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COVER STORY – Come together
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07/11/2008
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Cited as the most popular album of all time, Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is possibly producer Sir George Martin’s finest achievement. When recording sessions commenced at EMI’s Abbey Road studio in the winter of 1966, Sir George was expected to fulfil the psychedelic sonic demands of an increasingly experimental group of musicians.
Studio 2 was the setting for this groundbreaking recording and, remarkably, the album was recorded on a four track recording console.
However, Kevin Ryan, co author of Recording the Beatles (2006), revealed that technical limitations were overcome by innovative recording techniques. “It was common at EMI to fill up all four tracks of one four track tape machine,” he explained, “and then mix these four tracks down to one or two tracks on a second four track tape machine. This was called a reduction mix, as it ‘reduced’ the number of tracks the material occupied. They would then have two or three free tracks on this new tape, onto which they could continue to record additions to the song. They even sometimes recorded new parts live during the reduction mix, bouncing the new live additions down with the previously recorded material. In this way, they could add new parts without taking up one of their precious new free tracks.”
To synchronise two tape machines, a 50Hz tone would be recorded onto one track on one machine and used to control the speed of a second machine. The start position of the tape was marked with a wax pencil and the tape operator had to align the tapes by eye, while attempting to press ‘play’ and ‘record’ simultaneously for each take. While this technique meant that synchronisation was often lost if the tapes were used on another machine, it was a frequently used system.
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Author
Chris Shaw
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