those go through tape during mastering.

What are your issues with DVD?
On a Mac OS X platform, I encounter failures mostly from DVD+R discs. I'm searching for a compatible reader that can cure DVD-R problems. I have not yet been able to find a reader that's compatible with all of the sources I get. The combinations of OS platform, media, burner, reader and user create the problems that I encounter. I strongly advise all to use a backup media other than DVD. Anyone with kids can see how delicate that media is in the real world.

When you work with analog, what tape are you using? Do you have a favorite tape, speed, tape/machine combo, EQ? Bias tricks?
In mastering, I have a good supply of older Agfa, BASF/Emtec brand to fill my needs for a few years. When I work elsewhere, I ask what “older tape” is available from the studio's stock. If I'm forced to use the “newer” production runs of tape, I will opt for ATR; the other stuff is totally unprofessional rubbish. As for alignment, the usual tricks apply. Nothing new here, just a slight high-end lift on record.

An exception? When I use an old tube tape machine (Studer C37), I create my own curve. As this particular machine was only available at a maximum speed of 15 ips — 18 ips if you don't change the AC frequency — I opt for the CCIR curve and modify that a little further. I can run good tape — Agfa or BASF/Maxima 900 — to their maximum potential that way, that being a 2dB drop in HF EQ on playback and a 3dB or 4dB rise on record. It's not flat, but sounds fantastic in some cases. For everyday use, I have a wonderful ATR 102 with quarter- and half-inch head stacks, the half-inch being assembled by JRF and has extended playback response, while the quarter-inch stack is stock.

What monitors do you use? How many different monitors?
In my studio, I use Martin Logans as my main set, with ProAcs as a ref. I'm also getting used to Sennheiser 650 headphones for an extra ref as so much music is now listened to on headphones. When I travel, I take or use the ProAcs. I'm also happy to use the original Yamaha NS-10s. ATC is making some very good self-powered, near-field monitors now; they're a bit pricey, but, short of talent, monitoring and environment are the most important parts of any setup. If you can't hear it, you can't judge it.