Bristol band "Mesh" have always been determined to keep creative and artistic control with their own material. And the best way to achieve this was to build their own recording studio from scratch where they could use it any time of the day or night, have no restrictions on booking time and most of all it was built to their customised needs. In fact the man behind it all is Rich Silverthorne and he built it with great thought and creativity in mind to produce the "Mesh" sound and it has a great selection of equipment.
Urban Studios as it is called - and Rich cannot recall why it was named that, - is based in Bristol. What you find is one big room packed with, plugs, buttons, switches, musical instruments and more plus a small sound proof recording booth where all the vocals are done at one end of the studio. I decided to do an interview with Rich about the subject because he does a lot of the production for "Mesh". And in recent years a number of artists have emerged having set up small home recording studio's in their bedroom. So who better to get advice from?
What you have to picture is that Rich and I are sat in the centre of the room on swivel chairs so we start our little tour of the studio from the left and work our way round in a circle. And to make it easier to read I have left the interview as a question and answer session.
Urban Studios as it is called - and Rich cannot recall why it was named that, - is based in Bristol. What you find is one big room packed with, plugs, buttons, switches, musical instruments and more plus a small sound proof recording booth where all the vocals are done at one end of the studio. I decided to do an interview with Rich about the subject because he does a lot of the production for "Mesh". And in recent years a number of artists have emerged having set up small home recording studio's in their bedroom. So who better to get advice from?
What you have to picture is that Rich and I are sat in the centre of the room on swivel chairs so we start our little tour of the studio from the left and work our way round in a circle. And to make it easier to read I have left the interview as a question and answer session.
KC: Rich, what we have in front of us is two separate mixing desks, why?
RS: "Well, it looks like two separate mixing desks but it is in fact one main mixing desk and what they call an extension of the mixing desk. It just gives you more channels. We started off with a 24 channel desk and soon ran out of input so we added another 24 channels so we now have a 48 input analogue desk."
KC: So how do you keep track of all of these (tracks) channels because I note you have writing all over it?
RS: "It's a bit primitive I know, but that is what we do. We just write what each channel contains so we know what it is and where to find it when needed. It's just a means of keeping track where everything is when we want to add various sounds to the mix."
KC: How do you go about using the mixing desk?
RS: "Now this is going to sound really really basic but each slider controls your volume and then you've got your kind of pan which is either sending the signal to the left side, or the right side and then you have a whole EQ section - that stands for equalization, - which gives you the adjustments of frequencies, starting at the top end and then working your way back down to the base end. So it's pulling out frequencies, tweaking frequencies, either adding or subtracting to create the whole mix, to make certain sounds sit in the mix. Send them to the back, to the front or to the listener. And then we have a section at the top which is all your effects. All it does is send the dry signal that is coming into the different signal processors, like reverbs or delays and things like that so that gives you forty-eight channels of that."
RS: "Well, it looks like two separate mixing desks but it is in fact one main mixing desk and what they call an extension of the mixing desk. It just gives you more channels. We started off with a 24 channel desk and soon ran out of input so we added another 24 channels so we now have a 48 input analogue desk."
KC: So how do you keep track of all of these (tracks) channels because I note you have writing all over it?
RS: "It's a bit primitive I know, but that is what we do. We just write what each channel contains so we know what it is and where to find it when needed. It's just a means of keeping track where everything is when we want to add various sounds to the mix."
KC: How do you go about using the mixing desk?
RS: "Now this is going to sound really really basic but each slider controls your volume and then you've got your kind of pan which is either sending the signal to the left side, or the right side and then you have a whole EQ section - that stands for equalization, - which gives you the adjustments of frequencies, starting at the top end and then working your way back down to the base end. So it's pulling out frequencies, tweaking frequencies, either adding or subtracting to create the whole mix, to make certain sounds sit in the mix. Send them to the back, to the front or to the listener. And then we have a section at the top which is all your effects. All it does is send the dry signal that is coming into the different signal processors, like reverbs or delays and things like that so that gives you forty-eight channels of that."
KC: Now to my left there is a whole series of buttons, what do they do?
RS: "That's a kind of sub mixer section. You can also send it out to tape recorders and bring it back in. And there are also different buttons on our desk so that you can use different sets of speakers for monitoring. It's very good to have a decent set of monitors in the studio so you can hear it in it's worst state if you like. And then we've also got a section where you can click it over to a hi-fi set of speakers so you can hear what your average listener would be listening to. It's a case of just fishing out frequencies. Certain things may be too basey so you can take it out by listening to it on listening devices really."
KC: Your mixing desk is a Mackie 24 8. How good is that make?
RS: "They are by no means the top end desk but they're not bad. They are like a semi-professional set up. There are other desks available such as Nieve Desks which cost absolutely thousands and thousands of pounds, but we found for what we want in our studio this is fine. We get really good results out of it and the way things are going at the moment, everything is becoming software based. With many artists now their music doesn't leave the computer, it's all done in software. You can record onto computer, you can add on all the instruments internally on a computer. Where as we have always like the idea of getting it back out onto an analogue desk and mixing it the old traditional way to give it some warmth and depth That's how we do it."
RS: "That's a kind of sub mixer section. You can also send it out to tape recorders and bring it back in. And there are also different buttons on our desk so that you can use different sets of speakers for monitoring. It's very good to have a decent set of monitors in the studio so you can hear it in it's worst state if you like. And then we've also got a section where you can click it over to a hi-fi set of speakers so you can hear what your average listener would be listening to. It's a case of just fishing out frequencies. Certain things may be too basey so you can take it out by listening to it on listening devices really."
KC: Your mixing desk is a Mackie 24 8. How good is that make?
RS: "They are by no means the top end desk but they're not bad. They are like a semi-professional set up. There are other desks available such as Nieve Desks which cost absolutely thousands and thousands of pounds, but we found for what we want in our studio this is fine. We get really good results out of it and the way things are going at the moment, everything is becoming software based. With many artists now their music doesn't leave the computer, it's all done in software. You can record onto computer, you can add on all the instruments internally on a computer. Where as we have always like the idea of getting it back out onto an analogue desk and mixing it the old traditional way to give it some warmth and depth That's how we do it."
KC: You mention the computer and in front of you is your computer. What role does it play in recording your music?RS: "You could say it's the engine of the whole studio. It does the sequencing which is obviously recording all the notes that you put in from the keyboard and you can do all the editing on it. There are editing sections and you build the song up with different programmes. There are loads of different ones available on the market but there is one programme called Q-Base so you build the song up and that and then once you've got that you can build up and record as a separate track. So you can build on the vocals or whatever or any analogue instruments or guitars or drums etc into the computer. And this is just how we do it, we build the song up bit by bit and like I said we just reach things back out of the computer onto the desk for it's final recording or mixing."
KC: If you swing round to your right you have a keyboard in front of you. It's a Korg.
RS: "Indeed it is. This is a master keyboard we use, obviously playing everything in. It's also like a work station stroke sampler but it's just a very very good quality Korg keyboard. It's got very real sounds in it like string sections and a lot of other real sounding instruments and that's already plugged into the computer desk."
KC: And right behind you is this, well I can't describe it. It's full of buttons and switches.
RS: "I'll tell you roughly what it is. We have a thing at the top which we call a midi merger. All the keyboards use them like a control wire that goes between each keyboard which is called midi so all the keyboards we have are connected up there. It means I can play every keyboard in this studio from this one keyboard here in front of me. Then we have the next thing down that is like a valve processor which we use for vocals. It is just a like a compressor that squashes and controls the vocals so that you can shout or sing quietly and it maintains it's level and controls everything. And then we have limiters and gates. These cut out noise or again would limit a sound so it wouldn't go too loud or too quiet. We also have a graphic equalizer which doesn't really get used that much obviously because we have a desk that does a better job. Then these are basically rack versions of all the keyboards. You can either have a keyboard with a keyboard on it or can have the whole kind of engine or the main part of a keyboard without the keyboard so I can play these racked instruments from one keyboard. So that's that. We have several of those and then we get to a large section of compressors, again you know this is for controlling, literally controlling the volume of things."
KC: So if we swing round further to our right we have seven keyboards. How on earth can you play them all in one go?RS: "Well you use the aid of the computer that plays the sections for you. But keyboards for me, well it's like any guitarist. To the outsider we are asked 'well why do you so many' and the reason why we have so many is because they have different characteristics, they all produce sounds in different ways. We have a Roland SH101 which is a very old analogue keyboard and it gets you that kind of really squelchy early electronic kind of noises and is very kind of manipulative. You can make some really cool noises with that."
KC: What about the Nord lead 2?
RS: "Well that is a newish keyboard and what it does is emulate what these keyboards used to do years ago. It's a digital version of an analogue keyboard but it also has a kind of strange realistic character of its own really. It's just quite a punchy sound and it's also got very cutting filters on it. It can really stand out in a track. When I hear one I can tell it's a Nord Lead."
KC: And then you've also got the E-Max 2.
RS: "Now this is a very early 80's sampler. And basically everyone knows what a sampler is these days. It can record real instruments or any real noise straight into it. You can play it across the length of the keyboard for controlling pitch so you can take a human voice and go up the keyboard with it and down the keyboard. You can also manipulate it, change sounds and we use it a lot for things like drums and guitars, just to mess them up really. To take the nice clean sound and just completely make them sound ...umm I don't know ..... make them sound really dirty and scratchy because it's just old technology, but it's something we use a lot. I like the kind of characteristic it gives."
KC: Below all that you have a mini disc player and other items.
RS: "Again, more analogue stuff and a very very good keyboard version called a Roland JV 10 80. Again it gives some very warm string sounds, very real sounding instruments such as a saxophone sound or a trumpet sound. You would go to some instrument like this and get that type of sound whereas the analogue stuff, the older stuff, it's just unique sounds, you know keyboard type sounds rather than real instruments. And then we have another sampler and some more analogue gear really. So it's different type's of keyboard really that we have in this area"
KC. What I have spotted is a guitar in the corner, looking very lonely on it's own.
RS: "Yes. I have several guitars and that one's strat copy. But we do use guitars quite a lot really. Again we just record them into a computer and cut them up and mess the sound about a bit. I am not a big fan of normal guitar chords or using a guitar in a traditional way. I think coming from an electronic background, I like to mix sounds up. You'd most probably not recognise it as a guitar when you hear the finished result, but it's a good instrument for adding the realism and grittiness to tracks."
KC: And then we have the recording booth.
RS: "Yes we have!. It's a small room I should say with a microphone in it and its acoustically sound. Keeps the noise down. We've got the usual acoustic foam in there to create a dead space and that's where all our vocals are done."
KC: And then back we are back to the beginning. What do we have under the mixing desk?RS: "That's all the effects I was saying about earlier. That would be all the delays, your reverbs and things like that. There is also a Dat machine that we still use, which again is quiet old technology now, but that's what we use to master all our finished productions onto. And then we also have another kind of compressor, limiter that controls the whole thing and goes over the whole desk"
KC: Rich, you are the Chief Engineer (he starts laughing) yes the Chief Engineer, the Chief Studio artist aren't you?
RS: "Ummmm .............. yes. Kind of. I guess. I do a lot of the production work on Mesh's albums. I am not saying I do all of it. Mark also does some in the studio too but I think I do the majority of it now a days."
KC: How easy or difficult is it to use this studio?
RS: "I would imagine for an outsider it would be really difficult because I've built it up from scratch, I've added to it and added to it and it's almost like it's my baby. I know how everything works, how everything is routed and where every cable goes, so you know I find it was almost purpose built for us, the band as a kind of standard studio. For a normal band to come in, it is not exactly ideal but it more than suits our purpose."
KC: Did you learn about all of this from scratch yourself or did you go to college?
RS: "No college. I learnt it all from scratch. I bought a Sequential Pro 1 keyboard when I first left school. It's a very old analogue keyboard. Something 'Yazoo' did all their albums on, and I learnt from there. I just sat there fiddling around with it. You learn what each button does, each knob does and you just add to it and add to it and add to it and here we are now."
KC: What advice would you give to somebody who is just starting out and hoping to set up their own little studio themselves?
RS: "I think the first thing is don't be taken in by the whole money side of things. You can buy some really good stuff now a days with a computer and some computer programmes. There is a programme called 'Reason' that we use a lot in the studio and it's just fantastic. It's so flexible and what you can do with it is just amazing really. So like I said get something like that and fiddle around with it and see if you have some kind of aptitude for doing this before you start spending money on the real thing. And don't spend too much money on it really, like I did!" (And Rich starts laughing)
KC: You also do remixes for other bands so are available for hire?
RS: "Yes. For remix work or session work or production stuff. I don't think we are in a position where I think that we can record full bands in the studio and to be honest I don't think I would want to at the moment. But for remixes and dance mixes yes, we'll do that, it's not a problem."
To contact Rich Silverthorne and Mark Hockings about production, remixes and dance mixes it is best to e-mail them or contact through their web site: www.mesh.co.uk
Kathryn Courtney-O'Neill
Copyright: Kacey-O'Neill (c) 2007. All written work and photos not to be used without my permission.
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