Recording The Beatles Book
By Brian Kehew & Kevin Ryan
- Recording The Beatles Kehew Ryan
- The Beatles Recording Sessions Book
- Rtb Book Recording The Beatles
- Recording The Beatles
- Media >Book / eBook
Could this be the definitive guide to the Beatles' recording sessions?
The KLF, in their book The Manual (How To Have A Number One Hit The Easy Way), say: 'You will find engineers everywhere trying to impress you with the fact that Sergeant Pepper was recorded on a four-track. This is of course as relevant as the fact that no JCBs were used in the construction of the Great Pyramid.'
Every engineer knows about Pepper being done on four tracks. The more intelligent engineer will have realised that there were perhaps other factors involved in making Beatles recordings what they are: room ambience and probably lots of boxes with valves, that sort of thing. But it's actually very hard to find concrete information about how these recordings were made, and what they were made with. Until now, that is..
I would not only recommend this book for Beatles fans but also for any engineer or audiophile. The level of detail is mind boggling. If you are a Beatles fan then this book completes the series of five essential books: Recording The Beatles, Beatles Gear, Beatles Anthology, The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, The Complete Beatles Chronicle. The Beatles Recording Reference Manuals (1961-1970) are a five book series that tell the step-by-step process in which each of the band's recordings were created. The books reconstruct each song's creation as well as detail the technical profile of each and every classic Beatles recording session from 1961 to 1970.
Much as archaeologists have spent no end of time investigating the mechanics involved in building a pyramid, Kehew and Ryan have made it their business to find out everything there is to know about the the methods by which the Beatles' music was recorded. Of course, given that this took place considerably less than 4000 years ago, and that most of the people involved are still very much alive, their task was probably a great deal less speculative than that of the archaeologists. After all, you're going to get much more definite answers if you can talk to the people involved and look at the equipment they used than you will if you're sitting around looking at a 40-ton block of stone and trying to work out how a bunch of guys in loincloths, with no JCBs, managed to move it about and use it to create pleasing geometric shapes.
Recording The Beatles is a huge book, and there's a simply awesome amount of information collected within its 500+ pages. It is the result of over a decade of research, in which Kehew and Ryan tracked down and interviewed as many ex-EMI staff as they could find, located and photographed examples of nearly every piece of studio equipment in use at Abbey Road between 1962 and 1970 and spent countless hours investigating the contents of EMI's archives.
The book is divided into four sections. The first looks at the design and construction of Abbey Road itself, and at the different roles of the various studio personnel. The second section is about recording equipment, and features an enormous collection of highly detailed (and clearly labelled) photographs, as well as a wealth of information about each piece — much of it provided by the people responsible for using, maintaining and, in some cases, actually building the equipment. Section three follows a similarly detailed format, but looks at effects and instruments belonging to Abbey Road and also at other studios used by the Beatles during their career.
Section four is about the actual production of the Beatles' records. There is a chapter for each year from 1962 to 1968, and a joint chapter for 1969 and 1970. Each chapter looks at the general techniques being used during that year and also features 'A Closer Look' sections which explore specific songs from that year in greater depth. The sheer volume of information doesn't let up here either, and the section is awash with 3D diagrams of studio layout, track sheets, photographs to show things such as drum mic placement, and lists of the equipment and instruments used during the sessions. Vegas pro 15.0 serial number.
I expect that this last section will generate the most interest among prospective readers — and it doesn't disappoint. But it's the preceding sections that really make it work: all of the background information places the content of this section in context, and gives you a clear understanding of how these records were actually made.
Apart from the stunning amount of data contained in this book, the other striking thing about it is how fluently written and well laid out it is. Given the amount of technical facts here, you might expect a book that is rather dry in tone, but this is simply not the case — largely, I suspect, as a result of the authors' boundless enthusiasm for their subject. While you could use the book as a work of reference — something to be dipped into at random or to answer a specific question — I'd be surprised if most readers did not end up going through it from cover to cover. It really is that enjoyable.
Many of the techniques and processes we take for granted in the modern studio were pioneered by the people who recorded the music of the Beatles. This book gives a fascinating and unique insight into how they worked, how their equipment worked and how they used it to create not only the records we know so well, but also music recording as we know it.
Kehew and Ryan should be immensely proud of what they've achieved here: a vast, in-depth and amazingly well researched document of recording history. Recording The Beatles is a feat which is surely on a par with working out how to build a pyramid with a less than adequate number of JCBs.
information
Recording The Beatles Kehew Ryan
Recording The Beatles by Brian Kehew and Kevin Ryan (ISBN 0978520009), $100.
The Beatles Recording Sessions Book
The sound of the Beatles’ records is a combination of the brilliant songwriting of John Lennon and Paul McCartney (and increasingly, as the 1960s went on, of George Harrison), but also the sound of the technology available to producer George Martin and his recording engineers at EMI Recording Studios in London. But in a way, those elements are true of every piece of recorded music: when an artist gets it right, it’s a magic combination of the song, the performance, and how it was recorded. Or as George Harrison said in an early 1990s interview that was quoted in the introduction to the brilliant 2006 book, Recording The Beatles:
If you listen to the music of the Twenties and Thirties, it has a certain sound to it; it’s partly the song that you like, and it’s partly the way it was recorded, the tube amplifiers in the boards, how the microphone sounded in those days, all the kind of atmosphere. It becomes like a little period piece, just like a piece of furniture of a given period, it has its own charm. You wouldn’t want to hear The Beatles doing ‘Mr. Kite’ on a 48-track machine. It wouldn’t have the same charm.
Most coffee table books are full of pretty full-color photos on glossy paper, and the text is of secondary value. However, while 2006’s Recording The Beatles is heavily illustrated with the requisite new and vintage photos of Abbey Road Studios and its myriad of surviving ‘60s-era gear, for recording enthusiasts, there is a treasure-trove of information to be learned here.
Diving into the Magical History Tour
The book is laid out in quite a logical fashion. First, there’s a history of EMI Recording Studios in London (which were rebranded in 1970 as “Abbey Road Studios” to take full marketing advantage of the Beatles’ best-selling epic swan song). Then there are profiles of the people who worked there during the Beatles’ run from 1963-1970. Producer George Martin, his best-known engineers, including Norman Smith, who crafted the sound of the Beatlemania-era records before going off to produce the first two albums by Pink Floyd.
Then Geoff Emerick, who helped crafted the combination of psychedelia and in-your-face drums on Revolver,Sgt. Pepper and the Magical Mystery Tour era, before returning for Abbey Road. And the other engineers who worked the Beatles’ sessions, including another future Pink Floyd ally, Alan Parsons. Plus a look at how they were all trained by EMI, and their apprenticeships before being allowed into the recording studio.
Next, there’s a look at the equipment that graced EMI London during the Beatles’ career, and a look at how that technology evolved from 1963 to 1970, including extremely technical details of the mixing desks that were used to record the Beatles. Regarding the latter, the authors note:
This portion of the book involves much greater technical detail than the other chapters. It is intended to satisfy those “studio-types” who understand and seek accurate detailed information on the desks used to record the Beatles. As such, it may be too deep for the novice at times, although several significant concepts here do affect the Beatles records. If this section seems too difficult feel free to skim it over for just the interesting points and move forward through the book.
In addition to the granular-level study of EMI’s 1960s-era recording desks, “studio-types” will also marvel at the attention to detail given to such key elements of the Beatles’ sound as the Fairchild compressor, so beloved by Geoff Emerick for Ringo’s drum sound, down to how the controls are set. Even those who have software emulations of the Fairchild will benefit from this information.
Along the way, detailed explorations at how that equipment was customized — and in some cases invented — by EMI’s back-room boffins, and how the engineers who recorded the Beatles used it as well. Finally, with all of that background firmly established, there’s an exploration of each Beatles album, and how it was recorded.
Beatling About in the 21st Century
There’s much to be learned here, and much that can be applied to today’s world of digital audio workstations (DAWs) and plugins. Particularly since quite a bit of the equipment that was used to record the Beatles is now available in either plugin or hardware form. Waves Audio and Softube have replicated (with varying degrees of accuracy) licensed plugin versions of Abbey Road’s studio console features and equipment that was custom-built by the studio’s backroom boffins, and Iowa’s Chandler Limited sells licensed hardware versions of much of that vintage gear as well.
Arguably, only the Fairchild Compressor is in the purely “unobtanium” level pricing and serviceability levels, with modern hardware clones starting at over $10,000.00. But numerous plugin versions are available at much more reasonable prices, such as Waves’ “Puigchild,” (named after producer Jack Joseph Puig) and Overloud’s excellent Comp670. The book is also a reminder that in today’s world of DAWs, there are plugins that can create virtually any effect, and programs for the computer such as Izotope’s RX8 can cleanup and enhance recordings, in the 1960s, the engineers who recorded the Beatles had to do all of this with vacuum tube-driven analog equipment, what Star Trek’s Mr. Spock would describe as “stone knives and bearskins”-era technology
Recording The Beatles goes into great depth into the control panel settings of the hardware used to record the Fab Four, and microphone placement. It’s also a reminder that recording rock and roll bands has drastically changed, post-Napster. Because the Beatles were signed to EMI, and the giant recording label knew what a cash-cow they had on their hands, the group was not charged for studio time. As a result, Alan Parsons, who began his career as an engineer on Let It Be and Abbey Road, wrote in his how-to guide, The Art and Science of Recording, “The Beatles had a recording budget from heaven. No one would ever say they’d have to cut down on their studio time.”
There was also a definite division of labor. The Beatles played, the engineers placed (and for the most part chose) the microphones, George Martin supervised the sessions as producer, and wrote the arrangements. Martin and his main engineers, Norman Smith, and then Geoff Emerick, each had definite ideas for how “the boys” should sound. Each engineer was an expert in choosing microphones, but Smith went for a live “in the room” sound, whereas Emerick wanted a more detailed sound, with the drums mic’ed much more up front, and the bass guitar more clearly defined, which is why the Beatles sound began to change so radically with Revolver. And while the Beatles might discuss these sonic choices with Martin and his engineers, they largely let the engineers get on with getting their sounds.
In contrast, 99.9 percent of today’s bands don’t have “a recording budget from heaven.” Far from it — a band newly signed to a record label might be lucky enough to be able to afford to rent a studio for a day or two to record the initial drum tracks, and then all of the parts would then be recorded later in their home studios in front of a computer and audio interface, with band members acting as both musician and engineer, before the producer mixes everything down to (hopefully) something cohesive.
And course, there’s the sheer talent of the Beatles’ songwriting and their playing. While, as Harrison alluded to above, the recording process was directly tied into the sound of the Beatles’ psychedelic mid-‘60s songs, the Beatles’ best songs would still sound like great songs recorded with today’s equipment. The reverse isn’t true of many of today’s stars, who would sound even more threadbare if they had to do without 21st century technology like auto-tuning, comping, plugins, non-destructive digital editing, and endless amounts of digital tracks.
Fortunately, the two worlds now exist quite nicely. Capturing sounds using Beatles-era microphones and pre-amps, and then editing them in a modern DAW is the best of both worlds, with great tones upfront, and endless flexibility afterwards. You probably won’t channel the zeitgeist the way the Beatles could, but it’s definitely possible to learn from them — and the technical team who recorded them — to enhance your own efforts. And in that regard, Recording The Beatles succeeds brilliantly.
Rtb Book Recording The Beatles
While it’s not — yet — in Fairchild Compressor level pricing, it’s getting into unobtanium-level pricing on its own terms, but well worth it for those both obsessed with the Beatles, and with the recording process. Highly recommended for those who fit both criteria. (One suggestion: see if your local library can get a copy on inter-library loan.) In 2019, the authors promised an updated version which will likely be at much more affordable prices; while our current unpleasantness has no doubt slowed their efforts, I hope it hasn’t stopped them.