Recording - October 2010 - 17

I’ll take a moment here to give props to Abbey Road’s studio management team. They coordinated the drum rental and everything was in the room and ready for us when we arrived. They could have very easily given me a phone number and told me to deal with it. That is an excellent example of how you run a client-focused business. Now I just needed to match the studio equipment to the band’s setup. Checking the studio’s gear Studio 2’s control room has certainly changed since the days of the Beatles and Pink Floyd. Today it consists of a 60channel Neve VRP Legend console with Flying Fader Automation and Quested monitoring. The stock outboard gear for the room has a couple of favorites, including a GML 8200 eq, a pair of Pultec EQP-1As, and a Fairchild 660. The microphone list (which you can peruse at www.abbeyroad.com/studios/studio2) has almost everything you could ask for, including 13 Neumann U 47/48s, 18 Neumann U 67s, 28 Neumann KM 84s, and on and on. I emailed my assistant for the session, Paul Pritchard, and gave him a breakdown of what I wanted to use from the mic locker so they would be available the day of the session. I even threw in the classic AKG D19c(s) and D20. Hey—if I was going to record in Studio 2, why not go for one of the Beatles’ drum miking techniques (thank you, Geoff Emerick)? After all that gear you would think I had everything I needed, right? Not exactly. There are a couple of items that I prefer using on a regular basis that they didn’t have, so they would have to become part of my carry-on bag o’ tricks. Adding my own gear First, let’s start with the Abbey Road Pro Tools rig. It consists of six 192 I/Os and a Sync I/O. While the Sync I/O is a fine product, I prefer the sound of the Drawmer M-Clock Lite. That’s right, I wanted to bring my own clock to the session. You would be surprised at how much better the 192’s converters can sound with a good low-jitter clock. (Here’s a hint too: If you have a HD system running in loop sync, take it out of loop sync and run it as straight word clock. You’ll be surprised with the results!) Next: I like using the Shure Beta 52 on kick drum and they didn’t have one. Also, I have become quite fond of the Telefunken M-80s on snare drum and guitar amps, so in the bag they all went. Lastly, the guitar player has a huge MIDIcontrolled pedal board—the word ‘impedance’ comes to mind. Creation Audio Labs makes a buffer circuit that maintains an instrument’s impedance through all the pedals to the amplifier.Typically it’s sold as an install circuit, but I had one built into a belt clip/pedal box so I can use it with multiple guitars.You’d be surprised at what a difference this little device makes.
RECORDING OCTOBER 2010

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Recording - October 2010

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