The Beatles Studio Sound

Beatles RS124 and Fairchild 660 Agustin Saravia agusaravia@hotmail.com A puzzling moment the recordist faces when recreating the techniques of the Beatles is that their compressors and limiters lack modern controls to fine tailor this processing. If we know the theory this is far from being a limitation, rather it helps to avoid producing disastrous results. When faced with this scenario the two most important controls on which we shall rely are release time and the gain reduction meter. Provided we aren't going for a creative result, like the distorted drums in "Revolution" or the gurgling sound of harmony vocals in "Octopus's Garden", compressors are such devices that are used with subtlety for taming peaks and overall loudness. Therefore, in what seems like a contradiction, adjusting compressors by ear may not be the best option. This is due to the main processing being on the attack stage of the soundwave,

Beatles REDD.44 and RS128 Agustin Saravia agusaravia@hotmail.com When using recording software we may find that track level meters don't make sense for mixing. Slow attack or sustaining instruments, e.g., pads, organs, vocals, end sounding very loud in the mix while fast attack and percussive instruments, e.g., snare drum, bass drum, end sounding faint and low in the mix. Often the advice we get is to avoid monitoring levels with the meters at all and just rely on our ears. While reasonable it's also true that meters are tools that help make some tasks easier provided we know how to use them. Besides, level meters allow our ears to focus on other sound parametres, like frequency content, microtuning, etc. In EMI Studios in the early 1960s, these advantages of level meters were of concern and that's why in late 1962 the EMI REDD.37 mixers were modified by changing the EMI REDD.44 Peak Level Indicators with EMI RS128 VU Meters, as it