Abbey Road News

Abbey Road Studios at The Times BFI 53rd London Film Festival

2009-11-11T07:30:54+00:00

We are currently celebrating playing a role in the success of three films featured in the The Times BFI 53rd London Film Festival.Winner of Best Film Award at the festival following a Grand Prix at Cannes, Un Prophete was directed by Jacques Audiard with music composed by Alexandre Desplat. The score was recorded and mixed by Abbey Road Engineer, Andrew Dudman at Guillaume Tell Studios in Paris.Opening the festival was the film Fantastic Mr Fox again featuring composer Alexandre Desplat, the score was recorded in Abbey Road's Studios One and Two by Abbey Road engineers Andrew Dudman and  Peter Cobbin and mixed by Andrew Dudman in the Penthouse. And closing the 53rd London Film Festival was the film, No Where Boy. Directed by Sam Taylor-Wood with composition by Goldfrapp's Will Gregory and Alison Goldfrapp, recorded and mixed at Abbey Road Studios by Abbey Road engineer Andrew Dudman.

EMI Music launches a new live music recording and production service through Abbey Road

2009-11-11T07:30:54+00:00

EMI Music is launching a new live music recording and instant production service, Abbey Road Live, enabling live music fans the opportunity to instantly purchase high quality live recordings of shows they have just attended.  Mixed and mastered on site by a dedicated crew of experts, the recordings will be made available in a range of formats including CD, DVD and USBs or via secure digital delivery to home computers or mobile handsets as streams or downloads. The service is going to now be offered through Abbey Road and expands upon the success of Live Here Now which was established in 2004 by Mute Records, an EMI label.  Live Here Now has produced and sold instant live recordings for artists such as Blur and their highly acclaimed reunion concerts in London�s Hyde Park in July; for Depeche Mode on both its current and 2006 global tours; Franz Ferdinand, for several UK dates this summer; Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds live at Royal Albert Hall; The Pixies for their recent European tour; as well as for Goldfrapp, Moby, Status Quo and The Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, among others.Simon Miller, Senior Vice President of New Product Development and Live at EMI, said: �We�re offering fans the ultimate encore.  Being able to take home high quality recordings of a show they�ve just seen is something we�re seeing great demand for from music lovers and it�s also a service that artists and labels are very interested in.  Abbey Road Live takes the excellent standards, technology and expertise of the legendary Abbey Road Studios and brings them to the live music arena to offer a compelling new proposition for fans and an excellent service for artists, promoters and venues.  For Abbey Road Live, we have set the same high benchmark for quality and innovation as the Studios have consistently delivered over the years.�

Watch Florence & The Machine's secret gig at Abbey Road

2009-11-11T07:30:54+00:00

On 1st October, Mercury Music Prize nominees Florence & The Machine came to Abbey Road to play a secret gig to celebrate the first birthday of Absolute Radio.The exclusive performance in Studio Two featured all four singles from their critically acclaimed album �Lungs� as well as a cover of The Beatles� classic �Oh Darling�.The performance is available to watch in its entirety at absoluteradio.co.ukFlorence & The Machine can also be seen in the forthcoming third series of Live From Abbey Road, due to begin in the UK later this month and in the US in November.

Classic FM Gramophone Awards 2009

2009-11-11T07:30:54+00:00

The 2009 Classic FM Gramophone Awards took place last week at London�s Dorchester Hotel and we�re delighted to have worked on two of the winning recordings.EMI Classics� new studio recording of Puccini�s Madama Butterfly � produced by David Groves, engineered by Jonathan Allen and edited by Simon Kiln � won the Opera category. Performed by the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia with Angela Gheorghiu and Jonas Kaufmann, and conducted by Antonio Pappano, it was recorded at Rome�s Santa Cecilia in July last year. The album went to No. 1 in the UK Classical Charts on release, with The Times describing it as "immaculately recorded, spacious and evocative."In addition, the Editor�s Choice award went to the Onyx Classics� recording of Stephen Kovacevich performing Beethoven�s Diabelli Variations. It was recorded with the Abbey Road Mobile at the Wyastone Concert Hall in Gwent, with Simon Kiln producing and editing. Gramophone Magazine said of the recording: �His understanding of Beethoven's juxtapositions of beauty and crudity, reflection and action, and the sheer dynamic range, are fully exposed in this new version, which captures the piano sound beautifully.�For a full list of winners, please visit classicfm.co.uk

Score for Into The Storm receives Emmy for Outstanding Music Composition

2009-11-11T07:30:54+00:00

We are delighted to announce that Howard Goodall�s score for the HBO/BBC film Into The Storm, recorded at Abbey Road, has won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special (Original Dramatic Score).The film, starring Brendan Gleeson, portrays Winston Churchill�s days in office during World War II. The score was recorded by Peter Cobbin in Studio One of Abbey Road in December 2008, with Lewis Jones and Gordon Davidson assisting. The photograph above of Howard in Studio One was taken by Peter Cobbin during the session.The 61st Primetime Emmy Awards will take place on 20th September. Into The Storm is nominated in 13 other categories. For full details, please visit www.emmys.com

Album for Children In Need recorded at Abbey Road

2009-11-11T07:30:54+00:00

Sir Terry Wogan visited Abbey Road recently to record tracks for a new album in aid of Children In Need, alongside a number of stars including former Rolling Stone Bill Wyman and Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason.The album, Bandaged TOGether, is a project organised by fans of Sir Terry known as TOGs (Terry�s Old Geezers and Gals). Having scored a top three single hit at Christmas last year and an album which raised over �250,000 for the cause, the TOGs gathered in Studio Two of Abbey Road to record the follow-up with some of Sir Terry�s fellow Radio 2 presenters and stars such as Midge Ure, Lee Mead, Elaine Page, Aled Jones, and of course Pudsey the Bear.And a super group including Sir Terry, Sharon Corr, Lee Mead, Samantha Bond, Clair Teal, Adrian Edmondson and Haley Westenra recorded the Beatles� �All You Need Is Love�, with Nick Mason on drums and Bill Wyman on bass, in the same studio that the song was originally recorded.Bandaged TOGether was produced by Adrian Chivers and engineered by Andrew Dudman, with Andrew Kitchen and Peter Hutchings assisting. It is due to be released in October with proceeds going to Children In Need.For more information please visit www.bandaged.org.uk

Abbey Road celebrates the launch of The Beatles remastered catalogue

2009-11-11T07:30:54+00:00

Following a four-year project by a dedicated team of Abbey Road engineers, the entire original Beatles catalogue, digitally remastered for the very first time, was released on 9th September.Coordinated by Allan Rouse, the Abbey Road team consisted of Guy Massey (Senior Recording Engineer), Steve Rooke (Senior Mastering Engineer), Paul Hicks (Recording Engineer), Sean Magee (Mastering Engineer), Sam Okell (Recording Engineer) and Simon Gibson (Audio Restoration Engineer). Using a combination of Abbey Road�s state-of-the-art recording technology and unique vintage equipment, the team have remastered the catalogue to the highest fidelity seen since its original release, while taking great care to maintain the authenticity and integrity of the original analogue recordings.The remastering process commenced with an extensive period auditioning Abbey Road�s collection of tape machines, from various eras, to determine which would provide the highest quality transfer of the master tapes into the digital medium. De-noising technology associated with remastering was also used, but subtly and sparingly. Eventually, less than five of the 525 minutes of Beatles music was subjected to this process. Some overall limiting was applied, but on the stereo versions only. It was unanimously agreed that because of the importance of The Beatles� music, limiting would only be used moderately � to increase the volume level of the CD to relative parity with that of modern music, but retaining the original dynamics of the recordings.Once all of the albums had been transferred, considerable thought was given to the audio restorative process. To preserve the character of the original recordings, it was decided that any performance-based imperfections, such as breaths and coughs, should be retained. Other faults and noises from the original masters, such as microphone pops or tape dropouts, were addressed on both the mono and stereo versions of the albums.Following restoration, the mastering process could begin on all 13 albums. Comparisons were made with the original master tapes at every stage and, once an album had been mastered, it was auditioned in Abbey Road�s Studio Three � where all other recent Beatles mixing projects had taken place. Each album was subject to a rigorous approval process, with further EQ alterations performed until the satisfaction of the entire team had been gained.Simon said of the restoration, �care was always taken to make sure that whatever we did had no negative effect on the resulting audio - the aim is always to end up with audio that is as close as possible to the original, recorded studio sound.�The remasters were released on 9th September through EMI Music and Apple Corps.

Abbey Road's work on 'The Beatles: Rock Band' project

2009-11-11T07:30:54+00:00

In addition to the Remastered catalogue, the highly anticipated The Beatles: Rock Band video game was released this week to great acclaim. Abbey Road�s Surround Mastering and Restoration Engineer, Simon Gibson, describes his work on the project. For The Beatles: Rockband game, which gives players the opportunity to perform Beatles songs in a virtual Abbey Road Studio Two, Simon worked closely with Giles Martin and Paul Hicks, who were responsible for producing and mixing the individual songs for the game's developers, Harmonix. Simon used the Cedar Retouch software in new and innovative ways to help isolate the individual instruments and voices within a recorded mono tape track.  �Many of The Beatles� earlier recordings had the different musical lines recorded on only two or four tracks of the tape,� Simon explains, �meaning that two or three instrumental and vocal lines are often found recorded together.  In order to use these songs within the game, we needed to be able to have individual control over the instruments and voices, which meant splitting them apart�.  By zeroing in on the exact frequencies of the bass guitar, for instance, Simon could use Retouch to effectively 'rub out' these notes. Subsequent work by Paul Hicks isolated the individual instrumental lines for the game. This novel way of using Retouch proved to be extremely laborious, but yielded great results. Simon�s work has made it possible for the majority of The Beatles catalogue to be available for use in the game � one of the main requirements for getting the go-ahead from the remaining band members.

Live From Abbey Road - Series Three

2009-11-11T07:30:54+00:00

Live From Abbey Road is currently wrapping up filming its third series of captivating live performances by 33 of the world�s finest musical artists at Abbey Road studios.  With a stunning roster of musical talent � from legendary performers such as Green Day, YusUf and PJ Harvey, to exciting new artists such as Bat For Lashes, Fleet Foxes and Florence & The Machine � eleven of the episodes in the new series will continue the format of featuring three artists per show.  However, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of The Beatles� Abbey Road album, the series will culminate in an Abbey Road album covers show, showcasing a selection of the acts� interpretations of songs from this iconic album � from the studio in which it was originally recorded.There is still neither an audience nor presenter to be found disrupting the artists� creative flow, as the Live From Abbey Road sessions stay as faithful as possible to the recreation of a studio recording environment. However there is a change of format this year, as the viewer is transported between the three musicians� realms after every song; enhancing the contrast between different genres and experiences of musicianship, and heightening the pace and enjoyment of each episode. Live From Abbey Road Series Three will broadcast in the UK from October 2009 and in the US from November.

Killzone 2 - Behind the scenes at Abbey Road

2009-11-11T07:30:54+00:00

In November 2008 composer Joris de Man brought Killzone 2 to Abbey Road. The score for the critically acclaimed Playstation 3 game was recorded in Studio One with the Nimrod Studio Orchestra and engineered by Andrew Dudman.Joris asked independent producers Open Book to document his experience and in the film he tells us how he has made the music for Killzone over the years.An excerpt from the film, showing behind the scenes footage from the recording sessions in Studio One, can be seen below. To see the full version, please visit www.jorisdeman.com