Expanding its potential, Salt Studios is far from just an artist production and engineering specialist. A recent refurbishment and broadening of operations sees the East Brighton studio a jack-of-all-trades and a master of each one.
The studio’s capacity extends beyond artist and band recording and production –like many businesses of the digital ilk, it’s supplying to the growing demand of online content today’s businesses seek. In a world of online media, content is king, and demand is high. Studio manager, Dylan Boyd talks us through the latest refurbishments, tech upgrades and the expansions in operations the studio has undergone recently.
“We’re increasing the scope of what we can do here, because one of the hardest things for most studios these days is to make a living just doing one thing,” he says. “We’re catering to companies that really want that continuous flow of content for their businesses.”
It’s towards this corporate online multimedia environment that Boyd says the studio has widened its focus, and the benefits have paid off, “We’ve almost doubled our workload from what we were doing 12 months ago.”
The recent refurbishments have included a fresh coat of paint and replacing the acoustic baffling with brand new insulation, “It’s really good for voiceovers, it’s a really tight sounding room. We can brighten it up if need be by taking some of the baffles out; it really comes in handy,” says Boyd.
On the topic of the studios, many talents and capabilities, Boyd steers the conversation to what he considers, “The heart of the studio.” Salt Studio’s pride and joy lies within the newly restored Amek Hendrix Vintage Console, designed by Rupert Neve. The restoration includes new bus switching, upgrading the preamps with discrete retrofitted boards from the UK, re-capping of every channel, new EQ matrixes and new OP-amps.
“The Amek Hendrix was basically designed by Rupert Neve after he sold Neve, he went on board with Amek to construct a modular console, because every strip can be taken out individually. What it means is, you can tweak each channel individually without needing to pull out the whole console, you can pull out one strip at a time. And that’s very reminiscent of what Neve was about in general. It sounds fantastic, it’s definitely the key attribute of the studio.”
With all the care and attention to detail Boyd and Co. instill into the enterprise, it’s no doubt that since its establishment in 2001, the studio has been graced by some of this country’s finest. Over the years, the list of talent that has walked through the doors is up there with some of the best, including but not limited to visits from Tim Rogers, Paul Dempsey, Birds Of Tokyo, Pseudo Echo, Ceres, even rapper Allday.
“Because we are off the beaten track, and we’re in among a group of shops, it’s quiet and people can come in and go without being noticed. We like the fact that artists can come in here and disappear for a couple of days without worry,” he says.
A testament to the studio’s ability to lust for expansion and growth is its eight-week internship program. The new program has been designed as a leg up to industry up-and-comers, and as Boyd says, is the studios gift back to the community from which it has prospered. “In this industry in particular, the old adage is true, there aren’t a lot of jobs out there, but there’s a lot of work. The idea of our internship is that someone who may not have a lot of practical experience can come in here and get their hands dirty and get really familiar with a studio environment. We also invite interns to create a business plan, and we work with them on that – to look at themselves as a business.
“It’s about getting us out there as well, but it’s also about giving something back to the new up and comers, because these are the people that are going to be taking over from us when we’re long gone.”
