A sneak peak into a recording session at the legendary Abbey Road Studio
When you ask some one outside of the record industry to name a famous recording studio, usually one name comes up right away. That is Abbey Road Studio, the legendary English production house where it seems every famous band of the rock n roll era recorded an album. Perhaps most notable is the Beatles album named after the studio.
Anyway, I found myself stumbling around the internet late one night looking for new music. Specifically, I was doing a youtube search on the group Portico Quartet, a modern jazz group whose first album I found to be quite good. Although I did not know this at the time, the band recorded their latest album at Abbey Road studio.
The first video I found of them was filmed during a live take at the studio. It is quite beautifully shot, and the video not only shows the musicians performing super well, but it also gives an excellent peek inside an Abbey Road session. More interestingly (to me at least), the different microphones used and the placement of each is crystal clear in the video. Although I have no idea what producer John Leckie did during mix down, it is very cool to see just how many mics were used (on the drums and sax specifically) and where they were placed. The link to the photos offers angles not used during in the video.
Hopefully this video gives you some insight into a professional studio set up, and maybe even inspires your decisions for a future session.
Portico Quartet – Line (Take 5) at Abbey Road from York Tillyer on Vimeo.
Produced and Engineered by John Leckie
Still images of the session here
More info on Portico Quartet: http://porticoquartet.com
