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Studio Of The Month

Soho Studios

Article from International Musician & Recording World, September 1985

Curtis 'Sleazy' Schwartz hits the mean streets of Soho


Soho Studios where the red light takes on a whole new meaning


Hidden among the backstreets of London's West End, and only a short walk from Oxford Circus tube station, is where you'll find Soho Studios — an oasis of relative tranquility in the bustle and noise of W1.

The studio itself is of the 24-track variety, and is the creation of Mark Teverson, who only five years ago was the proud owner of a four-track demo studio in Russell Square. Now, the Soho Studio complex consists of its own record/management company, called Soho Records, as well as the studio itself, and they are also in the SSL/Studer/no-expense-spared design, among the alcoves and catacombs of the basement.

However, it is the studio in its present configuration which has earned them the honour of being IM's Studio of the Month.

The present studio consists of a comfortably sized control room (17 x 12ft), looking out to a heavily soundproofed and acoustically dead studio area (8 x 15ft) and drum booth (12 x 14ft).

In the control room, the first thing that caught my eye was the extremely large selection of outboard gear — in the 19" rack to the right of the desk are AMS and Bel Digital Delays, AMS and Yamaha reverbs, dbx and Drawmer gates and compression, dbx, Klark Teknik and TC Electronic Eq, an Eventide harmoniser and a very full Rebis rack stuffed with gates, compressors, de-essers, etc.

The multitrack and mixing desk are a Soundcraft machine, and at present an MCI Series 428 36-input desk, which is soon to be updated to MCI's 500 Series with 44 inputs and automation. Mixdown is onto a Studer B67 ¼" and/or Sony PCM701ES/C9 Betamax digital set-up, in addition to which there is a Revox B77. I say 'and/or' in describing the mixdown gear because quite often, the digital system finds itself being used at the same time as the Studer; effectively as a back up for the mix, in case the ¼" becomes 'over-edited'...

For most studios an advantage to being as centralised as this studio might be the speed and ease with which equipment coud be brought in for sessions. Soho Studios, however, have (in addition to their extensive range of signal processing equipment), a large selection of permanent goodies. A Fairlight computer usually lurks in one of the corners of the control room, as well as a DX7, Linn Drum, SRC interface, Roland's excellent MSQ700 MIDI sequencer, Roland Vocoder, and a Sycologic Analogue/MIDI Interface just for starters... not to mention a superb relic from the days when drums were hit, rather than programmed — a 'live' drum kit...

With so much gear, let me just add that another pleasant surprise was how reasonable Soho Studio's rates are — £27.50 + VAT per hour. There are very few London studios that can still provide master quality 24-track recordings for under £30 an hour — especially in the West End!

Most of the recordings that have been done in Soho Studios up until now have been of chart-type material. Although the studio itself can cater for film, video and jingle sessions (as it has TV monitoring and SMPTE Interface capabilities), regular clients have been chart-ish bands such as Bananarama and The Team — sessions booked by record companies who like the convenience and atmosphere of Soho Studios being within walking distance of many of the major labels' HQs. Some of you might also have spotted Soho Studio's stylish pine control room interior in our July issue — providing the location for the photos of Scritti Politti.

Soho Studios is undoubtedly a very fast moving enterprise. When I went along to have a look at the studio, they had just finished installing a more powerful air conditioning system than their previous one, and only a week later, Mark ordered new Quested monitoring for the control room (which is now installed) to replace the Tannoy Reds. Thus, as I mentioned earlier, is in addition to upgrading the mixing desk.

Yamaha's NS10M monitors are fast becoming the new industry standard for 'inbetween-sized' monitoring. It is no surprise therefore, that in a studio as up-to-date and well equipped as this one, they are to be found sitting proudly atop the mixing desk. Mini-reference is via the ubiquitous Auratone C5, and the selection of microphones is quite a varied one: Neumann, AKG, Beyer, PZM and Shure.

In a very short time, Soho Studios has established itself among the ranks of the good-sounding, good-feeling 24-track studios in London's West End. At the rate at which things are developing, Soho Studios will have their SSL for their second 24-track complex (beneath the present studio) delivered and operational by Christmas. Meanwhile the present setup remains well booked, and certainly worth every penny of their bargain rate.

SOHO STUDIOS (Contact Details)


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Tanrack System

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Track Record - Tomb of Memories


Publisher: International Musician & Recording World - Cover Publications Ltd, Northern & Shell Ltd.

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International Musician - Sep 1985

Donated & scanned by: Mike Gorman

Recording World

Feature by Curtis Schwartz

This article features:

Soho Studios

Previous article in this issue:

> Tanrack System

Next article in this issue:

> Track Record - Tomb of Memor...


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