Weighing in at around two tons, the classic Neve 88RS isn't suitable for most production studios, not even that of famed drummer Ash Soan.
But Ash was never willing to settle for giving up on that legendary sound, so after mulling it over for a while, he came up with the idea of recreating it with two Neve 88RLB mono mic preamps.
Ash has toured with some of the most iconic artists of our time, and he has always taken the 88RLBs with him in a rack along with four 1073LB mic preamps that he bought more than 10 years ago.
"In my studio I mainly record drums, which is why I have a selection of UA interfaces with Neve preamps. I use the 1073 for the kick, the snare and the sticks, but I wanted the 88RLB for the overheads because they suited them perfectly."
Ash is currently a member of Trevor Horn's band The Producers (alongside Steve Lipson and Lol Creme), but his musical career spans more than 30 years of hits, with 58 Top Ten albums, 29 No. 1 albums and 10 No. 1 singles for artists such as Cher, Seal, Robbie Williams, Billy Idol, Adele, Enrique Iglesias, Dionne Warwick and Rumer, James Morrison, Cee Lo, Celine Dion and Ronan Keating.
A music graduate of the University of Salford who also studied at the Tech Music School, Ash Soan began to shine as a drummer in 1994, when he joined the band Del Amitri
Ash toured and played live with Del Amitri until 1997, and later also played with groups such as Faithless and Squeeze. His other major achievements include playing alongside Mike Oldfield at the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games and serving as the house drummer on The Voice for seven years. His film work is also outstanding and includes contributions to the soundtracks of Terminator Genisys and Mission: Impossible – Fallout with Lorne Balfe, and to the soundtracks of Kung Fu Panda 3 and The Lion King (2019) with Hans Zimmer.
As a true expert in music and professional recording, Ash knows very well what a studio needs in order to achieve the highest quality. It was this knowledge that encouraged him to invest in 88RLBs for his own studio.
Located in Norfolk, Ash's studio was originally set up to serve as a storage space and a place for home testing. However, during his time on The Voice, he did some sessions for singers such as Alicia Keys and Dua Lipa, so he decided to take things a step further.
"Since then I've worked in the studio with Seal, Cher, James Morrison, Rod Stewart, Dua Lipa, Alicia Keys, Julian Lennon, Hans Zimmer, Sam Smith and Ed Sheeran. Most of the recordings are pop or film work, and I mainly use Pro Tools."
Ash's 88RLBs come in the same 500 Series format and use the same technology as the preamps in an 88R console. They also offer a range of other features such as high-pass filters, intelligent phantom power control, a DI input and a REGenerate function to add analog warmth to individual sources or entire mixes.
