Novation · The Portal · Wapping
Write it with your hands, not your mouse
A Novation 61SL MkIII keyboard and a Circuit Rhythm sampler, both set up and ready in The Portal. One lets you play a part properly. The other lets you chop a sample without touching a computer at all. Both are included in the £50 per hour music rate.
Why having these in the room changes the session
Most people now write music by drawing it. You click notes onto a grid, you nudge them until they sit right, and what comes out is correct and slightly lifeless. It is not a skill problem. It is that a mouse has one finger, no velocity and no timing.
Playing a part changes the part. You hit some notes harder than others without deciding to. You land fractionally behind the beat on the ones that should breathe. You play the chord you can reach rather than the one you planned, and it turns out to be better. None of that survives being drawn in. It is the single biggest difference between a demo that sounds programmed and one that sounds played.
The same is true of sampling. Chopping a loop on a screen is an editing job. Chopping it across sixteen pads, with your fingers, while it is running, is a performance, and you find things you would never have found by looking at a waveform.
Both of these are in The Portal because a booking here should let you do something you cannot do at your desk at home. See the full equipment list for everything else in the room.
The two instruments
Novation · 61SL MkIII
The keyboard
Sixty-one semi-weighted keys with aftertouch, scanned at 10 kHz so fast playing and quiet playing both register the way you meant them. Each key has an RGB light under it, which sounds like decoration and is not: set a scale and the keys you can safely play light up, which is quietly brilliant if you are writing in a key you do not know well.
It also has an eight-track sequencer built in, with 64 sessions, eight patterns per track and 128 steps per track, so you can build an arrangement on the hardware and never open a plugin. And it has MIDI in and out, USB, and the part almost nobody has: CV, gate and modulation outputs.
Novation · Circuit Rhythm
The sampler
Eight sample tracks, 128 sample slots, up to 32 seconds per sample and 228 seconds in total. Record straight into it from a microphone or a line, then slice it, play it chromatically, reverse it, gate it, loop it, and resample the result back into itself until it stops sounding like where it came from.
Each track runs 32-step patterns that chain up to 256 steps, and there is a proper effects section on board: reverb, delay, sidechain, a bi-directional filter, a master compressor and sixteen punch-in Grid FX for live mangling. It runs on an internal battery for about four hours, so you can take it to the sofa and bring back an idea.
The bit no other studio at this price is offering
Bring your own synth. We can clock it.
The 61SL MkIII has two sets of CV, gate and modulation outputs and a dedicated clock output. In plain terms: if you own an analogue synthesiser, a desktop module or a modular rack, you can bring it here, plug it into the keyboard, and have it played and kept in time with everything else in the room, including your laptop.
This is a surprisingly rare thing to find in a studio you can book by the hour in London. Rooms that support hardware properly usually start at several hundred pounds a day. Rooms at our rate usually give you a MIDI controller and wish you luck. The reason we can do it is simply that we chose a keyboard with the sockets on the back.
So if you have a synth sitting at home that you have never been able to record properly, a sequencer that will not stay in sync with your DAW, or a modular case you have only ever used standalone, bring it. Record it through the Focusrite Scarlett 18i16 interface, monitor it on the ADAM Audio A77H pair, and leave with stems.
Tell us on WhatsApp what you are bringing before the session. We will make sure the right leads are out and the desk has room, so you are not spending your first paid half-hour untangling cables.
Part of a complete chain
Novation is one of three Focusrite Group brands in The Portal, and that is not a coincidence or a marketing line. It means the whole path works together without you configuring anything: you play on the Novation, it records through the Focusrite, and you hear it on the ADAM Audio. One cable to your laptop and you are working.
Play
Novation 61SL MkIII and Circuit Rhythm. Parts and samples, by hand.
Capture
Focusrite Scarlett 18i16 interface. Studio-grade preamps, USB-C to your laptop.
Hear
ADAM Audio A77H. Three-way monitoring down to 34 Hz.
Being straight with you
What these are not
The keyboard is a controller, not a synth
The 61SL MkIII makes no sound of its own. It plays your software instruments, or your hardware. If you arrive expecting built-in pianos and pads, bring a laptop with something on it, or tell us and we will talk through options first.
Semi-weighted is not a piano
The keys are good and they are expressive, but they are not hammer-action. If you are a trained pianist recording a serious piano performance, you will feel the difference and you may want a different room.
Circuit Rhythm has limits by design
Eight tracks, eight voices, 32 seconds per sample. That constraint is the point and it is why people finish things on it. It is not a replacement for a full DAW, and it is not trying to be.
There is a learning curve
If you have never used either, budget twenty minutes of your first session to getting familiar. We will get you started, but we are honest that hour one is partly learning. Most people book two hours the first time for exactly this reason.
Specifications
| Keyboard | 61 semi-weighted keys with aftertouch, 10 kHz scan rate, RGB LED per key |
|---|---|
| Sequencer | 8 tracks · 64 sessions · 8 patterns per track · 16 steps per pattern, 128 steps per track · real-time note, velocity and automation recording |
| MIDI | MIDI in and MIDI out |
| Computer | USB-B |
| Hardware control | 2 × CV, gate and modulation outputs, plus a dedicated clock output |
| Tracks | 8 sample tracks, 8-voice polyphony |
|---|---|
| Sample storage | 128 slots · up to 32 seconds per sample · 228 seconds total per Pack |
| Playback modes | Slice, chromatic, one-shot, gated, looped, reverse · choke groups |
| Sequencer | 32-step patterns per track, chainable to 256 steps |
| Sample controls | Tune, start, length, slope, distortion, high-pass filter, low-pass filter, resonance |
| Effects | Reverb, delay, sidechain, bi-directional filter, master compressor, 16 punch-in Grid FX |
| Recording | Sample directly to the hardware, then slice and resample |
| Power | Internal rechargeable battery, around 4 hours |
Questions people ask
Where can I use a Novation 61SL MkIII or Circuit Rhythm in London?
In The Portal at STU 22, 8-10 Sampson Street, Wapping, London E1W 1NA. Both are set up permanently in the room and both are included in the £50 per hour music studio rate, excluding VAT, with a one-hour minimum. Same-day bookings are welcome when the room is free.
Can I connect my own synthesiser or modular rig?
Yes. The 61SL MkIII has two sets of CV, gate and modulation outputs and a dedicated clock output, so your hardware can be played and kept in time with everything else in the room, including your laptop. Tell us on WhatsApp what you are bringing before the session so the right leads are out and the desk has room.
Do I need to bring a laptop?
For the keyboard, yes, because the 61SL MkIII is a controller and makes no sound of its own. It plays your software instruments or your hardware. The Circuit Rhythm is different: it is completely standalone and needs no computer at all.
I have never used either. Will I waste my session?
We will get you started, but we are honest that part of hour one is learning. Most people book two hours the first time for exactly this reason. If you tell us in advance what you want to make, we will have the room set up so you spend your time making it.
Can I take my samples and sessions away with me?
Yes. You record into your own software on your own laptop, so the session leaves with you. Anything you build on the Circuit Rhythm can be recorded out through the Focusrite Scarlett 18i16 interface into your project before you go.
Is there an extra charge for the Novation equipment?
No. Everything in the room is included in the hourly rate, along with the Focusrite Scarlett 18i16 interface, the ADAM Audio A77H monitors, the acoustics, the power and the Wi-Fi. There is no equipment hire fee and nothing to add at checkout. VAT is excluded from all published rates.
Is the keyboard weighted?
Semi-weighted with aftertouch, not hammer-action. It is expressive and good to play, but a trained pianist recording a serious piano performance will feel the difference.
The Portal · Wapping, East London
£50 an hour, everything included
Novation, Focusrite and ADAM Audio in one room. Bring a laptop, bring your hardware, or bring neither and just sample something. One-hour minimum.
