RECORDING

Conceived by Rolling Stones tour manager Ian Stewart and built in 1968, the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio (RSM) was the first ever professional mobile recording studio.

The mobility of the truck and flexibility of its recording equipment allowed the RSM to capture some of the most iconic rock ‘n’ roll records of all time, including:

* Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main Street – The Rolling Stones
* Zeppelin III and Zeppelin IV – Led Zeppelin
* Machine Head, Burn, and Live in Europe – Deep Purple
* Penguin and Mystery to Me – Fleetwood Mac
* Live! – Bob Marley and The Wailers
* Alchemy: Dire Straits Live – Dire Straits
* Harvest – Neil Young
* Live in Italy – Lou Reed

The RSM is even referenced in the Deep Purple song “Smoke on the Water,” which tells the story of how the mobile studio was almost destroyed by fire when the band recorded in Montreux, Switzerland.

The RSM was used as a mobile control room giving artists the flexibility to record wherever and whenever they wanted and cutting down on studio costs.

Former Stones bassist Bill Wyman bought the truck in the mid 80s and used it for the Ambition Invention Motivation Success (AIMS) project, providing free recording facilities to emerging artists throughout England.

Acquired by the National Music Centre in 2001, the RSM and its Helios console have been restored and are now parked next to the King Eddy stage, a historic live music venue, where they can record and live stream new music directly from the stage or connect to any of National Music Centre's unique live rooms.

This Olympic recording console is a one-of-a-kind analog console built in-house in 1976 by Olympic Sound Studios in London, England. Designed by Olympic’s chief engineer Keith Grant, the console replaced their original Studio A desk created by Dick Swettenham, who later established Helios Electronics Ltd.

Olympic’s renowned custom recording equipment and sound engineers attracted the likes of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, The Who, The Kinks and David Bowie.

Installed at Olympic Studios in the late 70s, this console recorded artists such as Eric Clapton, Elvis Costello and Barbra Streisand.

Today, fully integrated into National Music Centre's Control Room B recording studio, it is used for large tracking and mixing sessions by new and established artists.

Trident Studios began production of their Trident A-Range recording console after failed attempts to get a custom mixing console built for their London studio. Their line of consoles was formally named TRIAD, which stood for Trident Audio Developments, though the consoles were known colloquially as "Trident."

These legendary consoles are responsible for some of the most classic records of all time from artists such as David Bowie, Elton John, Queen, Rush and Metallica.

Today, fully integrated into National Music Centre's Control Room A recording studio, it is used for large tracking and mixing sessions by new and established artists.