Dante: So why the change of venue for the recording of your debut album 'I Need An Angel'?

Kamanu: I had booked the Sydney studio because my cousin recommended them but they pulled the pin at the last minute because some other big name act with more pull than us got the time slot.  We were offered some time a fortnight later, but meanwhile Jake, our bass player had this wild-arsed idea of just doing it in his garage studio.

Dante: But you had concerns about the quality?

Kamanu: I had recorded in a pro studio before using Pro Tools and loads of racks so thought it was the way to go, but Jake played me a couple of demos that he had produced on this 'Scope' system and they sounded great for a garage job.  So we decided to give it a shot.  We spent the cash on an ADAT converter, studio monitors and a RODE microphone.  We have no regrets now, since I had no idea before then about Jake's production skills.

Dante: So how did Jake's studio compare to the Sydney facility?

Kamanu:  At first I was skeptical, the gear in Jake's garage looked surprisingly sparse, so I thought we had made a compromise due to circumstance.  But as the first track started to be mastered and we could hear it on the monitors, I was quickly having a change of heart.  The sound was just so full and crisp.  How was Jake getting a sound that was anywhere near the thousands of dollars worth of gear in pro studios out of his computer and a bit of outboard ?

Dante:  So he explained the concept of DSP?

Kamanu: Yeah, although I was familiar with some of the Pro Tools stuff, Scope was a real eye opener.  Jake said we wouldn't get the quality of a true pro studio due to them using higher sample rates etc., but to me the quality was amazingly close.  Plus we gained so much flexibility creatively, not being under the pump time-wise.  A couple of tracks we were able to come back a few days later with fresh ears and re-master.  A costly exercise if we were in a Sydney studio I can tell you.