#dalcon console

More details on Strong Room 2, Nigel’s former mixing room post Covent Garden. From the website:

Nestled away discretely via the main Reception, Studio 2 is Strongroom’s best kept secret. Featuring a spacious, leisurely control room, a sizeable booth and a unique street-side view, this is Strongroom with a difference. Once the go-to studio for hit remix production and surround mixing, Studio 2 was then closed to the public for years as Nigel Godrich’s private facility, until 2018 when the doors opened once more as a joint venture.

Refurbished to feature a minimalist, collaborative approach marrying a selection of artwork from Nigel’s personal collection and original Jamie Reid panelling, Studio 2 brings a new aesthetic to Strongroom for those in search of a contemporary feel with greater environmental control. A large HD projector shines onto a screen behind the mix position and optional coloured lighting with low-noise dimmers allow for full lighting customisation.

Centered around a one-of-a-kind Dalcon console, and with the Strongroom-staple Boxer main monitors, the studio also offers Kii Audio, NS10 and Auratone nearfields along with a selection of classic vintage synthesizers (Moog, Juno, Transcendent 2000 etc). The booth houses a Wendel & Lung upright piano with a clear line of sight to the mix position and exterior windows.

A 32 I/O Pro Tools HDX2 system with an exhaustive list of plugins runs tirelessly on a Mac Pro 6.1 dustbin or, for the analogue fans, a 3M 24-track tape machine and oodles of classic compressors. Outboard effects include AMS, Eventide, Roland and an EMT 140 plate reverb, plus the usual floating Strongroom arsenal available on request.

Hugely versatile and implemented to the highest technical standard with one of the country’s most respected producers, Strongroom 2 is not to be missed.

“Studio 2 is a great sounding control room and a perfect home for my mixing setup. I love working there. It is a calm focused oasis.” – Nigel Godrich (Radiohead, Beck, Paul McCartney, Roger Waters)

So this has been Nigel’s mixing room for the last few years. Interesting to take note of the “minimalist” aesthetic. The room appears designed to adapt to the user, as opposed to the other way around. The lighting can be changed, the gear selection - staples from Nigel’s career - is classic all around, there are a number of tape machines and, as we all know, the console itself is versatile and clean.

https://l.instagram.com/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fspoti.fi%2F2IYGjVt&e=ATONomagCI9cqvOb6HpaHYcyn8SY9uyI0cB4EQb2S-TKvqoksX3g5EeFOpRe8OsxcxbhSVoDK4yKP3wn

On Instagram, Strong Room Studios made a playlist of songs that have passed through Strong Room 2, Nigel’s studio since he left The Hospital in Covent Garden. Included are tracks from Thom Yorke’s Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes, Daydreaming from A Moon Shaped Pool and a bunch of songs that were mixed by David Allen Wrench (Glass Animals, FKA Twigs, Caribou, etc) and Marta Salogni (Binder).

So why is this significant? Well, these tracks were most likely mixed on the Dalcon console so the playlist gives you an idea of what the console is capable of sounding like - super clean and very punchy, by many accounts. Certainly capable of serving any kind of music, as we know from its history at Ocean Way and with Nigel.

I will have a more in-depth post on the Dalcon console in the future. Look for that in the next few weeks.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bo1p1R6AFzQ/

Nigel and Strong Room Studios in the UK have joined up for a “new venture.” More will be revealed in the following week, but they are promoting a “fresh approach” to recording studios. Very curious to see what’s fresh in the process, as a surface glance at the photos reveals a fairly typical layout for a control/mixing room.

From the photos you can see the Dalcon console, the 3M tape machine and possibly a number of other pieces of gear from Nigel. Whether he owns all the rack gear or not, they are staples of his recording career (and a lot of other studios): AMS delay, UREI 1176s, API 550s, Alan Smart C2, E.A.R. 660, Deltalab Effectron, UA 175/176, and a Roland DC-30. There are also some Moog synths in the back (Model D among them) and a Roland Juno 60.

On twitter, after sharing an old rejection letter from the studio, Nigel said the following regarding Strong Room:

“these days I’m fortunate enough to have complete run of Studio 2..“

Source: https://twitter.com/nigelgod/status/1021749821345026048

Studio 2 in the Strong Room complex had been locked out previously and it seems that it was Nigel who was in there (and probably other engineer friends like David Allen Wrench). It’s possible that many of the Instagram photos from David Wrench, Sam Petts-Davies and Nigel himself could’ve been taken in Strong Room 2.