Colin Thurston

"Mind you, with these Solid State Logic computerised mixing desks it's so easy to do things nowadays that used to be difficult. I can practice a lot at home - the principle of working my Soundcraft 1600 Series mixer is virtually the same, and if I can spend hours in my studio here at home doing it myself and perfecting something, I can then use it in the studio. A lot of the equipment that I normally use in the studio I don't have at home and so I've obviously got to find ways round it."

"I often trigger things, and I don't have any AMS units at home to trigger sampled bass drums, snares, and things like that, so I bought this cheap little device called an Electro-Harmonix Instant Replay. The average AMS I think is about £6,500—£7,000 with all the latest software in it; that Replay thing cost £250 and it does a similar job but with much lower quality obviously. You get a sound or an effect or anything you want, record it in there and then key or trigger it from something like a bass drum. On the AMS I can do that in about 30 seconds. With the Instant Replay it will take, well, at least three minutes! It's not as good as the AMS obviously, but the results I get speak for themselves."

"I worked with the first Simmons drum kit that was ever made with a band called Landscape, on a single of theirs. The thing was a whole bunch of wires and PCBs sitting on the couch at the back of the studio - it hadn't even been put into a box at that time. To tune them you had to take a screwdriver and just turn a preset pot -'yeah that sounds like a bass drum'. In those days there were no pads to hit or anything, it was just strange things being triggered off this peculiar time code again. Of course, it has now become the big thing — everyone triggers everything all the time. I saw a real drum kit the other day and I couldn't believe my eyes! I think I've only recorded one real drum kit in the last three years, otherwise it has all been Simmons or Linn or Drumulator etc."

"We used two harmonisers - the new Eventide H949 with the reverse switch on it, and also the H910 which was the first one Eventide brought out. I used the H910 on all of Simon Le Bon's vocals on the whole album - I actually recorded a harmoniser blended with his voice on every track. I think the band thought I was using it as a monitor track and not actually recording it. When they said 'can you take the harmoniser off' I said no - it suits Simon's voice I believe. For me, it gives a certain hardness to a voice that you can't achieve via EQ or anything else."

"We used two harmonisers - the new Eventide H949 with the reverse switch on it, and also the H910 which was the first one Eventide brought out. I used the H910 on all of Simon Le Bon's vocals on the whole album - I actually recorded a harmoniser blended with his voice on every track. I think the band thought I was using it as a monitor track and not actually recording it. When they said 'can you take the harmoniser off' I said no - it suits Simon's voice I believe. For me, it gives a certain hardness to a voice that you can't achieve via EQ or anything else."

"If I walk into a studio and I don't see an AMS digital reverb and an AMS digital delay, I start having my suspicions about the place. I use the harmoniser function on the AMS DMX 15-80S delay system, plus delays and I always use their reverb if I can't use natural reverberation. Other ones are good, but they always sound a bit plonky - they've got a sort of tone on them that I don't like. The AMS one is superb — fully equalised top and bottom."

"I was going to get a Fairlight, but since working alongside Nigel Bates at Ambiance Studios near Brighton and seeing what he does on his PPGs, I've cancelled my Fairlight order and I'm getting a PPG - it's much better. I used the Fairlight for some of the stuff I've done recently with a band called Touch, and really the PPG is so much better - the sound sampling, everything is so superior. The sounds Nigel gets are brilliant. I love walking around with my battery-powered Sony PCM F1, sampling all manner of sounds then storing them on the PPG disks."

Colin Thurston's Home Studio Equipment List SOUNDCRAFT Series 1600 console. FOSTEX B16 with built-in noise reduction. ROLAND MSQ700 sequencer. YAMAHA R1000 digital reverbs (two). DBX160X limiter. LEXICON PCM41 digital processor. ROLAND 555 tape chorus/echo. ACCESSIT noise gates. REVOX A77 stereo reel-to-reel. YAMAHA NS10M speakers. SONY PCM F1 digital recorder for mixdown. SONY cassette machines. SONY compact disc player. SIMMONS electronic drum kit. LINN DRUM. E-MU Drumulator. ROLAND Juno 106 polysynth. ROLAND Jupiter 6 polysynth. SIMMONS Clap Trap. ELECTRO-HARMONIX Instant Replay ...plus upright piano and numerous guitars.

Colin Thurston's Home Studio Equipment List SOUNDCRAFT Series 1600 console. FOSTEX B16 with built-in noise reduction. ROLAND MSQ700 sequencer. YAMAHA R1000 digital reverbs (two). DBX160X limiter. LEXICON PCM41 digital processor. ROLAND 555 tape chorus/echo. ACCESSIT noise gates. REVOX A77 stereo reel-to-reel. YAMAHA NS10M speakers. SONY PCM F1 digital recorder for mixdown. SONY cassette machines. SONY compact disc player. SIMMONS electronic drum kit. LINN DRUM. E-MU Drumulator. ROLAND Juno 106 polysynth. ROLAND Jupiter 6 polysynth. SIMMONS Clap Trap. ELECTRO-HARMONIX Instant Replay ...plus upright piano and numerous guitars.

Colin Thurston's Home Studio Equipment List SOUNDCRAFT Series 1600 console. FOSTEX B16 with built-in noise reduction. ROLAND MSQ700 sequencer. YAMAHA R1000 digital reverbs (two). DBX160X limiter. LEXICON PCM41 digital processor. ROLAND 555 tape chorus/echo. ACCESSIT noise gates. REVOX A77 stereo reel-to-reel. YAMAHA NS10M speakers. SONY PCM F1 digital recorder for mixdown. SONY cassette machines. SONY compact disc player. SIMMONS electronic drum kit. LINN DRUM. E-MU Drumulator. ROLAND Juno 106 polysynth. ROLAND Jupiter 6 polysynth. SIMMONS Clap Trap. ELECTRO-HARMONIX Instant Replay ...plus upright piano and numerous guitars.

Colin Thurston's Home Studio Equipment List SOUNDCRAFT Series 1600 console. FOSTEX B16 with built-in noise reduction. ROLAND MSQ700 sequencer. YAMAHA R1000 digital reverbs (two). DBX160X limiter. LEXICON PCM41 digital processor. ROLAND 555 tape chorus/echo. ACCESSIT noise gates. REVOX A77 stereo reel-to-reel. YAMAHA NS10M speakers. SONY PCM F1 digital recorder for mixdown. SONY cassette machines. SONY compact disc player. SIMMONS electronic drum kit. LINN DRUM. E-MU Drumulator. ROLAND Juno 106 polysynth. ROLAND Jupiter 6 polysynth. SIMMONS Clap Trap. ELECTRO-HARMONIX Instant Replay ...plus upright piano and numerous guitars.

Colin Thurston's Home Studio Equipment List SOUNDCRAFT Series 1600 console. FOSTEX B16 with built-in noise reduction. ROLAND MSQ700 sequencer. YAMAHA R1000 digital reverbs (two). DBX160X limiter. LEXICON PCM41 digital processor. ROLAND 555 tape chorus/echo. ACCESSIT noise gates. REVOX A77 stereo reel-to-reel. YAMAHA NS10M speakers. SONY PCM F1 digital recorder for mixdown. SONY cassette machines. SONY compact disc player. SIMMONS electronic drum kit. LINN DRUM. E-MU Drumulator. ROLAND Juno 106 polysynth. ROLAND Jupiter 6 polysynth. SIMMONS Clap Trap. ELECTRO-HARMONIX Instant Replay ...plus upright piano and numerous guitars.

Colin Thurston's Home Studio Equipment List SOUNDCRAFT Series 1600 console. FOSTEX B16 with built-in noise reduction. ROLAND MSQ700 sequencer. YAMAHA R1000 digital reverbs (two). DBX160X limiter. LEXICON PCM41 digital processor. ROLAND 555 tape chorus/echo. ACCESSIT noise gates. REVOX A77 stereo reel-to-reel. YAMAHA NS10M speakers. SONY PCM F1 digital recorder for mixdown. SONY cassette machines. SONY compact disc player. SIMMONS electronic drum kit. LINN DRUM. E-MU Drumulator. ROLAND Juno 106 polysynth. ROLAND Jupiter 6 polysynth. SIMMONS Clap Trap. ELECTRO-HARMONIX Instant Replay ...plus upright piano and numerous guitars.

Colin Thurston's Home Studio Equipment List SOUNDCRAFT Series 1600 console. FOSTEX B16 with built-in noise reduction. ROLAND MSQ700 sequencer. YAMAHA R1000 digital reverbs (two). DBX160X limiter. LEXICON PCM41 digital processor. ROLAND 555 tape chorus/echo. ACCESSIT noise gates. REVOX A77 stereo reel-to-reel. YAMAHA NS10M speakers. SONY PCM F1 digital recorder for mixdown. SONY cassette machines. SONY compact disc player. SIMMONS electronic drum kit. LINN DRUM. E-MU Drumulator. ROLAND Juno 106 polysynth. ROLAND Jupiter 6 polysynth. SIMMONS Clap Trap. ELECTRO-HARMONIX Instant Replay ...plus upright piano and numerous guitars.

Colin Thurston's Home Studio Equipment List SOUNDCRAFT Series 1600 console. FOSTEX B16 with built-in noise reduction. ROLAND MSQ700 sequencer. YAMAHA R1000 digital reverbs (two). DBX160X limiter. LEXICON PCM41 digital processor. ROLAND 555 tape chorus/echo. ACCESSIT noise gates. REVOX A77 stereo reel-to-reel. YAMAHA NS10M speakers. SONY PCM F1 digital recorder for mixdown. SONY cassette machines. SONY compact disc player. SIMMONS electronic drum kit. LINN DRUM. E-MU Drumulator. ROLAND Juno 106 polysynth. ROLAND Jupiter 6 polysynth. SIMMONS Clap Trap. ELECTRO-HARMONIX Instant Replay ...plus upright piano and numerous guitars.

Colin Thurston's Home Studio Equipment List SOUNDCRAFT Series 1600 console. FOSTEX B16 with built-in noise reduction. ROLAND MSQ700 sequencer. YAMAHA R1000 digital reverbs (two). DBX160X limiter. LEXICON PCM41 digital processor. ROLAND 555 tape chorus/echo. ACCESSIT noise gates. REVOX A77 stereo reel-to-reel. YAMAHA NS10M speakers. SONY PCM F1 digital recorder for mixdown. SONY cassette machines. SONY compact disc player. SIMMONS electronic drum kit. LINN DRUM. E-MU Drumulator. ROLAND Juno 106 polysynth. ROLAND Jupiter 6 polysynth. SIMMONS Clap Trap. ELECTRO-HARMONIX Instant Replay ...plus upright piano and numerous guitars.

Colin Thurston's Home Studio Equipment List SOUNDCRAFT Series 1600 console. FOSTEX B16 with built-in noise reduction. ROLAND MSQ700 sequencer. YAMAHA R1000 digital reverbs (two). DBX160X limiter. LEXICON PCM41 digital processor. ROLAND 555 tape chorus/echo. ACCESSIT noise gates. REVOX A77 stereo reel-to-reel. YAMAHA NS10M speakers. SONY PCM F1 digital recorder for mixdown. SONY cassette machines. SONY compact disc player. SIMMONS electronic drum kit. LINN DRUM. E-MU Drumulator. ROLAND Juno 106 polysynth. ROLAND Jupiter 6 polysynth. SIMMONS Clap Trap. ELECTRO-HARMONIX Instant Replay ...plus upright piano and numerous guitars.

Colin Thurston's Home Studio Equipment List SOUNDCRAFT Series 1600 console. FOSTEX B16 with built-in noise reduction. ROLAND MSQ700 sequencer. YAMAHA R1000 digital reverbs (two). DBX160X limiter. LEXICON PCM41 digital processor. ROLAND 555 tape chorus/echo. ACCESSIT noise gates. REVOX A77 stereo reel-to-reel. YAMAHA NS10M speakers. SONY PCM F1 digital recorder for mixdown. SONY cassette machines. SONY compact disc player. SIMMONS electronic drum kit. LINN DRUM. E-MU Drumulator. ROLAND Juno 106 polysynth. ROLAND Jupiter 6 polysynth. SIMMONS Clap Trap. ELECTRO-HARMONIX Instant Replay ...plus upright piano and numerous guitars.

Colin Thurston's Home Studio Equipment List SOUNDCRAFT Series 1600 console. FOSTEX B16 with built-in noise reduction. ROLAND MSQ700 sequencer. YAMAHA R1000 digital reverbs (two). DBX160X limiter. LEXICON PCM41 digital processor. ROLAND 555 tape chorus/echo. ACCESSIT noise gates. REVOX A77 stereo reel-to-reel. YAMAHA NS10M speakers. SONY PCM F1 digital recorder for mixdown. SONY cassette machines. SONY compact disc player. SIMMONS electronic drum kit. LINN DRUM. E-MU Drumulator. ROLAND Juno 106 polysynth. ROLAND Jupiter 6 polysynth. SIMMONS Clap Trap. ELECTRO-HARMONIX Instant Replay ...plus upright piano and numerous guitars.