Recording the Beatles: The Studio Equipments and Techniques Used to CreateTheir Classic Albums.One of the most valuable lesson I had ever got during my days as a student in audio school was music production class. At the start of the semester, I kept thinking this class was a waste of my time, I rather spend those inside a studio sweating over the SSL or the Neve VR compressing something or eq'ing the drum track to death.
Our instructor was a former engineer himself with track records from the Doobie Brothers, Alman Brothers, Ted Nugent, etc, an old hard drinking hippy who swear by analog tape and will kill any student who utter the word Protools to him.
As a young student, I was all about the digital realm and can't wait to get my hand on the next trendy 'cracked' DAW softwares which were passed around like free mint candy at school.
Dave was my music production history class instructor. All Dave does each day at class was blasting the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Janis Joplin, Coltran, Mile Davis, etc...as he lectured the class over the loud back ground music. The things I learned about his class was the appreciation for good music...more like the true sense of what involve in making good music, outside the technical bullshits and the gears. He taught us everything from how mr. Gordon of Motown used to nailed down, seriously, every single instrument to the floor of the studio and microphone stands dead on the spot and left it that way for years, to make sure that Motown sound will be consistence the same for every albums, how Tom Dowd would approach recording Cream to end up producing the legendary Ray Charles, and how simple it was to record the drum for Led Zeppelin...it was all Bonzo's (John Bohnam's nick name) doing. Did you know Ray Charles, blind as a bat, recorded his own demo at home with a 24 channels analog mixer with an 2" analog tape deck? Yeah, he does it himself with ease...Dave told me about it and years later, I saw the document film on Ray Charles, a must see by the way, showed he was doing it on camera with ease. F**k yeah!
My brain waves and cell, what left of it started to open up beyond the expensive gears, the tube microphones, the compressors in the studio and into the world of music production. I took every chance I got after that to talk to Dave to pick his brain, I had this hunger for how different producer, engineers, and artists approach of creating that wonderful music. One of Dave's favorite topic was how the Beatles and the Beach Boys approach making record. Mind you, I was now blown away by Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band and Pet Sound.
At the time of student years, Protools had just launch its first flag ship system, the Studio 8 which was the talk of the town. By the time I was the senior school, the Mix Plus system from Digidesign was borned and all of us were looking forward to attend class at Digidesign's head quarter itself in Daly City, Ca.
I can still remember the last time I saw Dave, he shook my hand goodbye and told me, "...Duy, with the digital age coming up and how convenience it is to manipulate and to edit sound in a computer. Do not let that get into your head, do not become a great manipulator or editor in the studio. Learn to become a good musical audio engineer." At the time I was not fully understand what Dave meant, but as time gone by and I began to rely more and more on my editing and manipulating skill to fix drum tracks, vocal pitch, and making the guitar sound big...I completely forgot how to CAPTURE MUSIC and the true lost art of music production.
Now these days, thing had changed, if I can help it, I will hold a production time and tell the bass player to go home and practice to get his lines right, the vocalist who can really hit that note, or the drummer who finally find his steady tempo than reach for the magic software wand which can solve it in a second. The artists who toughed it out with me at the end all admit that they had become a better musician and more confident on stage after our recording session.
Ok enough about my bullshit, for years I made it a mission to find out what exactly the microphones and the gears used in all Beatles record, that was easy to find out but the music production part...now that is hard. But no more, thank god there is way to find out and I tell you, it is a wealth of knowledges.
Our instructor was a former engineer himself with track records from the Doobie Brothers, Alman Brothers, Ted Nugent, etc, an old hard drinking hippy who swear by analog tape and will kill any student who utter the word Protools to him.
As a young student, I was all about the digital realm and can't wait to get my hand on the next trendy 'cracked' DAW softwares which were passed around like free mint candy at school.
Dave was my music production history class instructor. All Dave does each day at class was blasting the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Janis Joplin, Coltran, Mile Davis, etc...as he lectured the class over the loud back ground music. The things I learned about his class was the appreciation for good music...more like the true sense of what involve in making good music, outside the technical bullshits and the gears. He taught us everything from how mr. Gordon of Motown used to nailed down, seriously, every single instrument to the floor of the studio and microphone stands dead on the spot and left it that way for years, to make sure that Motown sound will be consistence the same for every albums, how Tom Dowd would approach recording Cream to end up producing the legendary Ray Charles, and how simple it was to record the drum for Led Zeppelin...it was all Bonzo's (John Bohnam's nick name) doing. Did you know Ray Charles, blind as a bat, recorded his own demo at home with a 24 channels analog mixer with an 2" analog tape deck? Yeah, he does it himself with ease...Dave told me about it and years later, I saw the document film on Ray Charles, a must see by the way, showed he was doing it on camera with ease. F**k yeah!
My brain waves and cell, what left of it started to open up beyond the expensive gears, the tube microphones, the compressors in the studio and into the world of music production. I took every chance I got after that to talk to Dave to pick his brain, I had this hunger for how different producer, engineers, and artists approach of creating that wonderful music. One of Dave's favorite topic was how the Beatles and the Beach Boys approach making record. Mind you, I was now blown away by Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band and Pet Sound.
At the time of student years, Protools had just launch its first flag ship system, the Studio 8 which was the talk of the town. By the time I was the senior school, the Mix Plus system from Digidesign was borned and all of us were looking forward to attend class at Digidesign's head quarter itself in Daly City, Ca.
I can still remember the last time I saw Dave, he shook my hand goodbye and told me, "...Duy, with the digital age coming up and how convenience it is to manipulate and to edit sound in a computer. Do not let that get into your head, do not become a great manipulator or editor in the studio. Learn to become a good musical audio engineer." At the time I was not fully understand what Dave meant, but as time gone by and I began to rely more and more on my editing and manipulating skill to fix drum tracks, vocal pitch, and making the guitar sound big...I completely forgot how to CAPTURE MUSIC and the true lost art of music production.
Now these days, thing had changed, if I can help it, I will hold a production time and tell the bass player to go home and practice to get his lines right, the vocalist who can really hit that note, or the drummer who finally find his steady tempo than reach for the magic software wand which can solve it in a second. The artists who toughed it out with me at the end all admit that they had become a better musician and more confident on stage after our recording session.
Ok enough about my bullshit, for years I made it a mission to find out what exactly the microphones and the gears used in all Beatles record, that was easy to find out but the music production part...now that is hard. But no more, thank god there is way to find out and I tell you, it is a wealth of knowledges.
For me this is such a gem of information which for years all I can find was informal or lack of detail interviews and different articles regarding what is really going on during all of the Beatles' session up to the point when Apple was formed, this book is slowly becoming the bible of audio engineer of all, beginner or pro alike. A must have book in my opinion.
Tran Duy
