Drummer Ash Soan has toured and recorded with some of the hottest names in the music industry. With drum sound a priority in his studio, he recently added two Neve 88RLB mono mic preamps into a rack that houses four Neve 1073LB mic preamps acquired more than ten years ago.
‘My studio is mainly used for drum recording and I have a selection of UA interfaces, with Neve preamps for the main kit,’ he explains. ‘I use 1073s for my kick, snare and hats, but I wanted the 88RLB for my overheads. They fit perfectly together and work great, and I’m very happy with the results I’m achieving.’
As someone who operates at the top of the recording profession, Soan has worked in many of the world’s best recording studios and has often enjoyed the sound of high-quality analogue Neve consoles such as the 88RS. This experience inspired him to invest in preamps for his own studio.
‘I was at British Grove recently with Hans Zimmer and Stephen Lipson, and I loved the Neve 88R console there,’ he says. ‘Installing 88RLB units is a very cost effective, convenient and accessible way of getting that sound into a small studio like mine.’
Located in Norfolk, in the UK, Soan’s studio was originally set up as a practise space and somewhere to store equipment, but while working on The Voice, he began hosting sessions for clients such as Alicia Keys and Dua Lipa, and decided it was time to give more attention to the room.
‘I’ve used the studio to record for Seal, Cher, James Morrison, Rod Stewart, Dua Lipa, Alicia Keys, Julian Lennon, Hans Zimmer, Sam Smith and Ed Sheehan,’ he says. ‘It tends to be primarily pop and film sessions and I mainly use Pro Tools.’
The new Neve 88RLB units are in the 500 Series format, and use the same technology as the preamps in an 88R console. However, they also come with useful extra features such as a sweepable high pass filter, intelligent phantom power control, a DI input and a REGenerate function that makes is easy to add analogue warmth to individual sources, or even entire mixes.
‘I just love the colour from the preamps on my drums,’ Soan says. ‘I’ve had that sound many times in the past when I’ve recorded in large studios, but owning my own preamps is the perfect way to add that sound to the recordings I am making now.’
A Salford University music graduate and former student at Tech Music School, Soan got his first break as a drummer in 1994 when he joined Amitri with whom he toured and recorded until 1997. He subsequently played with Faithless and Squeeze, played at the 2012 Olympic Games opening ceremony with Mike Oldfield and was house drummer on TV show The Voice for seven years. His film work is also extensive, and includes playing on the Terminator Genisys and Mission Impossible Fall Out soundtracks for composer Lorne Balfe and on the Kung Fu Panda 3 and The Lion King 2019 soundtracks for Hans Zimmer.
Currently a member of Trevor Horn’s band The Producers (along with Steve Lipson and Lol Creme), Ash’s 30-plus year career has resulted in 58 Top Ten albums, 29 No.1 albums and ten No.1 singles for the likes of Cher, Seal, Robbie Williams, Billy Idol, Adele, Enrique Iglesias, Dionne Warwick and Rumer, James Morrison, Cee Lo, Celine Dion and Ronan Keating.
More: www.ams-neve.com
