Harrison 32Classic Console—A Mix Real-World Review

New York, NY (July 28, 2025)—I remember the first time I saw a Harrison console. The year was 1976. It was down the hall in a backroom at the CBS owned and operated music studio in San Francisco. Producer David Rubinson subleased a room in that building, and he installed one of the world’s first “In-Line” consoles: a Harrison 4032. Herbie Hancock was working that day on one of the many albums he made at that board.

Multiple artists used Harrison consoles to make iconic albums that we still hold in high regard. Fleetwood Mac, Michael Jackson, ABBA, Queen, Frank Zappa and Steely Dan all worked on Harrison consoles. As did industry-renowned engineers Bruce Swedien, Roger Nichols, Reinhold Mack, and many others. Fast-forward to today, and Harrison has created the 32Classic, a thoroughly modern console inspired by its analog parentage.

Based on this impressive track record, Harrison could have just re-released a version of the original—but they didn’t. The 32Classic is a modern incarnation of the original designs, upgraded with the highest-quality components, such as gold-plated switches, long-life conductive plastic potentiometers, and Jensen transformers in the mic preamps and on the mix output. Ergonomics and integration with DAWs factored heavily in the design, as the target user is the owner of a smaller-to mid-sized DAW-based recording studio.

Harrison certainly has the credentials to cater to that market. More than 50 years ago, Dave Harrison came up with the idea of the “In Line” console. Prior to that, multichannel consoles were split into two sections: a main section for recording and a monitor section for simple monitoring. The in-line design put both paths of the console—the Record path and the Monitor path—on the same channel, and the same circuit board, which reduced the size of the console and lowered the cost.

EQ, CONVERSION AND DANTE

There are other manufacturers of medium-sized in-line consoles, so what makes the Harrison 32Classic stand out? For starters, the filters and the 4-band EQs are based on the original 32C circuits. The EQ is a proportional-Q design, which means the width of the cut or boost narrows as the amount changes. Each band’s frequency range overlaps with the next band, and the highest and lowest knobs can be switched to a shelf.

This type of EQ is intuitive and easy to use, especially when looking for problem frequencies or game-winning enhancements. At first glance, the ±10dB gain range seemed limited, but twisting the knobs proved otherwise, as they imparted a clean and sweet footprint to the sound. The 12dB/octave filters are gentle and completely overlap, so if they are both engaged and fully rotated, the signal is nonexistent.

These two features are largely responsible for the “vintage” aspect to the console; a modern feature that stands out is the builtin Dante and converter integration. Looking to source the best possible components, Harrison chose Asahi Kasei Microdevices Velvet converters and designed its own interface between the console and converters. You could say that these converters are over-engineered, seeing as they support input rates of up to 768 kHz PCM at 32-bit, but that fits right in with a design philosophy emphasizing the best possible components.

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The console is designed to run at 96 kHz (or lower), and because most Dante devices support 32 channels at 96k, Harrison needed to build two physical Dante interfaces with 32 channels of A/D and D/A in each unit—a total of 64 channels. The first interface handles the 32 channels of I/O from the channel strips; the second interface is for I/O on the buses/Master/ Monitor section.

The second Dante interface is only using 20 channels IN and 16 channels OUT, so there is room for future expansion. Because the converters and Dante interface are literally in the console, they have very short signal paths. Short connections are a hallmark of pristine audio, and that is evident in the 32Classic.

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Every channel has a direct out that is wired within the console to the input of the A/D. The same is true for the D/A going back in. With all this digital connectivity, a single ethernet connection to the computer is all you need to plug in, load up your DAW and Dante Virtual Soundcard, and start making music.

I need to say something here about the cue/matrix modules, a cool feature not found on comparable boards. Matrix submixers are common on live sound consoles, but the 32Classic is the first studio console I have seen that incorporates a matrix. If you don’t know what a matrix is, think of it as a mixer within a mixer. Every single output of the 32Classic shows up in the matrix: 5 aux, the “return mix,” 8 sub buses, 2 external inputs, a stereo Dante input, the main mix, plus a talkback and solo button, overall level and mute.

There are three stereo cue/matrixes that can be used for multiple purposes, but most likely for headphone, cue mixes. Talkback is implemented here with individual buttons on each cue/ matrix (which could be useful when you ask the drummer if they want you to turn off the artist’s husband who is playing congas). There is also a Talkback-all button that hits everyone at once.

ERGONOMICS

Harrison obviously thought about convenience and comfort. The first thing you notice is the generously sized shelf at the mix position. It is a two-tiered front bolster that is wide and deep enough to place a computer keyboard, laptop, mouse, a music keyboard or drum pad, phone, iPad, lunch… you get the picture. Along the back of the console, behind the meter bridge, there is a shelf for computer monitor(s) and/or near-field speakers. The whole console was configured so that you could work while sitting down. In the words of Gary Thielman, president of Harrison and designer of the console, “If I can’t reach it, it’s not going in the console!”

There were also small but notable changes based on years of user feedback. For starters, they widened the channel strip to get a bit more space in between the EQ knobs. The master mix fader is now placed above the monitor fader and mute on the master module. This was done to avoid inadvertent bumping of the master mix fader, considering the monitor fader and mute are accessed more frequently.

Likewise, the ¼-inch/XLR Mic/DI input has been placed near the top of the master module. The idea was to have a super-convenient way to do a last-minute overdub. It is the same design as the channel mic preamplifiers, but with an electronically balanced input instead of the Jensen transformer. (A sonic option!) It is prewired to every input channel, and with the push of a button, it can be selected as the source for any of the 32 input modules.

COME BACK TOMORROW FOR THE CONCLUSION!