Abbey Road Studios

[Concerto Audio]

Me wanted to ask this for sometime but..but, dint want to sound silly...here me go:
i have few albums which was mastered from the famous Abby Road but when i play from my system it sound very flat..no top end clarity and i have to turn the volume up high if i want to hear intricate musical instruments being played. Since abbey Road is one of the world leaders in mastering am i missing something here?:steam:
3 albums which i normally try to listen but do not get any joy are:
-Kate Bush directors cut
-Joanna Newsom have One On Me
-Jimmy Page & Robert plant walking into Clarksdale

[Stratmangler]

I can comment on the Page/Plant and the Kate Bush albums - the production and mixdown of both is piss poor.
Both albums are rather flat and lacking dynamics.
I wonder which speakers were used for monitoring ?
Abbey Road may well have provided the tools to facilitate recording, but the producer using those tools didn't have much clue on how to use them.

[Stratmangler]

I'm currently playing Jimmy Page's "Outrider" album, and whilst the songs are strong, and the playing and performance is fine, the sound has similar quality to "Walking Into Clarkesdale".

Methinks that speakers used for monitoring were a bit brightly lit :eyebrows: , and could easily saw your head off if left to their natural tendencies.

So maybe this is where the issues with the other recordings lie.

[DSJR]

Some years ago, Abbey Rd had a collection of different monitors to use, but I believe they tend to have a surplus of donated? B&W 800 series that seem to crop up everywhere, whether in use or as door-stops... Having said this, the Beatles remasters had all manner of things done to them and I reckon all this was done while listening to and through B&W's, unless I'm very much mistaken (which I probably am these days :))

[Marco]

If only Abbey Road still had the speakers they used to use for monitoring purposes when the ORIGINAL Beatles albums were being produced, which of course I'm fortunate grace my listening room.... ;)

If the albums Santosh mentioned were monitored on toppy sounding squawk-boxes, and no doubt would be replayed by most on modern speakers with a similar tonal balance, then it stands to reason that those recordings will sound dull when played on a neutral sounding and well-balanced high-end system.

I guess that this is where subtly-engineered tone controls come in handy!

Marco.

[camtwister]

Abbey Road has four control rooms and at the time of my last visit, they were using Quested monitors, B&W Nautilus 800D and HTM1 speakers for stereo through to 7.1 mixing.

[Concerto Audio]

I have CDs mastered from other well known studios amongst them Sterling Sound and IMO the quality and dynamics are compared to none.
In my CD collection the quality of Abbey Road are so poor that It makes me wonder then why Abbey Road is so popular :scratch:

May be should i make a call to Abbey Road :eyebrows:

[Lodgesound]

Interesting experiences there - has anyone the ability to extract the audio from the CD's in question to a wav file in a wave editor and then analyse them spectrally by any chance?

[Lodgesound]

Are you sure they were Lockwoods when the Beatles were there Marco?

I have a feeling they were monitors made by EMI's own research department with an "RD" prefix in the model name.

[DSJR]

I believe they were Tannoy drivers, but not in Marco's cabinets..

Some pics I've seen of the 'Floyd in 1975 recording at Abbey Rod, there were big JBL's in the recording space.

[Audioman]

Kate Bush's Directors Cut was remixed at Kate's own studio not Abbey Road. I think the rounded of treble on this and other records is down to a desire to reduce digital glare or may be a result of pro tools. I thought Abbey Road use B&W Diamond series similar to Alan Sircom used at his record club demonstration. Rather different sound than Tannoys I know but I don't think the later would find favour with current recording engineers. In the end the final sound is down to the engineers skill as much as the recording and mastering chain.

[Barry]

Well I've just played Walking into Clarksdale (on CD).

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51QmyYPV-NL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

OK, so its not the most dynamic of recordings, but neither is it flat or compressed out of all recognition. Admittedly within each track the dynamic range is limited, but track-to-track the overall level varies considerably.

There are dynamics and everything is beautifully clear, focused and positioned.

I love it - especially the track 'On High'.