Taking in recording and rehearsal studios, and also offering voice and music tuition, Southampton’s River Studios has installed a Solid State Logic Matrix console with an accompanying range of SSL processing and I/O.
Gareth Henderson, River Studios’ MD, studio producer, vocal coach and school principal is a musically-driven man. As a performer, he’s flirted with record contracts with Virgin, Chrysalis, WEA and EMI but went on to found the Southern School Of Popular Singing where he helps others with their ambitions. River Studios is where dreams can become reality…
Henderson he has spent a year transforming a 100-year-old double-height, single-storey hall into 18 purpose-built rooms spread over two floors with extensive soundproofing, acoustic treatment – and a sizeable investment in technology: ‘I was looking at analogue summing, because I’d been mixing in the box for some years,’ he says. ‘Having gone through various control surfaces, it was inevitable that I’d stumble across the SSL Matrix. It fulfils the duties of a summing and control, and its ability to patch in other outboard devices seems fascinating.’
With the help of a UK Government-backed Enterprise Finance Guarantee, he secured the funding to expand his business beyond the physical constraints of its previous incarnation as HL Studios.
‘We have many rooms here,’ he says. ‘I wanted to create tie-lines to the recording studio and use lots of them simultaneously to record big projects. Looking at the Matrix and its various options lead me to the Alpha-Link series – seeing that SSL were building A/D and D/A convertors using Madi it became obvious that a solution based on an SSL mixing desk with SSL outboard and mic pres, plus SSL I/O was an attractive way to build the heart of the studio.’
An X-Rack modular rack system with a Stereo Bus Compressor Module, four VHD Input Modules, and two Stereo Dynamics Modules complete the SSL kit list. ‘We are constantly fighting for various different types of business, so when people see the wonderful Matrix console with its moving faders it just gives them the confidence that they’ve walked into a professional studio.’
River Studios’ connected rehearsal and recording rooms all feed clients into Henderson’s well-stocked control room. ‘The addition of the high-quality SSL equipment that we have here has enabled us to offer a technical standard that’s in line with some of the top London studios, but we can afford to charge less and still produce results that are able to compete with them.’
The success of the business concern is evidenced by the gold disc presented by UK recording artist Birdy to Henderson for recording parts of her self-titled debut studio album. ‘We’ve had the privilege of working with Birdy since she was 12,’ he says. ‘I’d like to see her career continue to skyrocket, but we’re just as keen to work with more singer-songwriters and bands, helping them develop the best kind of projects that they can.’
More: www.solidstatelogic.com
