Where to record with a Jupiter 8, an ARP 2600 and a Waldorf Wave in the UK
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Most studios that advertise vintage synthesizers have four or five. This is a different proposition, so it is worth being specific about what is here and what state it is in.
The size of it
Over 300 pieces of equipment, assembled over more than twenty years as a private collection before it became a studio. Synthesizers, drum machines, samplers, mixers, effects and outboard, from the 1950s through to instruments made now.
The point is not the number. The point is that it is one room, at one address, all patched and all working, rather than a collection you would otherwise have to assemble from six owners across three countries.
Some of what is in it
The rare end. A Yamaha DX1, of which around 140 were ever built. A Waldorf Wave. A Publison Infernal Machine IM90. An Analogue Solutions Colossus. A Serge modular system.
The canon. Roland Jupiter 8. ARP 2600 mk2, ARP Odyssey Mk1, ARP Omni 2, ARP Quadra, and a Solina String Ensemble. Yamaha CS series. Synclavier II.
Sampling and drums. Akai MPC60. E-mu SP-12. Twin Technics 1210s, and a library of over 3,000 LPs and singles to sample from. A 1960s Ludwig Super Classic kit.
The signal chain. A 16-channel SSL Origin console with SSL 500 Series dynamics in the centre section. Neve preamps. A Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor. Lexicon 224. Eventide H3000. Focal monitoring.
The full catalogue is published on the site rather than summarised, because if you are travelling to use a specific instrument you need to know it is here before you book, not after.
The part most listings leave out: condition
A vintage synthesizer that is in a photograph and a vintage synthesizer that will hold tuning through a six-hour session are not the same object.
Everything here is maintained by an in-house technical team who service equipment from Moog, Oberheim, Roland, ARP and Yamaha, on instruments going back to the 1960s. That is the same bench that repairs other people's gear as a separate business, which means the maintenance is a routine rather than a panic.
This is the practical difference. On a machine that has not been touched in fifteen years you spend the first two hours of a session finding out which voices drift, which keys are dead and which envelope is not doing what the panel says. Here you should be able to switch a machine on and use it. If something is out on the day, we will tell you before you book rather than after you have driven up.
We do not claim everything is perfect. Three hundred instruments of this age means there is always something on the bench. We keep the catalogue honest about it.
The rooms
A live room in the sandstone cellars below Royal Oak Yard — the room that was the Sinking Ship, a sixties cave club that Jimi Hendrix played in February 1967 and that burned down six weeks later. A drum, vocal and re-amping room added more recently. The control room around the Origin.
The building is at Revelations House, Royal Oak Yard, Stockport SK1 1JZ — fifteen minutes by train from Manchester Piccadilly and fifteen minutes by taxi from Manchester Airport. That last one matters more than it sounds: people fly in for this.
Who this is actually for
Being honest about fit saves everybody a day.
It suits you if you are making a record where the instruments are the sound — electronic, soundtrack, anything where a specific machine is the reason for the session. It suits you if you want to track a band live to sixteen channels of analogue. It suits you if you have been programming in the box for years and want to find out what changes when the thing makes noise before you touch it.
It suits you less if you want a fast, clean, corrective pop production with everything gridded. That work is done better and cheaper elsewhere, and we would rather say so.
It suits you least if you want to browse. Three hundred instruments is a distraction as much as a resource. The sessions that work here arrive with an idea of what they are reaching for.
Booking
Studio time is booked by enquiry rather than by an online calendar, because most bookings need a conversation first — which room, how many days, whether you need an engineer, and whether the specific instrument you have in mind is available that week.
Tell us the dates and what you are working on and we will confirm availability and pricing by email.
Three per cent of profits go to Shelter.
Resonance Studios is an independent analogue recording studio in Stockport. The full equipment catalogue is on the site.