Oxford, UK (March 6, 2012)—Rik Simpson has installed a Solid State Logic Matrix in Coldplay’s Beehive studio in North London.
Coldplay set up the Beehive, and Chris Martin asked Simpson to be involved in the design and build of the new studio. The band recorded the majority of the Viva la Vida album at the Beehive with Simpson as engineer. Viva la Vida went on to win three Grammys and Simpson went on to co-produce (as well as engineer) Coldplay’s fifth studio album, Mylo Xyloto, at the Beehive last year. He tried out the Matrix in the process–and kept it.
Mylo Xyloto went platinum in the US after just two months and was nominated for Best Recorded Album at the BRIT Awards yesterday, where Coldplay took home the award for Best British Group, the band’s seventh BRIT.
“Matrix has changed the process in the studio by making things more fluid and quick,” said Simpson, who first started using SSL consoles when he was 15. “The band are fast workers and there isn’t a great deal of time to set stuff up, so any time I can save through having something as easy to use as the Matrix is a great thing.”
Simpson wanted a console that could recall settings between sessions. “I found out about the Matrix and also found about the ability to use the faders as a DAW controller, which means if I’m mixing, I can do, for example, all my vocal levels with the faders and it writes the automation into Pro Tools, with is great. So you get a clear transient signal path that isn’t colored much but is just punchy and full, with the added bonus of being able to do all your fader moves and rides and automation actually on a work surface as opposed to just using a mouse. It’s a very well thought-out desk.”
Solid State Logic
www.solidstatelogic.com
