BAFTA and Grammy Award-winning Composer Andrew Hale Outfits His London-Based Owlspace Studio with a Harrison 32Classic

32-channel analog mixing console features integrated 64-channel Dante audio interface and premium AD/DA converters: "With the Harrison desk as a centerpiece, I’m able to write and record with very little friction because of the freedom it gives me and the ease of workflow."

March 5, 2026

London, U.K., March 5, 2026 — Andrew Hale, BAFTA and Grammy Award-winning composer, songwriter, producer and keyboard player with the band Sade, has outfitted his private Owlspace Studio in northwest London with a Harrison 32Classic 32-channel analog mixing console. The new console, complete with 64 bi-directional channels of Dante and premium A-to-D and D-to-A converters, acts as a centerpiece for Hale’s creative activities, enabling him to access and route any source in the studio and adjacent live space without moving from the sweet spot between the monitor speakers.

Hale, who joined Sade (the singer and the band that also bears her name) shortly after their live debut in 1983, previously employed a computer-based production setup at Owlspace, which he has operated for over 20 years. Now, he says, “With the Harrison desk as a centerpiece, I’m able to write and record with very little friction because of the freedom it gives me and the ease of workflow. It provides a way of using electronic equipment, keyboards and drum machines and have all those present in a manner that makes my workflow super transparent and easy.”

Hale won his BAFTA Award in 2011, along with co-composer and orchestrator Simon Hale (no relation), for the soundtrack of Rockstar Games’ L.A. Noire video game. These days, he says, “I do music for a wide range of things, including fashion shows and I still DJ quite a bit. But I'm always playing around. I just love all this old equipment. It's like coming into the lab every day.”

Harrison 32Classic: Timeless sound, hybrid workflow
Over the years, Hale has switched his studio between a console-based and computer-based workflow a few times. “Now we’re in a world where people are going back to hardware, and you want to hook things up together and have say six keyboards, 2 drum machines ,some guitar pedals and a Eurorack modular setup all running at the same time,” he observes. With the 32Classic at the center of his workflow, “It’s almost like running a live 32-track session, putting everything through a fantastic sounding signal path and getting it into the DAW via the consoles integrated Dante audio interface.”

In a DAW-based workflow, he notes, “There is a sort of barrier between you and the computer. Once you’ve recorded, you're immediately putting plug-ins and compressors and stuff on just because you think you have to – and frequently do ‘have to’ to get close to the sound you have in-mind.” Whereas, with the Harrison console, “just putting something through the mic amp and getting a little bit of harmonic distortion, almost always gets you close to the desired sound. And when required, the EQ takes it to another level – it is so musical.”

Ergonomics and full Dante compatibility
Beyond the audio features, he continues, “I really like the ergonomics of this desk, the width of the channels and the ease of getting to everything.” The console’s frame design, with its uniquely deep armrest, also allows him to keep the computer keyboard or a laptop computer easily accessible, again, without having to turn away from the monitor speakers. “I even put little keyboards on there when I'm writing,” he says. “It’s all about how you work, day in, day out, so I can't overemphasize how great all these things are. The console becomes integral to everything that you're doing, ergonomically as well as technically, and sonically.”

Hale was unfamiliar with Dante networking but discovered that it brings significant flexibility to his workflow — plus, it made the initial installation virtually plug and play. “We brought the desk in, plugged in the Ethernet cables, and 10 minutes later we had music coming out,” he recalls. Further, he has also recently integrated Harrison Audio’s D510 10-slot rack and D510dante interface, outfitting it with Harrison Comp dynamics modules. “So, there are 10 compressors that I can assign anywhere across the console within a few clicks.”

Two 16-channel Dante interfaces, one either side of the room, allow Hale to select a different set of sources to send to the 32Classic. The system offers much more flexibility than having everything permanently wired through a patchbay and into the console. It’s delightful not to have to hard patch everything, he says.

“The Dante interface and routing is effectively my patchbay,” he explains. “When I want to change my way of working or use a different set of equipment, that's a two-minute job, and then I've got 32 new things coming out of the faders. I didn't want to go down the route of having everything plugged in and then changing my way of working. The flexibility of the Dante interface also enables me to have a live room with mics on the piano and then a little Dante box to integrate it back into the control room. All these things are just huge problem solvers.”

Building on the classic Harrison designs of the '70s
After considering the available new console options, Hale says that he was ultimately drawn to Harrison’s new 32Classic, which builds on the heritage of Harrison’s classic consoles of the 1970s, designs which introduced the inline console concept and pioneered 32 multitrack bus switching. “Nostalgia was a big part of it,” he admits. Sade’s debut album, 1984’s Diamond Life, and second full-length, Promise, released in 1985, were both produced by Robin Millar at his Power Plant London facility, which had Harrison MR3 consoles in two of its studios. In a Billboard interview at the time, Millar described the Harrison console as “full of beefy goodness.” Both chart-topping albums sold millions of copies, and Promise earned the band their first of many GRAMMY Awards.

Hale and the band were always drawn to the musical warmth of Harrison consoles, he says. “I trusted that the sound of the 32Classic would be somewhat what I remembered or as had been described. The sonics are as important as the chords to me, and I get a kick out of the fact that the 808 drum machine sounds fantastic going through six channels of the desk. Other desks that are currently around could have done the job technically but maybe wouldn't have had that difference in sonics — and they certainly wouldn't have had the ergonomic feel.”

About Harrison
Harrison has been designing, manufacturing, and marketing audio mixing consoles in Nashville, Tennessee (Music City, USA) since 1975. Our products serve the markets of music recording/mixing, international film and television sound production, audio post production, broadcast sound, and live sound reinforcement. Over 1,500 Harrison consoles have been installed worldwide, constituting a significant share of the overall world market for high-end audio consoles. Harrison's dominance of the high-end market demonstrates that customers who require solutions to complex problems invariably turn to Harrison to provide the answer.