Talk:Abbey Road Studios

Studio two during the 1960's

The console installed for most of the 60's and most used by The Beatles was the REDD.51, not the REDD.17. The REDD.17 was replaced by the REDD.37, the first console built by EMI with four track mixing in mind. By 1964, The 37 was replaced with the REDD.51 which lasted in Studio Two until Nov. 1968.

This is all described in great detail in the extensive "Recording The Beatles" book. Pg. 68 & 113.

Someone please correct. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.156.55.39 (talk) 01:35, 3 October 2009 (UTC)

Though this article lists the AMI Neve and SSL consoles that the studio now uses, it should also dicuss the far more important in-house custom made REDD series consoles, particulary the the legendary REDD. 37 and REDD.51 consoles that were used in the glory days of the 60s. Unlike the ubiquitous newer consoles, these vintage desks were specially engineered, developed, and hand made by EMI exclusively for its own studios. These consoles were made of all hand-wired valve (vacuum tube) circuitry and are often revered as some of the best sounding consoles ever made. It would be simply too expensive today to use the level of quality of circuitry (per channel) that these employed, because consoles today are expected to have, usually, 72 or more channels and way more controls and inputs. You could also mention the famous EMI TG custom made desks (with discreet solid state ciruits) used in the 70s, which were also custom engineeered and made in house. These were also renowned for thier sound quality. [1] [2] Garagepunk66 (talk) 06:51, 18 January 2013 (UTC)

Album cover

Stand outside the studios this summer and I betcher that within half an hour you will see some tourists walking across that crossing with a friend taking their photo.

The article says that the crossing was moved somewhat to the east in the 70's. I don't know. On the beatles cover you can spot some lid of a gas or electrical device in the street, at the edge of the picture on the white bar that Ringo is stepping on with his left foot. I was at Abbey Road on 6 May 2010 and it is still there, in the same spot in the white bar. —Preceding unsigned comment added by FZ (talk • contribs) 14:46, 8 May 2010 (UTC)

This is a very good point; I was there in October 2010 and didn't notice the little box thing on "Ringo's bar" in the crosswalk, but looking at a photo I took, it is there, exactly where it appears on the album. Was the crosswalk actually moved? This page says it was moved "east", but it seems like "south" would be a more accurate description. What is the source for saying it was moved? The evidence seems to point to the contrary. Someone should get to the bottom of this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.240.84.129 (talk) 05:30, 1 December 2010 (UTC)

See my "moved crossing" post lower on this page. Galenfott (talk) 07:10, 2 December 2010 (UTC)

Columbia link

I think the link to Columbia Records is confusing. It links to a page discussing the history of the U.S. Columbia records. I believe that EMI actually merged with a UK company which had been affiliated with the American company, but was not actually a part of it. But I don't know this with enough certainty and detail to feel confident in changing the page myself. Does someone with better knowledge want to take a crack at it?--David Fell 09:46, Apr 13, 2005 (UTC)

No mention of the Red Hot Chili Pepper's cover of The Abbey Road EP? How come?

Ha ha

"The Shadows rejuvenated the studios, breaking with convention, originating overnight recording sessions, allowing new recording techniques. The group opened up the studios to loud, heavy guitar driven music, allowing an easy entrance for the lighter sounds of the Beatles. "

or

"The Beatles rejuvenated the studios, breaking with convention, originating overnight recording sessions, allowing new recording techniques. The group opened up the studios to loud, heavy guitar driven music. "

so which is it? Did they both "rejuvinate" the studio with new recording techniques? J Shultz 22:58, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

I'm going to delet both until someone can give a definite (sourced) answer. -MBlume 00:32, 17 June 2006 (UTC)

POV

I wholeheartedly agree with every word of this paragraph, but that doesn't mean it's not POV:

Starting with their first (heavily laid down) loud and racous (compare 'Twist and shout' with 'Move it') album 'Please please me', through the pop (non R&B copied formula) dominated "A hard days night', the folky/country 'The Beatles for sale', 'Help', 'Rubber soul', The beuatifully pop drenched 'Revolver', the ground breaking "Sgt Peppers", the birth of Rock's "White album", through to the swan song 'Abbey Road', It was the Beatles who broke with tradition, changing recording techniques, and forever changing the boundries of what was considered Popular music. Inventing flanging, backwards recording, automatic double tracking, and the first band to use feedback on a recording, The Beatles utilised Abbey Road studios to full effect.

-MBlume 00:34, 17 June 2006 (UTC)

Help!

Can someone please rescue this poor tortured paragraph (third in History section): Stevage 08:57, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Starting with their first (heavily laid down) loud and racous (compare 'Twist and shout' with 'Move it') album 'Please please me', through the pop (non R&B copied formula) dominated "A hard days night', the folky/country 'The Beatles for sale', 'Help', 'Rubber soul', The beuatifully pop drenched 'Revolver', the ground breaking "Sgt Peppers", the birth of Rock's "White album", through to the swan song 'Abbey Road', It was the Beatles who broke with tradition, changing recording techniques, and forever changing the boundaries of what was considered Popular music.

look up about an inch. I'm sorry, I fully agree with the whole paragraph, but it's really really obvious POV - MBlume 00:13, 10 July 2006 (UTC)

With all due respect

With all due respect, I would suggest modifying the following paragraph:

The chief mastering engineer at Abbey Road was Chris "Vinyl" Blair, who started his career early on as a tape deck operator. He worked his way up the ranks to get to the top. A highlight of Blair's career was receiving an award for Radiohead's Kid A. Blair died on November 7, 2005.

I can understand including a reference to Mr Blair, possibly some sort of detail as to how many years he spent at Abbey Road, rather than just the fact that he died on such and such date. I don't want to delete it as it obviously means something to someone. 83.180.184.252 02:39, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

recordings

Am slightly concerned that the article page may in time become just a list of people/bands that have recorded at Abbey Road. While such a chronological list might be of interest, and I personally think it might, I suggest it be drawn up on a separate article page. The main article could keep the references to those who have had a long-lasting relationship with the studios (e.g. The Beatles, Pink Floyd, etc.) while linking to the chronological list for specific albums, dates, track listings, etc. Likewise for the film references. Feedback please. 83.180.184.252 02:56, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

The article is definitely becoming just a list of albums and film soundtracks recorded at Abbey Road. What can be done about this? --Technopat 22:39, 5 July 2007 (UTC)

Spin it off into a List of artists and albums recorded at Abbey Road Studios? That should concentrate this article on the studios themselves, and provide an opportunity for those wishing to reproduce the studio log-book. I agree the most significant should also be put into a prose section in this article (limited to - say - 10). Kbthompson 09:05, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

Agreed. If you're willing to set up the spin-off page, I'll make the chronological list of recordings and soundtracks. Shall we wait for a couple of weeks for other opinions? Regards, --Technopat 22:03, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

Agreed. This is arguably the most famous recording studios on the planet. The number of people that have or want to record there would make this list miles long. It needs to be a separate spin off to preserve the main articleGreenshinobi (talk) 23:28, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

Abbey road relic

what's considered to be the Abbey Road's relic,don't you know?I've heard it is,but I don't know exactly —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 62.149.1.228 (talk) 19:37, 14 March 2007 (UTC).

List

As per discussion above, re. excessive length of article, etc., have moved the list of film scores recorded to List of film scores recorded at Abbey Road Studios. Will do similar with albums when find time. Please help. Regards, --Technopat 23:09, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

Set up spin-off for List of Pink Floyd albums recorded at Abbey Road Studios and deleted said albums from main body of text. Regs. --Technopat 12:02, 31 October 2007 (UTC)

Architecture category

Removing from 1831 in Architecture and adding to 1813 in Architecture. Some sources give 1831 as the construction of the building, however I'm willing to go with the article. MartinSFSA (talk) 06:51, 28 April 2009 (UTC)

Removed

Oasis recorded their 2008 album, Dig Out Your Soul, in Abbey Road, the first time they have recorded a full album there. They attempted to record 1997's Be Here Now but got thrown out because, according to Noel Gallagher, "They were too young and a bit mad back then".

Dig Out Your Soul was originally going to be recorded at the Boardwalk in Manchester where Oasis originally rehearsed, but apparently Liam said to Noel, "Fuck that, let's do it at Abbey Road. We're all Beatle-heads, and they did all their stuff there."

--Technopat (talk) 06:10, 7 October 2009 (UTC)

"moved" crossing

I edited the page to remove the fallacy that the famous zebra crossing has ever been moved. See my webpage at http://www.grundoon.com/Abbey_Road.html for photographic evidence. And it's worth noting that according to the History page, the edits about the moving of the crossing were made on April Fools' Day, 2008. Galenfott (talk) 17:49, 1 December 2010 (UTC)

Beatles RfC

You are invited to participate in an RfC at Wikipedia talk:Requests for mediation/The Beatles on the issue of capitalising the definite article when mentioning that band's name in running prose. This long-standing dispute is the subject of an open mediation case and we are requesting your help with determining the current community consensus. Thank you for your time. For the mediators. ~ GabeMc ^{(talk|contribs)} 00:08, 23 September 2012 (UTC)

Loudspeaker models

Ainsley117 wrote that Altec speakers are featured. As far as I can figure, the studio monitors at Abbey Road Studios are various, but they do not currently feature Altecs.

• Studio One: "The monitoring is provided by three B&W Nautilus 800D Loudspeakers and five HTM1 rear speakers fully configured for surround monitoring up to 7.1 channels."
• Studio Two: "...the room houses a Bowers & Wilkins 5.1 surround monitoring system. A wide variety of nearfield speakers are also available."
• Studio Three: "The room has Quested stereo monitoring in addition to a 5.1 B&W 800D set up."
• Penthouse Studio: "Monitoring is provided by five B&W Nautilus 800D speakers."
• Studio 52: "...B&W and Adams monitoring."

This shows that the majority of monitoring loudspeakers are Bowers & Wilkins (B&W) with some Quested and Adams. Everything else at Abbey Road is reduced to "also available". Altec loudspeakers cannot be said to be in prominent use at Abbey Road Studios. Binksternet (talk) 16:30, 20 February 2013 (UTC)

External links modified

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Assessment comment

The comment(s) below were originally left at Talk:Abbey Road Studios/Comments, and are posted here for posterity. Following several discussions in past years, these subpages are now deprecated. The comments may be irrelevant or outdated; if so, please feel free to remove this section.

*Needs sections and more background. -Lar (4 March 2006) Abbey_Road_Studios#Film_scores seems to be excessively large given the size of the article. Might be better if it was split off into a new List article.- Steve (4 March 2006)

Last edited at 00:16, 4 July 2006 (UTC). Substituted at 06:28, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

When did the studio change names?

An article in the November 2012 issue of Sound on Sound states "EMI Studios ... was officially renamed Abbey Road Studios in 1970". Meanwhile, in Kenneth Womack's 2019 book Solid State: The Story of Abbey Road and the End of the Beatles (Cornell University Press), he states the following:

When he was promoted as the operation's general manager in 1974, Ken Townsend began the process of rebranding EMI Studios as Abbey Road Studios. Made official in 1976, the rechristening proved to be a deft marketing move that has ensured the building's much-deserved global fame. (p. 237).

Womack's source may be chapter one of Brian Southall and Ruper Perry's 2009 book Northern Songs: The True Story of the Beatles Song Publishing Empire (Omnibus), but it's hard to tell from his endnote formatting (I don't have access to Southall and Perry's book). Womack interviewed Townsend and numerous other people associated with the studio for the book.

I've looked through WorldRadioHistory.com to see if there were any contemporary articles in the 1970s detailing the name change, but I've come up empty. The only pre-1975 article I've found referencing "Abbey Road Studios" is in the 12 February 1972 issue of Disc and Music Echo magazine, where Paul McCartney calls it "E.M.I's Abbey Road Studios" (p. 8). Can anyone find any more sources that might shed more light on the change? Tkbrett (✉) 17:37, 27 June 2022 (UTC)

Please - more info about...

... the non-pop musical artists. Classical music, spoken word, comedy... 123.243.150.168 (talk) 01:25, 19 February 2024 (UTC)