There are Beatles fans and there are Beatles fans, but there’s a particular kind of Beatles fan that is unique – that is, the recording engineer geek Beatles fan.  Many people (almost everybody) loves the songs, but few of us actually worship the way the songs sound.  And even fewer of us really dig into how those songs were recorded and why the results come across as so special even today.  Fewer still are moved to spend their time, indeed their lives, trying to create those special kinds of sonic footprints for themselves.

But as big of a recording engineer geek Beatles fan as you may have thought you were, Kevin Ryan and Bryan Kehew have completely outdone you.  They have spent years of their lives compiling an AMAZINGLY detailed book, appropriately titled “Recording The Beatles.”

I absolutely love this book.  It starts off with the background stories of Abbey Road Studios itself, the staff, the culture, the gear (piece by piece, mic by mic), the instruments, etc.  Basically every detail you could want to know.  You might imagine that such details could come across as dry, but Ryan and Kehew make this book read like a narrative.  This book even drew me into the more technical stuff, and I am not very technical.

After all of the background info the book goes into specifics about the process behind every record and breaks it up year by year.  The authors were actually granted permission to sift through Abbey Road’s archives, even reading the original take sheets from the sessions, to share details about what instruments were recorded to which tracks and how they were bounced.  Interviews with the original staff provided details about mic choice, and mic and instrument placement in the room.  Whenever possible they even provide diagrams of the sessions.  It’s crazy!  I love it!

This book not only answered many lingering questions I’ve had for a long time about those records, but it also peeled away a layer and brought me closer to the music.  It gave me fresh ears on this material that has been with me for as long as I can remember.  It’s really fun to read about a session, even see a diagram of how the room was laid out and then immerse yourself in the recording.  It’s quite transportive.

“Recording The Beatles” is available only at www.recordingthebeatles.com.  Visit the website for previews, reviews and more.

by Michael Vecchio

A couple months ago I mentioned a new amp maker, At Mars Amplification.  ( http://atmarsamps.com)

At Mars is a boutique guitar amp maker out of Minnesota.  Their flagship product is the “Filmosound” amp.  “Filmosound” was the branding on the audio amplifiers from vintage Bell & Howell film projectors.  At Mars takes the chassis from these units and builds a point to point circuit from scratch.  Point to point means no circuit boards, which means a cleaner signal path.

The most common model of Filmosound is “The Specialist”.  The amp is loosely based on the circuit in the original Fender Deluxe Amps (the tweed deluxe 5E3).  It’s a 15 watt head, with one volume and one tone knob.  That’s one major difference from the original tweeds, which had a normal and a bright channel.  I usually translated those two channels as single coil (normal) and humbucker (bright).

I got my hands on one during a trip to Minneapolis for a gig.  I got to play the amp on stage, and then brought it home to New York to test in the studio.  You’ve heard people say “this amp packs a lot of punch into a small package” a million times.  But seriously, I put this little guy on top of a Marshall 4×12 cabinet, and played in a 500 person venue (without adding anything to the monitors) and it rocked!  Then, I brought it home on the plane, and was able to carry it on!  It fit in the overhead bin more comfortably than anyone else’s baggage!!

I played a nice custom shop Strat for the live show, and I’ve never heard single coils sound so good.  The signature “bite” was there, but with a meaty, low-mid punch rarely heard from a stock Fender.  The amp displays an amazing sensitivity to picking and strumming dynamics, typical of “Class A” type amps.  The volume increases quickly from 0 to 3 on the dial, and from there you are gradually adding more gain (overdrive) than volume.  When you hit 8 to 10, something really cool happens.  The volume actually decreases a bit, as you get this highly compressed, spongy, saturated distortion.  Think Neil Young “Hey Hey, My My” or countless other Crazy Horse recordings.

If you’re looking for a loud, clean tone on stage you might want to stick with your Fender Twin.  But the beauty of this little guy is the way you’re able to get to the “sweet spot” of tube distortion at a reasonable volume.  Compare this to a Marshall or a Mesa Boogie where you’re hard pressed to get the master volume past 1.5 in most situations.  You’re not “pushing” the amp hard enough to put any strain on the power tubes and hear the amplifier’s optimal operating range.

This is what makes the specialist sing in the studio.  I put the volume at high noon, where a light touch gave me a bitey clean tone, and a hard strum started a growl!  I ran it through a 4×10” cabinet where it was extremely “full range” frequency wise, and through a single 12” Celestian it had amazing clarity and focus, that just cut through a mix with almost no EQ.

To understand what’s going on inside the amp, I’ll quote the At Mars website:  “This amp is driven by a pair of 6V6 power tubes with the power supply rectified by the 5Y3 rectifier tube. The front end normally uses a 12AT7 and 12AX7 for the preamp and driver/phase inverter. However both of these tubes can be substituted with any tube from the 12AU7 family to provide a variety of gain structures based on your preferences.”

That sounded like an invitation, so I had to start swapping tubes.  I was wondering if I could get a bit more clean headroom before the amp started getting chunky, especially when using it live with any of my Gibsons.  I swapped the 12AT7 preamp tube for the less powerful 12AU7, and stepped the phase inverter down from 12AX7 to 12AT7.  For me that was the sweet spot.  The volume increased more gradually from 0 to 3, and I was able to get up to 4 or 5 before the amp started breaking up.  There was definitely no loss of volume or power with this change.  Going more extreme, putting two 12AX7s together turned the specialist into a searing hot rod, and two 12AU7s made a very clean and clear latter day Fender tone. This may seem more like a comparison of preamp tubes here, but the point is that the Specialist is such a great implementation of a very simple design, that you’re really able to make some significant changes to the tone with a single tube swap.  I’ve tried similar experiments on Mesa Boogie and Ampeg amps at my studio with intangible results, due to the six preamp tubes in these amps!

At Mars amps are currently made in very small batches and customized to your specs without too much extra turnaround time or an exorbitant cost increase.  (These amps are amazingly affordable for what you get, especially compared to the originals they duplicate, or other boutique amps)  That being said, I might request one of their optional gain cut or half power switches.  The gain cut would be nice if you’re not as nerdy or adventurous as me about swapping tubes for different gigs or sessions.  The half power will let you get the tone you want without overpowering your rehearsal mates with an amp thats about the size of a lunchbox!  Pair it with one of their matched cabinets in basically any tolex finish you can find, and you’ll have a great little rig that looks as cool as it sounds.  Four Stars for AtMars!

by Matt Rocker

The latest addition to the Abbey Road Plugins lineup is the RS124 compressor. The RS124 was a compressor that Abbey Road was known to make great use of throughout the 60’s, and it was considered to be an integral part of their drum sound on many famous recordings.

Many of the custom pieces of gear from Abbey Road were actually modified versions of existing units.  For example, the preamps in their famous REDD consoles, also used throughout the 60’s, were in-house modified Telefunken pres.  In the case of the RS124, the EMI engineering team at Abbey Road took the American-made Altec 436B tube compressor and made it their own.  Mainly, they took steps to make it work more efficiently with their gear and added a few important features – an output level knob and a “recovery” knob, which controls the release time.

So, the RS124 units are basically pieces of gear to die for.  Although I haven’t used the real units myself, I can safely say that this is a really great sounding compressor with its own unique sonic footprint: very smooth and slightly punchy with a lot of character.  I found it very usable on everything, but for me this compressor really wowed on bass.  I have a penchant for 60’s hollow body basses with flat wound strings, and the RS124 really brought out that quirky thumpiness that I live for without over-woofing the low end.

To make the software version, Abbey Road modeled the three best units that they had in their collection, so you actually get three different RS124’s!  It’s awesome to be able to pick from the slightly different units – it gives you that added flexibility and that added analog feel.  Amazingly, it goes for only $335 for the RTAS/VST/AU version and $560 for the TDM version.  Check out www.abbeyroadplugins.com for more info.

by Michael Vecchio

Though not as popular as compressors, maximizers (sometimes called exciters or enhancers) are many engineers’ “secret weapon” for adding extra pop and sizzle or smoothing out rough-edged tracks. For those familiar with studio compressors, BBE is to maximizers as DBX is to compressors: affordable and dependable. BBE’s D82 Sonic Maximizer plugin, a faithful emulation of their hardware unit, is a flexible addition to any recordist’s arsenal.

Cabinet is the latest piece of software from Audio Ease, the company that brought you the highly regarded convolution reverb plug in Altiverb and Speakerphone. Cabinet (which costs only $60) is actually a basic version of Speakerphone and is geared specifically toward guitarists and bassists.  This software is a set of five famous speaker cabinets captured using convolution technology for you to run your guitar or bass through.

If you don’t know about convolution and how it works, here are two wiki pages going through the basics: Convolution – Convolution Reverb

V-Moda Crossfade LP Headphones

V-Moda is a Hollywood-based lifestyle brand that mixes fashion, design and music to make some beautiful products.  The Crossfade LP headphones are their latest addition to their product lineup.

Four years in the making, the Crossfade LP is the marriage of design and functionality.  V-Moda founder Val Kolton collaborated with musicians and DJ’s from around the world to develop headphones with a balanced, warm, functional sound.  And Kolton’s passion for Italian design shows in the Crossfade LP, which looks like the Ferrari of headphones.  They definitely score high marks in the bling-factor category.

As far as sound goes, these headphones have great isolation from outside noise – the closed-back design and the memory foam ear cushions see to that.  The Crossfade has a warm, punchy low end response with a slightly softer high end, which helps combat fatiguing high frequencies in loud and/or long listening sessions.  As its name might suggest, the Crossfade LP is a great choice for DJ’s who are exposed to exactly that – long and loud listening sessions where they need punchy (not squishy) bass frequencies and a slightly reigned-in high end.  Another great feature (again, especially for long sessions) is the super-comfortable fit.  When I put them on I didn’t want to take them off!

The Crossfade LP headphones come with a cool exoskeleton molded case, two fabric cables (one with a 3-button control and microphone for use with phones and external devices) and a ¼” adapter.  For more info visit www.v-moda.com.

by Michael Vecchio

Last night I was working on mastering a song and I was struggling to get the mix brighter without making it harsh – a common dilemma in mastering a track. I’m not a mastering engineer, so this was more of a rough master for the artist to get an idea of the final product. Mastering engineers have all kinds of cool tricks that they use to deal with this stuff, like multiband compression, nice exacting hardware eq’s, etc. But I literally spent about four hours trying to get it right and I just couldn’t push up the high end and carve out the offending frequencies.

During one of my ear breaks I was looking around online and I discovered Softube’s new Trident A-Range EQ Plug-in. Holy cows! If you haven’t heard of the Trident A-Range console, let me tell you a little bit. The first Trident A-Range console was made for Trident Studios in England by the legendary tech Malcom Toft. The A-Range console had a revolutionary design and it sounded phenomenal. Once word got out about how this incredible console, Malcom and Co. began producing them for other studios. In total, only thirteen Trident A-Range consoles were ever made, and really famous records have been made on them by artists such as David Bowie, Queen, Elton John, Rod Stewart, Frank Sinatra and Metallica, to name a few. These consoles are pretty sweet peices of gear, to say the least, and the EQ’s in these consoles are considered to be the holy grail.

Software emulations of real gear have been getting better and better, to the point where major engineers are doing mixing completely in the box (that is, in the computer). The folks at Softube have done such an incredible job of mimicking the A-Range EQ at every stage that Malcolm Toft himself has endorsed it. By all accounts from engineers who have used the real Trident A-Range, this software is an extremely faithful emulation.

Back to my rough mastering job… I download the demo from Softube and I tried it on my mix. It was so smooth and musical that in less than a minute I had the master done. I could not believe that I had wasted four hours using a crappy EQ. I had become convinced that there was some harshness in the 5-6 kHz range and some weirdness around 2 kHz. But with Softube’s Trident A-Range EQ I just pushed up the shelf at 3 kHz and Bob’s your uncle, as they say. I was actually boosting the 5-6 kHz range (which is associated with harshness) but I wasn’t having any harshness or weird mud competing with the vocals. Why? Because this EQ is just musical and beautiful. After that, I started using it on individual instruments and it works like a charm on everything. It makes EQing easy!

There are four bands of EQ – the top and bottom bands are shelves and the two middle bands are bell-shaped. Even though you don’t have as much control as other EQ’s over the sharpness of the bands, you don’t need it – as I said this is a very musical sounding EQ. It also has high- and low-pass filters (which can be used to turn the upper and lower shelves into bands) and a saturation knob that emulates the original’s natural saturation. It’s nice to be able to dial in a varying amount of that saturation punchiness, which the original hardware did not give you control over.

Amazingly, Softube’s Trident A-Range retails for only $249. This is a must-have! For more info visit www.softube.com.

by Michael Vecchio

Obsessed with extending the expressive range of the guitar, I compulsively investigate gear that claims it can. I put Pigtronix, a company obsessed with ensuring a future of enhanced guitar expressiveness, to the test with their budget conscious Aria Disnortion overdrive+3 band EQ, and the Philosopher’s Tone compression/sustain synthesizer pedals. Both the Aria disnortion and Philosopher’s Tone’s manuals describe the philosophy behind the pedals, provide starting point settings which are quite useful. Both pedals are housed in an incredibly attractive casing and feature 5 knobs and very bright colored LED indicator.

Genuine innovation in the guitar gear scene is very hard to achieve, and even harder to make tradition-worshiping purists care of. Pigtronix is a company that has handily taken on every builder in its class, offering products whose forward thinking design are simply not found elsewhere. Pigtronix stands apart as a company who achieves radical expression-expansion while staying in the alluring analog realm. And like the small companies who make weird but useful pedals, Pigtronix has a reputation for customer service, quality control and artist/luthier endorsements that rivals the most firmly established brands. See some examples - Benjamin Wigler

Recording guitars, although easy at first can be a challenge when you really want to achieve a great sound. Sound Engineer/Producer Shane O’Connor lists in this article for Delicious Audio 10 tips to help you get a tone with the capital T. – Read the article here.

A decade ago, Jon Philpot could have made any kind of record of he wanted. He started Bear in Heaven as a solo project back in Atlanta, and although he and Wills were friendly, the two never thought they’d wind up playing together. After moving to Brooklyn, Philpot continued doing the one-man bedroom-pop thing, recording songs piece by piece on his computer. Eventually, he started jamming with Adam and two other friends, and the four found themselves writing new material, rather than trying to recreate Philpot’s solo recordings. After a well received first record, the band gained a “Best New Music” tag from Pitchfork Media, which opened the doors to world touring and public recognition. We asked Jon a few questions about the way the band operates in the studio and live, read the interview here.