Cover feature
We’ve got a ticket to ride the faders at the world’s most famous recording studio,
Ask anybody – the layman or the veteran producer – to name a worldfamous recording studio, and one answer will trump all others almost every time. Abbey Road Studios has a reputation higher than all others, and for good reason: The Beatles, Pink Floyd, the LSO, Oasis, Genesis, Radiohead – it all happened here. And there’s a zebra crossing nearby, apparently.
It’s clear that Abbey Road Studios don’t just rely on their heritage, however – they’re also determined to keep an eye on the future; by nurturing music tech start-ups via their Abbey Road Red program; developing plugin replicas of classic Abbey Road and EMI gear with revered developer Waves; and through the opening of two new modern studio rooms: The Gatehouse and The Front Room.
To kick off our exploration and celebration of the studios, Abbey Road’s Head of Products Mirek Stiles take us on an all-access tour and history lesson of their five main studios. Follow us as we take in the orchestral grandeur of Studio One, retread the steps of the Fab Four in the much-documented Studio Two, and explore Abbey Road’s two newest studios (page 24).
After that, it’s time for the main event: we’ll head into The Front Room for an attended session with Abbey Road in-house engineer Gordon Davidson ( The Hobbit, Spektre, Iron
Man). From page 30, you can watch over Gordon’s shoulder in an exclusive 90-minute video session, and see how he uses both hardware and software processing to elevate a track from rough demo to polished masterpiece. As well as being able to grab the video from the cover DVD or from the Vault, you can get before-and-after audio stems and the Pro Tools project from the Vault, too!
And to finish off our celebration of all things Abbey Road, we’ll take an in-depth look at the studio techniques pioneered by the world’s most legendary band (page 42), and discover how their creative relationship with their producer defined how we work in the studio today. Ready? Let’s cross that road, ascend those famous stairs and take a peek inside…