Create 24-7 at London's New 160DL studios and Creative Hub, installing the UK’s first 24-Channel Harrison Audio 32Classic Console

Harrison32 Classic is at the heart of a new music production facility focused on contemporary music pushing genre boundaries. "For a studio where you want to get a producer up and running and comfortable as quickly as possible, it's incredible.”

December 10, 2025

London, England, December 10, 2025 — A new creative hub in east London’s Dalston neighborhood is set to open in early 2026, anchored by 160DL Studios, a music production facility designed to take musicians out of the box and expand their creative possibilities through in-person collaboration in a physical space. The UK’s first 24-channel Harrison Audio 32Classic analog mixing console sits at its heart. The commercial studio includes a double-height tracking room and vocal booth together with a 140-capacity multi-use event space for performance, art and other creative endeavors.

Alex Clapworthy, who has provided commercial direction and business development for creatives for over a decade, reports that the building was rescued from redevelopment by the new owner, who was keen to revive the former rehearsal studio complex as a center for music and arts. “He's put a considerable amount into renovations and building a robust, acoustically treated live space with a floating floor,” he says. “The individual studios are all completely sound-isolated with acoustic paneling on the walls.”

Harrison 32Classic: love at first sight
Searching for an appropriate mixing console for 160DL’s new control room, the 160DL team visited Harrison’s Oxford-based International Headquarters, and the home of Solid State Logic. “We saw a lot of different consoles, but when we saw this, we said, ‘That's the right desk.’ We also visited Andrew Hale, who's also got one of these; he was very accommodating. We are big fans of the sound and feel of the brilliant Harrison engineering, the quality is unquestionable and unusual in this day and age.”

“fly-in, plug-in, start working”
Ease of operation was high on the list of priorities for the studio. “The idea with this studio is that you can fly in from L.A. at the last minute, book a session, turn up, and get working on the console really easily,” he says. “In terms of ease-of-use, the Harrison immediately comes across as familiar, and is probably the closest thing to that mixer that everyone has had at home or in a venue. In terms of sound quality, as soon as you listen and start moving the EQ, you know this isn’t your average mixer, and something special is going on inside of it. For a studio where you want to get a producer up and running and comfortable as quickly as possible, while delivering sound quality which makes you stand out from the crowd, it's perfect. We just plug in a Dante interface and you can lay out your session across the desk pretty immediately”

Head engineer Lucas Mendes joined 160DL studios having previously worked extensively in London studios as well as having mixed live sound at Village Underground. Lucas has built an incredibly versatile system combining bantam patch bays with a movable guest patch that sits in the control room’s wheeled coffee table providing an all in one solution for anyone wanting to plug in and get to work immediately.

The perfect desk for hybrid recording and mixing
To optimally fit the dimensions of the control room, Clapworthy continues, “We opted to make a little baby one, so we've got a 24-track, eight-bus desk — and it's stunning.” The 24-channel frame also made sense for the type of music that 160DL studios has been built to support. “Our interest is in allowing musicians who might be stuck on their laptops to be able to capture real instruments in an immaculately tuned space. It's very rare that we will need more than 24 microphones in the room,” he says. Since opening, the facility has attracted projects by Actress and Suzanne Ciani, The Avalanches, The Blessed Madonna, Hudson Mohawke, D Double E and The Prodigy.

One of the main benefits of the 32Classic for 160DL is the console’s built-in high-performance 48-channel Dante interface and A/D and D/A converters. “We've had people using the console to track piano with their computer plugged into a network socket in the live room. They've been able to run everything through the preamps, set levels, and then track their own sessions from the live space. We've also had different producers come in, plug their laptops straight in and route stuff around the desk. It’s been great. Plus, it's got really pretty VU meters.”

Harrison's D510 500 Series System with D510dante interface
The studio has also networked Harrison Audio’s D510dante — the only 500 Series rack with swappable Dante or USB+ADAT interface — with the 32Classic console. The 10-slot rack is fitted with eight of Harrison’s Comp dynamic modules and an SSL Stereo Bus Compressor. “The rack is very versatile and the fact that the compressors can be routed to any channel, with only a patch in the Dante controller software, is great,” he says. “It’s a highly flexible unit that makes hybrid workflows seamless.”

The studio complex was envisaged as a collaborative hub centered around the central studios. The acoustic design was a collaboration between the in-house team and Essex-based design and acoustics consultants Yellow Technology. The interior design was by Helene Bowden Design. Matt Boltman handled the studio construction. “It’s been very much a team effort.” Clapworthy says.

The latest equipment, and aspiring young producers
The former industrial building is shared by Standalone Gallery, which supports emerging artists in the community and encourages experimentation and cross-disciplinary projects. The facility is also home to musical artists including Absolute, Bimini, The Blessed Madonna, Humble the Great, Mount Kimbie, Olly Burden (The Prodigy), Pat Alvarez and Warp Music. "The Dante system allows us to route audio anywhere in the building via ethernet," he notes.

“We’re also leaning heavily into education, particularly for young producers,” Clapworthy says. “We’ve launched a workshop series for women and gender-non-binary musicians. The first session is intentionally low-stakes, based around listening, feedback and confidence-building. In 2026, we will be mentoring musicians to become confident in the studio, and to use the tools that are in more traditional recording studios, not just in-the-box stuff”

The programme will run in chapters, offering both one-to-one and group sessions tailored to each cohort. Several of 160DL’s artists-in-residence have already committed as mentors, alongside A&Rs from major labels. More information is available on 160DL’s instagram www.instagram.com/160DLstudios.

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.