Workflow, decision-making, and real-world manufacturing perception from Dan Weller
Verify Out The Dan Weller Course Right here: https://www.kohleaudiokult.com/programs/djent
Once we arrived at Dan Weller’s studio, it was instantly clear this was not a room constructed to impress on paper. It’s a area designed to assist selections. Each piece of substances exists for a cause, each structure selection displays how Dan truly works, and nothing feels decorative.
It is a fashionable manufacturing setting within the truest sense, compact, intentional, and constructed round momentum relatively than mythology. Dan’s profession path, from guitarist and founding member of SikTh to producer and mixer for artists resembling Enter Shikari, Bury Tomorrow, Caskets, and Holding Absence, explains precisely why the studio feels the way in which it does. It’s a musician’s room that occurs to be technically wonderful, not the opposite approach round.
A studio constructed round circulation, not friction
Dan’s room is primarily a mixing and post-production area, nevertheless it stays versatile sufficient to trace when wanted. There may be sufficient distance between the listening place and the performers to maintain perspective, and sufficient area for bands to be current with out hovering over each transfer.
That stability mirrors Dan’s broader method to manufacturing. He’s deeply conscious that creativity evaporates when workflow turns into clunky. Every little thing within the room is wired, prepared, and predictable, permitting him to maneuver rapidly with out second-guessing the setup.
Guitar manufacturing as a sensible craft
Dan’s guitar setup displays years of real-world use. A Diezel VH4 anchors the rig, supported by different trusted heads which have earned their place by way of reliability relatively than novelty. A switching system retains every thing reside, letting him evaluate tones immediately and transfer by way of songs in actual time relatively than freezing creativity into inflexible phases.
Whereas amp simulations are very a lot a part of his fashionable workflow, Dan nonetheless values the texture of an actual amplifier. When he does use heads, he typically pairs them with a reactive load relatively than operating loud cupboards within the room. The benefit is not only quantity management. A reactive load preserves the bodily response of an amp underneath the fingers whereas providing the flexibleness of impulse responses later.
As Dan factors out, one actual cupboard offers you one sound. A reactive setup paired with high-quality IRs offers you a lot genuinely usable choices, which may be the extra good selection in a manufacturing context. The hot button is restraint and intent.
Avoiding sameness in fashionable manufacturing
We talked brazenly about why a lot fashionable heavy music can find yourself sounding comparable. Dan traced it again to durations the place shared presets and equivalent beginning factors dominated workflows. Total information lived in the identical tonal area as a result of they had been constructed from the identical templates.
Right this moment, the instruments are higher than ever. The problem is just not functionality, it’s style. Dan is evident that individuality begins with the band. If the music itself is adventurous, manufacturing decisions can comply with. If the track wants a useful, stable basis, then chasing novelty for its personal sake often works towards it.
His personal tonal references nonetheless embody the information that formed him early on, Metallica’s Black Album, mid-90s Pantera, guitar tones with weight, readability, and authority. These information endure as a result of they’re bodily and emotional, not as a result of they adopted guidelines.
Monitoring that tells the reality
Monitoring is without doubt one of the most revealing elements of the studio. Dan makes use of Kii Audio cardioid screens, designed to undertaking ahead with excessive focus whereas minimising room interplay by way of DSP and section management.
His response to them is refreshingly trustworthy. At first they will really feel virtually unsettlingly clear. Then you definitely realise why they matter. They permit selections you may belief, nevertheless additionally they reveal each downside. That stage of transparency may be mentally demanding, which is why Dan nonetheless values smaller, extra characterful audio system alongside them.
Totally different audio system supply totally different views. Studying to handle that shifting notion is a part of the job.
The psychological facet of blending
Probably the most worthwhile discussions through the go to had nothing to do with gear.
Dan spoke candidly about ear fatigue, confidence swings, and the hazard of infinite tweaking. His answer is deceptively easy. A timer.
He works briefly, targeted blocks and stops when the timer ends, even when he’s mid-move. This exterior self-discipline prevents spiralling, sharpens intuition, and avoids the entice of fixing issues attributable to drained ears. It’s a reminder that productiveness is usually about boundaries, not effort.
A vocal chain designed to take away doubt
Dan’s vocal chain exists to eradicate uncertainty. After in depth shootouts, he dedicated to a high-end tube microphone paired with a Tube-Tech CL 1B and a Chandler RS124-style compressor.
The CL 1B stays revered for a cause. Dan describes its defining high quality as management with out apparent artefacts. You may hit it exhausting with out pumping, with out the audible “tail” that provides compression away. The Chandler provides weight and density with out sounding like an impact.
The result’s confidence. When the seize is true, you cease questioning the gear and focus totally on efficiency and emotion.
Devices with historical past and goal
The guitars within the room inform tales. Longstanding PRS devices from early label days sit alongside fashionable studio instruments, together with EverTune-equipped guitars for periods the place tuning stability is essential.
Dan is pragmatic in regards to the trade-offs. EverTune can subtly have an effect on really feel and tone, nevertheless in a studio setting it may be the distinction between a usable take and a misplaced day. The purpose is just not ideology, it’s getting the job performed.
A piano that invitations concepts
Probably the most musical components of the studio is a 1977 Yamaha U3 upright. Chosen from a room stuffed with supposedly equivalent pianos, it stood out instantly for its tone and character.
It additionally features a silent MIDI retrofit, permitting Dan to seize acoustic microphones and MIDI concurrently. This preserves the texture of an actual instrument whereas opening inventive doorways later. It’s a good instance of Dan’s philosophy, use know-how to assist concepts, not change them.
From expertise to schooling
Dan’s journey, from listening to Metallica within the early 90s, choosing up guitar at 15, forming SikTh, and studying manufacturing inside actual studios lengthy earlier than on-line tutorials existed, explains his resistance to inflexible guidelines.
Expertise taught him that perfection is just not the aim. Impression is. If somebody needs to listen to the track once more, you could have performed your job.
That pondering now feeds immediately into an upcoming course with Kohle Audio Kult. Titled The DJENT Mixing Ritual, the course revisits SikTh’s A part of the Friction in a full 2025 remix, full with authentic multitracks. Members can combine the track themselves, submit their model, and obtain skilled suggestions from Kristian Kohle.
The course may be bought individually or accessed by becoming a member of the Kult, and it represents a uncommon alternative to see how long-term expertise interprets into fashionable decision-making.
The takeaway
This studio is just not about extra. It’s about readability.
Each selection reduces friction. Each instrument earns its place. The room exists to assist intuition, self-discipline, and emotion relatively than infinite tweaking.
Whether or not by way of his information, his studio, or his educating, Dan Weller’s message is constant. Cease chasing perfection. Make one thing folks wish to hear once more.
Verify Out The Dan Weller Course Right here: https://www.kohleaudiokult.com/programs/djent
