Abbey Road - in famous footsteps
Posted on Friday 9 September 2011
College musicians experience recording at Abbey Road studios
July saw the return of Farnborough Sixth Form Music Technology students to the world famous Abbey Road Studios in London, for another exciting and inspiring day’s recording of OutKast’s ‘Hey Ya’, which this year also featured the College’s very own Principal, Simon Jarvis, on guitar!
Music Technology tutors, Matt Prudente-Poulton and Julien-Pierre Mckenzie, forged the link with the studios in 2007 and have taken students every year since. Abbey Road, famously home to The Beatles’ recording sessions, once again gave students the very rare opportunity to experience professional life there as artists, as well as studio engineers. Originally built by Sir Edward Elgar and itself the largest purpose built recording studio in the world, the studio has since seen many famous artists record within its walls, including Pink Floyd, U2, Coldplay, The Killers and Radiohead, to name but a few.
Students spent several weeks tirelessly rehearsing this year’s chosen track with Tom Stevens, Musical Director for the project and subject tutor in the department. Many hours were spent arranging and practising the track, preparing the students for the big day.
Recording and producing the session again this year was Andrew Dudman, sound engineer for the Lord of The Rings trilogy, ably assisted by his assistant Paul Pritchard who co-engineered the latest Harry Potter film (The Deathly Hallows) at Abbey Road. Dudman began the session with a tour of Studio 2, showing the students one of the world’s first echo chambers (used for early reverb), as well as letting them have a go on the piano Paul McCartney played on ‘Lady Madonna’. Microphones used in the days’ recording session were the original ones used by The Beatles for the majority of their recordings. Head of Music Technology at the College, Julien-Pierre Mckenzie, spent much of the day with students uncovering some of the original recording technologies still visible in the corridors of the studio, including the EMI TG mixing console used to mix Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side of the Moon’.
The performance of the students participating in both the band and the choir was exceptional, involving many long waits as the engineer listened to each of the 100+ takes before deciding what he would use or re-record. Every student participated in the track, either playing in the band or singing in the 50-strong choir. At the end of an exhausting but truly inspiring day the group left the studios with a finished mix of the track which we believe is the best the department has recorded there yet. Curriculum Manager for AS Music Technology, Matt Prudente-Poulton, said ‘the sessions at Abbey Road continue to provide a unique and valuable insight into the intense world of recording and production, and we are privileged to be able to record there each year. The fact that it is one of the best known and respected recording studios in the world is an additional bonus.
The students performed superbly and it is an experience that will hopefully remain with them for the rest of their lives’.
