Creative Cribs -
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- Опубліковано 31 тра 2024
- We take a deep dive into the most famous recording location in the world: Abbey Road Studio Two.
Guided by @abbeyroad 's Head of Audio Products, Mirek Stiles, follow the history, unique gear and curiosities of this studio, home to some of the most legendary recordings from The Beatles, Pink Floyd to Radiohead, and many more.
Contents:
00:00 - Entering The Room
05:08 - The Pianos
07:27 - The Echo chamber
09:19 - The Mic cupboard
17:54 - The Control Room
#SpitfireAudio #InspireAGenerationOfComposers #CreativeCribs #AbbeyRoad #StudioTwo #SampleLibraries
Recorded a score there just last month. Covid meant social distancing so... strings in One and winds in Two. And it worked. You can always rely on the Abbey Road crew to be at the bleeding edge of creativity and just making things work. Been going there for over thirty years now and still get the shivers down the spine walking through the door.
It's why I have my own little project studio, not able to record at Abbey Road.....but it's what inspires me to have my own.
You must have had an amazing career……nice to hear.
🙏
You say that so nonchalant 😆 working in that studio is a life goal for me on my bucket list and for you it’s a F#*king typical Thursday 🤦♂️WTF 🤣🤣. Never take your blessings for granted my friend 🙏
@@ProdbyCeeSick - here's to you achieving your goals and having an awesome 2022. 🙏
OMG! I used to have to line up a Studer J37 every morning in 1970! NOT fun. As the preset pots were accessed through the tops of the modules you had to pull out the top two sets to adjust the bottom two first and the replace the top two and adjust them, while crouching down and fumbling the top buttons to get the tape above to spool and play. We used to make our own test tapes as well. But the risk in analogue recording used to give everything that "edge" which today digital has defeated! Happy Days!
As a young man in the late 70's, I worked in 2 on a jazz/rock album engineered by Jeff Jarratt. Couldn't believe my luck.
Just DI 'd my P bass and it sounded brilliant - and still does!
Memories...
I loved to see him with the thumb on the tape flange. We'd run a Studer 2" 24 track and the Studer A100 1" 2-track at the same time. mark the head (tape) of the song with a white grease pencil to be sure of sync on each pass. Then the guitar solo plays to the 2-track first and we'd thumb flange the 1" machine for manual flanging. Then the 1" machine fed signal to the 2" Studer. circa 1981. Great days. All thru a Neve 8038. Great vid Christian.
By sheer chance and some good luck I got in to "The Beatles At Abbey Road" presentation on either the first or second day back in July 1983. It was the first time the public was allowed into EMI/Abbey Road. Due to major work being done on the control room they decided to put together an audio/video presentation and sell tickets which ran for about 6 weeks. With permission from the Beatles/Apple they were able to use alternate takes for the program. This was the first time this stuff had ever been heard. All of the material would appear on bootlegs and eventually be released on the Anthology series.
It was an incredible experience when the lights went down and the presentation started, to hear never before heard Beatles session recordings, in Studio Two, on the EMI Altec 612 monitors (with the Altec 605a drivers). A peak "religious experience", um, in my life.
As far as I know, there have been no public events in Abbey Road/Studio Two since then, until just recently, in November 2021.
I emailed ahead and tried booking a session on a whim when I was visiting London in 2012. No such luck just getting in for a few hours! Ended up visiting outside and getting a photo at the gate. It's still a dream to record there!
Recorded Studio One with London Philharmonic, Glyndebourne Chorus + Principals - and Wayne Marshall as Jasbo Brown - on the horrid Upright piano which I tuned under his direction. I had conferred with Simon Rattle (Conductor) over the tuning as I felt that a community, like Catfish Row, who couldn't afford to bury their dead could hardly afford the services of a qualified Piano Tuner. This was agreed, so Wayne & I collaborated before every performance in getting that old upright to be suitably out of tune - yet basically at A=440 for the sake of the LPO in the Pit. And this is what happened at Abbey Road for the recording session in 1986. This sound track was used as a backing track for the later dubbing of the Video recording with the original Glyndebourne cast.
Thanks for this all-too-brief tour of "The Holiest of Holies" for music worshippers!
Studio 2 is holy ground. I hope to visit before I die.
The reverb in that room is mad..you can really hear it while they are talking.
Oh no the video editor messed up the close-up on the m49 with a close-up of the m50! 😂 The m49 doesn't have the sphere around it. It's a dual diaphragm, pressure gradient capsule. Whereas the m50 is a pressure gradient mic, with the sphere for greater HF directionality. Nevertheless, super cool video thank you!
Even the soundtrack of this video is perfectly recorded and processed
I was thinking the same!
The Beatles Get back was the best 6 hours i've seen in a long time and this is the best cribs i've ever seen. So much history in both the Beatles series and this video. Just love it.
I was in this room and upstairs in the control room. I work and design for MPL (Paul’s licensing co) and visited England in 2004. Got to tour the entire studio. One of the most magical days of my life.
Actually, at 28:43 A Day In The Life used two Four Track machines in tandem to record the Orchestra, utilizing a very primitive synchronizing method that was very hit-or-miss. They recorded the pulse of the motor onto a track of the second machine and then used the recorded pulse to drive the motor of the first machine and keep it at the same speed. It worked perfectly for the Mono mix, but when it came time to do the Stereo mix, they had a different machine. Producer George Martin was pissed, as you can hear the Orchestra is slightly late, but it doesn't matter.
What an honor to tour such a magical place. The energy in that space must be unreal.
Finally I can see what the area the Beatles looked like where they recorded in. I own two Keeley Abbey Verb Chamber guitar pedals which gives me the Beatles guitar sound. Also my Acoustic lead series G120DSP amp gives me the guitar sound. The mid-delay nails down George Harrison's Les Paul Lucy tone sound.
The closest I got was the gift shop, which was actually fascinating in and of itself. Apparently it used to be the main canteen (lunchroom) and there were pictures of the Beatles & George Martin taking their tea between sessions. There were a few pieces of equipment (a tape machine, etc) and loads of pictures everywhere. I of course wish I could've gone through the door in the back that lead to the building proper but just seeing the studio, the zebra crossing and spending time with the clerks who were so cool and generous with their time. Me and the wife had loved London for years and were walking on air the 3 weeks we were there while the clerks were fascinated that we were from Las Vegas. Great day.
I learned basic recording on a Tascam 424 four track and instead of bouncing between 2 four tracks as discussed in the video I 'bounced' the 4 tracks to my DAT machine (flash kit for the mid 90's) and then back to a fresh tape and track(s) on the 424. I use DAW's now but still try and work similarly to the PortaStudio submix days because it does make you commit and sculpt the song in a sensible way, kind of like a painting. Excellent video.
Old place, old gear, all what I like.
More of this, please!
I was privileged to play drums in the isolation room in Studio 2, back in February 2017. They told me I was the first to use it! Everything about the experience was an absolute dream. Hope I can come back one day! Thanks for sharing this.
I bought one of Paul mcCartney’s socks on eBay he left in a hotel in Italy. Cost me $1200 but I smell it every morning, it gives me a mild headache but it’s worth it! 😀
I got emotional when the 47 mic came out. Sublime.
Mind-blowing indeed. They still have a stock of tubes made in the 50s? And a stock of unused EMI tape? What else? Blank clay tablets from Sumer?
No kidding. They apparently have things in that building that would make the Director of the British Museum green with envy,
Wonderful. Thanks for the Magical Mystery Tour
Christian, What made some of those mics were the factories that are no longer that made certain products for the Neumann mics for the capsules etc. just after or before WWII. I hear someone has found some of those products and been able to buy the parts, for some sort of re-release. I'll find out which company did that. BTW, I have Klaus Heyne modified U 87's from the 70's, which can still be modified. I used to have a matched set of U 47's that Klaus modified also. AMAZING mic. I'll fine a picture somewhere. Cheers!!
MAN! This one was SO much for for an old Beatles nerd like I am. It seems though, the M49 guts were also M50 guts, but that's way to technical for most anyone to notice nor care about. It's really hard to imagine all of that classic gear, even the RS124s were ever taken out of use! Thank you both for making this fabulous tour video.
Yep, they borrowed the M50 cutaway for the M49 explainer. He did take the correct mic apart though, you see the right capsule right before he puts it back together haha.
Such a holy space when you think about the large amount of music from your spotify playlist, was created here
Awesome series here Christian wow
Big thank you to Mirek Stiles. What a wealth of knowledge and history he must have. Great host. I assume proficient at his job also. 20 years @ Abbey Road is quite the resume headline.
Wow - that was super interesting - I loved the Neumann valve facts and the old Redd console and BTR machine - Thanks Mirac and Chris
Wonderful walkthrough of Two. An audiophile's dream. So much history. Thanks for giving such a great tour.
Wow, it's totally fantastic to see the inside of this incredible studio. The ultimate moment was when Mirek lifted up the four track and we got to have a look inside. I've never seen anything like it before, and I'm truly in awe at the design and construction of this truly historic machine.
@ Christian - really should have mentioned this - "Before Beatlemania, Abbey Road Studios went by another name: EMI Studios, named after the major recording label that still owns it today. The studio opened its doors on Nov. 12., 1931. In its early days, the studio was known for recording classical pieces, including Edward Elgar's famous Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1. It also played a historic role in recording King George VI's declaration of war against Germany in a 1939 radio broadcast (the story told in the Oscar-winning film The King's Speech)"
I think the Elgar stuff was recorded in Studio one.
@@tomkent4656 Pomp and Circumstance March No 1 , was apparently the first piece of music ever recorded in the newly opened studio . I heard a radio program eons back with a scrap of Elgar's speech to the orchestra , something along the lines of ' Come on lads , we've played this thing to death already , but let's muster some enthusiasm ...'
@@tomkent4656 On 12 November 1931, Elgar performed the trio by itself with the London Symphony Orchestra for the opening of EMI’s Abbey Road studios. The performance was captured on film by Pathe for release on a newsreel. This is the occasion when Elgar's remarks to the players were recorded. After being greeted by the orchestra, Elgar said: “Morning, gentlemen. Glad to see you all. Very light programme this morning. Please play this tune as though you’ve never heard it before.”
A precious time travel through Abbey Road's history. Thank you for the visit.
Very awesome tour by Mirek, what a comfortable guy to be around. I've seen a ton of studio tours and this was the most well paced, informative and guided one of them all.
I agree.
Fascinating - more from the other Studios (One and Three) soon please....
Christian, this was by FAR my favourite cribs yet. Thanks for all you (and the gang) do!
I have four songs off Sgt Pepper with the four individual tracks the most interesting of them is A Day in the Life. The tracks are 1 Bass and Drums, 2 pianos guitars etc… 3 Vocals (Lennon’s vocals especially after Paul’s are very “wet” where as Pauls are very dry like he’s singing into your ear), 4 is the orchestra. I’m sure these as far as the bass and drum track and the track with all the other instruments were comps.
@Lloyd Stout He probably has the digital stems. I have them too.
@@primeporkycut It's part of a huge trove of digital files I downloaded years ago. All these excerpts you see o You Tube are probably pieces of this 50 gig collection of wav files
@@skydogstudio Yes.
This has been awesome, thank you!
Very cool. I am recording my next solo piano CD on that Steinway Grand in June 2022. Goosebumps!!!!
So amazing to have the opportunity to see this classic studio and all its features
It still amazes me that I've been in this room, on my own! It was during a break in a classical recording in studio 1, and I went walkabout.
Why didn't you steal a couple of mics and sold them on ebay :p
As a non-nerd this was surprisingly fascinating. The Red 17 is just amazing, talk about Back in the USSR. And the four track bouncing process, maybe not having so much choice would be a good thing creatively. No one spent two weeks mixing a hi-hat back in those days, it was all about the music. And Mirek certainly knows his onions, very enjoyable. 👍
I wouldn't spend an hour mixing a hi-hat. Does it sound like a set of hats? Yup. Is is stepping all over my mix? Nope. Does it cut through and sit back? Sure does. Done.
Just loved it’s! Much of the soundtrack to my life was created there. Kind of a big deal.
Excellent stuff, I’ve looked at that vintage gear in Beatles books since I was around 8yrs old, (57) this month, so I love getting glimpses of it now and hearing the stories, I’m glad they have hung onto some of it.
Same marketing gumpf as Abbey Road One (with very few legato patches). 400 quid for a quintet? Let the Spitfire nodding sheep bleat away.
Videos like this makes me love youTube. Thanks for sharing. I've now seen things I never dreamed I would ever see. Massively interesting!
Four Tracks - epic recordings on their J37. But I remember Tascam cassette four-tracks well, back in the day. Democratisation of recording process... The planning for the sequence to bounce was hard work! But you did get usable demos that you would be absolutely delighted with at the time. And then came ADAT. Happy days...
I know a few of these magical hardware pieces from Waves and Soundtoys plugins - the Altec EQ, the TG processors, the echo chamber... But surely in Feb 2024 the world of "audio gear replication in software" is a done deal due to AI? So many elements of modelling audio processing can surely be implemented in AI...
Makes me think about the future of DAWs and plugins - will my cool plugins be 'old tech' soon?
Cool vid, enjoyed, very illuminating to a guy who knew nothing joined up about the legendary Abbey Road and Studio 2. Thank you very much!
Always so proud of getting to record with my band there... iconic room, and incredible engineers to top it off.
Visited Abbey Road Studio 2 this November for 90th Anniversary Festival, nice vibe in this room :) Thank you, psychedelic heroes, keep creating weird stuff!
This is the mother of all Creative Cribs! I worked there a few times a while back. Very well done, Christian & SA Team and of course Merrick for the encyclopaedic knowledge! Thanks for the extra interesting content.
A must watch music history lesson! Thank You Christian and Mirek!! Quite engaging!!
What a treat! Terrific interesting and informative video. Listening to Mirek generously share his knowledge and expertise on the equipment being showed adds greatly to touring this incredible studio. So much awesome equipment in one space ... mind boggling. Have enjoyed a few video visits to Abbey Road, but this one is phenomenal. Thank you.
Just did the Lecture tour on 11/21/21. Amazing feeling the Ghosts in that room. The same pianos the Beatles used including the "Mrs Mill's" are still there and sound great!
What an amazing feature! I've always wanted a tour of studio two and just get super nerdy. This was out standing! Such a great job.
I was lucky enough to visit AR a few months ago as part of their 90th birthday celebration. It really does give you shivers as you explore
the studios, especially studio 2. I’ve heard loads of stories about the feeling artist’s experienced entering no2 ( which I thought was BS ) but I’m happy to be proved wrong. If you subscribe to ARS they will notify you if & when they open their doors again.
Thanks for the inside look into recording history at Abbey Road. That history shaped the soundscape of the lives of so many of us who grew up with the amazing music recorded at Abbey Road… I feel blessed to have had such an amazing soundtrack to my life. Thanks to all the musicians, technicians, engineers, and tea ladies that made it all possible.
That was GREAT
Amazing walkthrough of an iconic studio. I am so blessed to have the great Neil Perry of raw state studio developments as my on hand studio tech - a true genius. He has rebuilt a couple of J37's - not least of which the original motown deck, and plenty of stuff that is owned by Abbey road. I scored a 2nd gen Decca 3 band EQ from him a few years back - he re engineered it into a 3u rack with racing green colours and Bakelite knobs - the thing is insane - even just punching it in with flat EQ makes for a million dollar retro sound. There are only 5 left in the world. There is something truly magical about ss much of the 50-60's gear - and I'm sorry... but on a A/B... plugins just don't do it.
I'm jealous. I went to school to be a sound engineer in 2008. All they wanted to teach me was digital. I wanted to learn to record analog so I could record to tape. It's a lost art form. But several years later I'm still dedicated to analog. It's not with out it's challenges but, it's not sitting there downloading drivers and basically losing inspiration thru technological boredom and or stagnation. Hearing this man talk about the mics that the studio keeps inheriting has me gushing like a school girl.
"plugins just don't do it" Seriously though nobody is willing to reissue those analog equipment at full scale. Plugins are unfortunately the only option available. The RS124 and REDD.47 were reissued though.
Thanks For posting!! So Cool. I still remember the 4track days. I would bounce out to vhs beta and then start all over again. Simple but made ya think.
Thanks! Great video!
Great…loved to see this iconic studio….!
Bought this together with Eric’s choir. I now know and understand what hapiness is in it’s purest form. These samples are AMAZING.
Thank you for bringing this series back!!! Plz do more of these!!
This was awesome, thank you so much Christian and Spitfire! Very informative and well produced, we're extremely lucky to be given such an insight into this piece of music history.
This was AMAZING!! thank you for the tour!!
Wow what about the other hour or two! Mirek is a walking Mastermind winner. What recent bands have delved most deeply into the really older gear looking for that sound. Id like to slap some headphones on and see if I can spot it.
What a joy seeing round the studio it always amazes me what great music was created during that golden age in the 1950 -90's without all the technical excess of todays digital use was just pure talent of the artists and engineers in those days
wow those mics! the stories and historic performances they have captured!
Amazing! Thanks for the tour!
Bright spark, flammable! I like it! ;D
Fantastic, it explains the odd stereo recordings from early Beatles.
What a great show! Thank you for this one!
Thank you for the tour! :)
Brilliant video, thanks for investigating.
A fascinating piece of work sir, I’ve never had the joy of visiting Abbey Road. Many thanks for making this!
Absolutely fascinating, Christian. Thanks so much for sharing this!
That was thoroughly enjoyable!
Thank you for doing this. For a certain kind of person, seeing these spaces is a dream that will most likely never be realized. I really got a feel for the studio and the control room. I worked in a very basic studio in the late 80s and studios of this caliber were the dream. I can at least feel like I have experienced a little of the magic. I also appreciated seeing the B&W speakers - I have been a fan of their sound since the first time I heard heard them.
I fair enjoyed that wee tour, thanks!
Fantastic, Christian - thanks!
Excellent work.
this has been gold. many thanks.
Awesome! Great walkthrough! Thanks for sharing.
This was awesome, thanks!!!
What a treat! A wonderful video. Great to see part of musical recording history. Thank you
Drool. My bucket list includes visiting (or especially recording) in this room, but alas as far as I got was to sit on the front steps while on vacation back in 2015 while a session was happening. Just soaking up the vibes!
Wonderful treat, thanks for the tour Mirek
Great work guys. I have no use for ABBEY Roads 2 but I'm still supporting you guys. Keeping my eyes open for what's next.
Excellent video, same for Studio One. I was hoping to see video of the famous Mirror Room, which Waves sampled -- hopefully in the video for Studio Three.
Very cool, thanks!
Lovely, thank you.
Brilliant. Many thanks.
This was fantastic thank you so much! Loved all The Beatles gear & Mirek showing the inner workings of it. Such a fascinating tour thru a magical place!
Fascinating look inside the legendary studio, thanks!
I didn't realise this was a recent video, I really did find this interesting, thank you so much for uploading this educational video! I loved it! Very good questions as well Christian!
Absolutely fantastic! Great peek under the venerable hood. Thanks very much! 🙏🏻
Amazing, hope they tour Studio 1 as well!
This is GREAT, thanks!
I really enjoyed this! Thanks for sharing.
Kudos for the inside views of mics and tape machines. It got my attention when the tape machine got opened up. One slip of the hand there and it's lights out. Here in the states it was more about the studio musicians and not about the equipment.
If you want to listen to the best recording studio engineer ever, check out Bill Porter from the early 60s at RCA in Nashville. I have a playlist of his recordings and it never fails to impress. It was an alchemical mix of talent and technology that will never be duplicated. Porter understood the nuances of microphone phasing and room acoustics, as well as being able to dynamically mix eight mics in real time, to a stereo master, in a 3 hour session.