Located in Knebworth, the Select Sound Studios were opened in 1983. Since then, it’s been the headquarters of Big M Group, the family company of the Wilde’s, from which the fan club was run and where Kim recorded most of her albums. It was of course also used by other artists.
The building comprised almost 200 square metres of space, divided in a reception area (42 square metres), 5 rooms (44 square metres), a lavatory, a kitchen (7 square metres), a recording studio (90 square metres) and a rear store/office (15 square metres). There was a parking space for approximately 9 cars outside at the front.
In 1990, the studio underwent a major change when the control-room was rebuilt. It was updated to a 56 channel mixing desk.
Kim herself got involved in the design of the studio back garden in March 1995.
In the summer of 2000, Select Sound Studios was abandoned by the Wilde family, the garden now belongs to the house opposite the back of the studio. The building was put up for sale with an approximate asking price of £325,000. It was bought by a company named Art Van Go, which still resides in the building today.
Ricki is meanwhile continuing his music work in a studio he built in his own home.
The last set-up of the studio was published on the Select Sound Studio website. It consisted of:
Studio One
Console: DDA DCM 232 (56 channels) fully automated
Tape Machines (multitrack): 2 x Studer A827 (24 track)
Tape Machines (2-Track): Studer A80 1/2″, Studer A810 1/4″, Tascam DA30 DAT recorder, Sony DTC55 DAT recorder
Tapeless: Session 8 (DigiDesign 8 track hard disk system)
Monitors: Urei 813B’s, Klark Technik Jade II’s, Yamaha NS10’s, Acoustic Energy AE1’s, Aurotones
Keyboards: Atari Mega 2, Macintosh 7100/66 (20 megabytes), Creator, Notator Logic Audio (8 track), Samplecell (16 megabytes), D550, MIDI MOOG, U110, TX802, MKS50 X 2, MKS80, Yamaha Promix01 Digital desks x 2, plus many more.
Outboard Gear: Lexicon 224X, PCM70, REV1, REV5, AMS Delays & Reverb, BSS Compression and DE-ESS, 24 Channels of assorted gates, Urei compression, Focusrite EQ and DYN units, plus many more.
Studio Two
Keyboards: Macintosh 7100/80 (40 meg), Studio 4 MIDI Interface, Samplecall (24 meg), Audiomedia Board, Novation Bass Station, Proteus FX, Roland U110, Roland D110, Roland D50, Roland JD990, Alesis D4, Oberhiem Matrix 1000, Roland Mks50
Software: Logic Audio (enabling 16 tracks hard disk recording)
Mixing: 2 x Yamaha Promix01
Tape Machines: Casio DAT machine, Technics CD player
Kim about Select Sound Studios
Apart from myself using the studio other artists have used it in the past, some of the few that have popped into the studios are, Brian May from Queen, Bucks Fizz, Worlds Apart, Adam Ant, Bonnie Tyler, Perfect Day and many many more.