“If I was going away on a trip and could only bring one keyboard, I’d bring that one, because I know where every sound is blindfolded”: Grammy-nominated producer Rogét Chahayed on the stage keyboard he can’t live without

Before becoming one of hip-hop’s most sought-after producers, Rogét Chahayed spent years honing his craft as a conservatory-trained pianist, composer and session musician.

That technical foundation, combined with an apprenticeship under Dr. Dre and Mel-Man, has helped him develop a musical identity that’s landed him credits on some of the biggest releases of the past decade.

Having contributed to tracks such as Travis Scott’s Sicko Mode, Doja Cat’s Kiss Me More and Drake’s recent chart-topper Janice STFU, Chahayed’s studio reflects a balance between classical musicianship and modern production. Packed with hardware synths though it is, he still enters studio environments with the same instruments that first sparked his love of music.

Asked which pieces of gear he simply couldn’t live without, Chahayed doesn’t hesitate before naming the keyboard that’s central to his creative process. “My number one keyboard is definitely the Nord Stage 4, but I combine some of my favourite sounds from the Stage 3.

“If I was going away on a trip for a week and could only bring one keyboard, I’d bring that one, because I know where every sound is blindfolded. It’s also a performance keyboard and when you’re recording a performance in the studio it’s going to resonate like that on the record.

Meanwhile, when it comes to creating depth and texture, two keyboards consistently earn a place in Chahayed’s sessions. “Another one that I love is the Korg KRONOS, which is fantastic for layering and organising sound categories. There are a few sounds on there that are just brilliant and it has the perfect combination of what you might call low-quality or low-tier sounds and ones that really cut through.”

“Another keyboard that I love to use is the Prophet X, which has an unbelievable sound selection. The 8Dio sound engine is the same that the Native Instruments and Kontakt people use, so it’s very cinematic.

Though Chahayed now owns a vast collection of instruments, he fondly reminisces about lusting after gear during his early days as a musician breaking into the industry. “When I started making a little money, I’d go to Guitar Center, try the keyboards and find myself coming up with all these amazing ideas.

“I thought to myself, ‘wow, if I had a studio with all these keyboards on a wall I’d be coming up with stuff all the time.’” Fast forward a few years, and Chahayed has built that very studio, which he describes as an “amazing” space to work in.

“I finally built my home studio, which is a really amazing place,” Chahayed says. “I have two walls of keyboards with about 30 or 40 synths and a Steinway piano alongside a Fender Rhodes and a drum kit.

“Over the years, I’ve developed an amazing system with my engineer Julian Vasquez where I’ll just bring a Nord Stage 4 and my laptop, which has millions of sounds organised for easy access to strings, synths, brass, woodwinds, basses and guitars. It’s like I’m playing one of those games where you’re in control of an army and you have access to this whole artillery of sounds.”

Hardware may form the backbone of his setup, but Chahayed says his workflow wouldn’t be complete without a handful of software instruments. “I can’t live without my Kontakt libraries, so my MacBook is very important and I’ve been finding some incredible sounds in Native Instruments’ Play Series libraries recently.”