Console folklore is full of great stories \u2014 and a surprising number of them are wrong. This article collects the best-documented cases of famous records and the desks they were made on, with sources, and flags the myths that circulate online.<\/p>\n
EMI built the TG12345<\/strong> in-house for its Abbey Road studios. The first one was installed in the Studio Two control room on 24 November 1968, and it was the desk on which The Beatles recorded Abbey Road<\/strong> between July and August 1969. It was a milestone: a transistor console that doubled the studio’s multitrack capability from four to eight tracks. Later versions (Marks I to IV) remained the main desks at Abbey Road until 1983.<\/p>\n According to Abbey Road Studios, the TG12345 consoles also contributed to Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon<\/strong> and Wish You Were Here<\/strong>. Two of the most analysed albums in audio engineering history were therefore made on consoles EMI designed for its own rooms, not on a commercial product.<\/p>\n Bruce Swedien recorded and mixed Thriller<\/strong> at Westlake Studios in Los Angeles on a Harrison 32C<\/strong> console, between April and November 1982. You will often read that Thriller was made on an SSL; it was not. Harrison, from Nashville, was one of the leading American console makers of the era.<\/p>\n At Townhouse Studios in London, engineer Hugh Padgham worked on one of the first SSL 4000 consoles, with compressors and noise gates on every channel. With Peter Gabriel and then Phil Collins, he used the console’s heavily compressed talkback “listen” microphone and its gates to create the gated drum sound of “In the Air Tonight”. It remains the most famous example of a console feature becoming a sound \u2014 see our SSL 4000 history<\/a>.<\/p>\n Sound City Studios’ Neve 8028<\/strong> recorded Nirvana’s Nevermind<\/strong> and many other rock records. When the studio closed commercially in 2011, Dave Grohl bought the console; his 2013 documentary Sound City<\/em> made it famous far beyond engineering circles. Our Neve 80 series history<\/a> tells the full story.<\/p>\n These stories are not only nostalgia. They explain why certain designs are still built or emulated: SSL’s channel dynamics and bus compressor, Neve’s transformer-coupled preamps, EMI’s in-house approach revived in Abbey Road-branded plug-ins. For today’s options, read our SSL vs Neve vs API<\/a> comparison and our 1980s consoles history<\/a>, and if you are tempted by a piece of history for your own studio, our vintage buying guide.<\/p>\n The Beatles recorded Abbey Road (1969) on the EMI TG12345, installed in Abbey Road’s Studio Two control room in November 1968.<\/p>\n Bruce Swedien recorded and mixed Thriller at Westlake Studios on a Harrison 32C console.<\/p>\n According to Abbey Road Studios, EMI’s TG12345 consoles contributed to The Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here.<\/p>\n Hugh Padgham used an early SSL 4000 console at Townhouse Studios, combining its heavily compressed talkback listen mic with noise gates on the drums.<\/p>\nEMI TG12345 \u2014 Pink Floyd, The Dark Side of the Moon (1973)<\/h2>\n
Harrison 32C \u2014 Michael Jackson, Thriller (1982)<\/h2>\n
SSL 4000 E \u2014 Phil Collins, “In the Air Tonight” (1981)<\/h2>\n
Neve 8028 \u2014 Nirvana, Nevermind (1991)<\/h2>\n
Myths to treat with caution<\/h2>\n
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Why these consoles still matter<\/h2>\n
FAQ<\/h2>\n
What console was Abbey Road recorded on?<\/h3>\n
What console was Thriller recorded on?<\/h3>\n
What console was used for The Dark Side of the Moon?<\/h3>\n
How was the In the Air Tonight drum sound made?<\/h3>\n