Bombay Live Studios: Prathmesh Dudhane on Building a Studio Around Genelec

Q: Can you give some background to your self?

I am a mix and mastering engineer based in Mumbai, India, and I have been working as an engineer for the past 17 years. I have done a lot of commercial work, including advertising, with around 3,000 ads so far.

Q. Can you tell us the function of the studio – what work do you do here?

When I started my career, I was doing a lot of live sound, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would. Within three or four months, I realised that this wasn’t something I wanted to do, so I moved into a studio as a recording engineer for ads.
Now, I do a lot of music mixing and mastering for films, independent musicians, labels, and film scores. I also do a lot of recording for sound design for TV commercials and films.
Some of the projects I did had music that was played in stadiums, clubs, smaller portable speakers, and cars.

Q: Why do you think the room and the monitors are the most important thing in a studio?

A lot of guys think monitors do everything, but they don't do anything on their own. The first thing I would say is that the most important thing in a studio is having a good acoustically treated room with the right monitors, ones that tell the truth.
Then you learn in that room. With every project, you study, you get better, and you make mistakes, as many as you can. That, I feel, is the most important thing for your growth and your work. You can do a lot of stuff in the box, but if you don't know your sound, you won't know what to do. If your monitors don't translate well, you're not going to trust them, and they're not going to do the job for you.

Q: Were there any challenges in creating/upgrading the studio, and how did you overcome them?

I build my first studio in 2020. I had Genelec 8340s there, along with the same subwoofer, the 7370, that I use today. I faced a lot of challenges while building that room. I was new into acoustics and during the pandemic there was none available to help me. I had some understanding because I had assisted on a few projects, so I basically knew how things were done, but not in a technical way.
So, during the pandemic I attended a lot of online masterclasses. Genelec was conducting online sessions, and I attended most of them. Whenever I had questions, I emailed them, and the team helped me with many of them, including how to design my room properly in terms of its proportions, height, width, and overall form factor. They guided me throughout the process.
Then Shiv, who is also a Genelec distributor here in Mumbai, India, helped me a lot with choosing the right monitors and understanding their tonality and overall character.

Q. Which speakers/subwoofers have you opted for in the studio build/upgrade?

In the main studio, I have The Ones 8351B and 8010 along with 7370 subwoofer. In the second studio I have a pair of 8330 and a 7350 subwoofer.

Q: Why do you think the 8010s work so well for you along with big monitors?

Mostly, 70–80% of commercials are going to be heard on portable speakers, phone speakers, laptop speakers, or earphones. The waveguide and the drivers are so small, yet they do their job exceptionally well. The mids and highs are so close to each other that they almost act like a coaxial design. It's such a well-executed design. They're very directional and extremely precise. Down to 100 Hz, you can blindly trust these speakers.

In any room, I would say that every music composer and producer should own a pair of 8010s, especially if they travel a lot. These speakers are going to stay with me forever, even after retirement. I'll probably still be carrying them around wherever I go. They're incredibly compact, which means you can take them anywhere and still get your work done. They're very lightweight, easy to handle, and surprisingly powerful.

Q: What made you choose the 8351s and the coaxial design for your own space?

When I made this studio room, I didn’t have any issues because I had already gone through that process of making mistakes and doing things. I was very sure that with this size and form factor, and this much height and all, I wanted to go with 8351s and the coaxial design. Mainly, I wanted that forwardness and definition that the three-way monitor has and 8351 sounds very immersive for some reason, and I don’t know how they have done it, but it’s as if you are sitting in the song and you feel the sound
In my work, it’s not just about listening. There’s a lot of psychoacoustics also involved when mixing songs. I like a lot of that physical impact. I like to feel that sound on my knees, my toes, my gut. It starts interacting with your body, and I think 8351s do the job bang on!
With every project I worked on and the more time I spent with them, I started trusting them a lot more. Obviously, this became my primary brand.

Q. What difference does Genelec technology make to your workflow/end results generally?

Since my early days in the studio, I’ve only worked on Genelecs. They have defined sound for me. It has given me that definition of sonics and sound where I can now say, “I know what it sounds like.” These monitors are very true, very transparent, and very brutal. They’re very in-your-face and straight. They don’t lie. They’re very true. Whatever you’re doing, you’re getting an image of what you’re doing.

Q. Can you recall a moment where your monitoring made a real difference?

No I cannot recall any moment as such, it’s been almost 17 years of experience, and all the studios I have worked in in the past have had Genelecs. So technically I have only worked on Genelecs.
Genelecs have defined my sound and shaped my career too. It’s my only reference point now.
But lately, for recording sessions, I have been freelancing at other studios too. Some have different brands but I never mix in those studios. Once my recording is done. I take my session back to my music studio and finish my final Mixing and Mastering there. Because I only trust my Genelec monitoring.

Q. Whats your top tip to someone starting to build their home studio?

My top tip would be that one should measure the room dimensions properly. The height, width, and length of the room. Choose the correct location. It should not be very noisy outside.
And then first plan your acoustics according to the budget. Because the room acoustics are extremely important. Accordingly, choose your monitors depending on the size of the room after considering acoustics. One should surely try and demo the monitors and then pick the right monitor that suits the room. It's very important to pick the right ones.
With all the experience I have, I always recommend Genelecs to everyone, because even if anything goes wrong with the room acoustics due to a lack of expertise or budget, the GLM software is very helpful to fix the problem in the room and calibrate the room properly. It’s very easy to understand and use.