Abbey Road Studios (formerly EMI Recording Studios) is a music recording studio at 3 Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, Greater London, England. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of British music company EMI, which owned it until Universal Music Group (UMG) took control of part of it in 2013. It is ultimately owned by UMG subsidiary Virgin Records Limited (until 2013 by EMI Records Limited, nowadays known as Parlophone Records and owned by UMG's competitor Warner Music Group).

The studio's most notable client was the Beatles, who used the studio – particularly its Studio Two room – as the venue for many of the innovative recording techniques that they adopted throughout the 1960s. In 1976, the studio was renamed from EMI to Abbey Road.

In 2009, Abbey Road came under threat of sale to property developers. In response, the British Government protected the site, granting it English Heritage Grade II listed status in 2010, thereby preserving the building from any major alterations.

History

1920s–1940s 
Originally a nine-bedroom Georgian townhouse built in 1831 on the footpath leading to Kilburn Abbey, the building was later converted to flats where the best-known resident was Maundy Gregory, who was famous (or infamous) for selling political honours.

In 1929, the Gramophone Company acquired the premises. The property benefited from a large garden behind the townhouse, which permitted a much larger building to be constructed to the rear; thus, the Georgian façade belies the true dimension of the building. Three purpose-built studios were constructed and the existing house was adapted for use as administration offices. Pathé filmed the opening of the studios in November 1931 when Edward Elgar conducted the London Symphony Orchestra in recording sessions of his music. In 1934, the inventor of stereo sound, Alan Blumlein, recorded Mozart's Jupiter Symphony which was conducted by Thomas Beecham at the studios.

The neighbouring house is also owned by the studio and used to accommodate musicians. During the mid-20th century, the studio was extensively used by British conductor Sir Malcolm Sargent, whose house was located near the studio building.

The Gramophone Company merged with Columbia Graphophone Company to form Electric and Musical Industries (EMI) in 1931, and the studios later became known as EMI Recording Studios. In 1936 cellist Pablo Casals became the first to record Johann Sebastian Bach's Cello Suites No. 1 & 2 at the command of EMI head Fred Gaisberg. The recordings went on to spur a revolution among Bach aficionados and cellists alike. "Fats" Waller played the Compton organ there.

Glenn Miller recorded at the Abbey Road studios during the war, when he was based in the United Kingdom.

In 1931 an echo chamber was built in the studios, in the early days of artificial reverberation.

1950s–1970s 

In 1958, Studio Two at EMI became a centre for rock and roll music when Cliff Richard and the Drifters (later Cliff Richard and the Shadows) recorded "Move It" there, and later pop music material.

EMI is closely associated with the Beatles, who recorded almost all of their albums and hits there between 1962 and 1970 using the four-track REDD mixing console designed by Peter K. Burkowitz. The Beatles named their 1969 album Abbey Road. Iain Macmillan took the album's cover photograph outside the studios, with the result that the nearby zebra crossing has become a place of pilgrimage for Beatles fans. It has been a tradition for visitors to pay homage to the band by writing on the wall in front of the building even though it is painted over every three months. In December 2010, the zebra crossing at Abbey Road was given a Grade II listed status.

After becoming the studio's general manager in 1974, Ken Townsend began a rebranding effort to capitalise on the studio's connection with the Beatles. To emphasise the studio's independence, Townsend commissioned artist Alan Brown to design a unique logo and in 1976 the facility officially changed names from EMI Studios to Abbey Road Studios. Having previously been mostly restricted to UK-based EMI acts, the studio's name-change served the added purpose of encouraging non-EMI acts to record at the studio.

Notable producers and sound engineers who have worked at Abbey Road include Fred Gaisberg (who had first recorded Enrico Caruso in Milan in 1902, and had set up the first recording studio in London at Maiden Lane in 1898), Walter Legge, George Martin, Tutti Camarata, Geoff Emerick, Norman "Hurricane" Smith, Ken Scott, Mike Stone, Alan Parsons, Peter Vince, Malcolm Addey, Peter Bown, Richard Langham, Phil McDonald, John Kurlander, Richard Lush and Ken Townsend, who invented the studio effect known as automatic double tracking (ADT). The chief mastering engineer at Abbey Road was Chris "Vinyl" Blair, who started his career as a tape deck operator.

From 1966 to 1971, the Walt Disney Music Company recorded vocals, instrumentals and narration and dialogue for over a dozen albums at Abbey Road for U.S. and international release, including The Aristocats, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Doctor Dolittle, Heidi and The Wizard of Oz. Most of the sessions including The Mike Sammes Singers, who backed up The Beatles on "I Am the Walrus" and "Good Night."

In 1979, EMI commissioned the British jazz fusion band Morrissey-Mullen to record Britain's first digitally recorded single record at Abbey Road Studios.

1980s–2010s 

Abbey Road Studios got its start in the film scoring business in 1980 when Anvil Post Production formed a partnership with the studio, called Anvil-Abbey Road Screen Sound. The partnership started when Anvil was left without a scoring stage when Denham Studios were demolished. It ended in 1984 when EMI merged with Thorn Electrical Industries to become Thorn EMI. Abbey Road's success in the scoring business continued after the partnership ended.

From 18 July to 11 September 1983, the public had a rare opportunity to see inside the Studio Two room, where the Beatles made most of their records. While a new mixing console was being installed in the control room, the studio was used to host a video presentation called The Beatles at Abbey Road. The soundtrack to the video had a number of recordings that were not made commercially available until the release of The Beatles Anthology project over a decade later.

In September 2012, with the takeover of EMI, the studio became the property of Universal Music. It was not one of the entities that were sold to Warner Music as part of Parlophone and instead the control of Abbey Road Studios Ltd was transferred to Virgin Records.

Controversy over sale 
On 17 February 2010, it was reported that EMI had put the studios up for sale because of increasing debts. There was reported interest by property developers in redeveloping the site into luxury flats. It had also been reported there was a possibility the studios could be purchased by the National Trust to preserve what was in effect a historical building. A Save Abbey Road Studios campaign attempted to ensure the premises remained a working studio.

On 21 February 2010, EMI stated it planned to keep the studio and was looking for an investor to help finance a "revitalization" project. Meanwhile, the British government declared Abbey Road Studios a Grade II listed building which protected it from major alteration. The following December, the pedestrian crossing at Abbey Road was listed on the National Heritage List.

Paul McCartney, speaking to BBC Newsnight on 16 February 2010, said there had been efforts to save Abbey Road by "a few people who have been associated with the studio for a long time," although he did not name them or include himself among them. "I have so many memories there with the Beatles," McCartney said, "It still is a great studio. So it would be lovely for someone to get a thing together to save it."

Abbey Road Institute 
In March 2015, Abbey Road Institute was founded as a school for music production and audio engineering. In addition to the London location, Abbey Road Institute offers education globally with schools in Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Johannesburg, Miami, Paris and Sydney. All of the campuses offer the same course, the Advanced Diploma in Music Production and Sound Engineering, which has been developed in collaboration with industry leaders and the team at Abbey Road Studios. Some campuses offer additional short courses, including Portfolio Preparation, Song Production Masterclass, Music theory Fundamentals for Producers amongst others.
In April 2021, Abbey Road Institute London announced it would be expanding and moving into the currently closed Angel Recording Studios in the summer of 2021.

Notes

References

Sources

Further reading

External links 

Invention of Stereo Sound in 1931
Abbey Road Studios — official site
Google presents Inside Abbey Road
Abbey Road Institute

EMI
Grade II listed buildings in the City of Westminster
History of the Beatles
1931 establishments in England
Houses completed in 1831
Recording studios in London
St John's Wood
Universal Music Group
애비 로드 스튜디오(Abbey Road Studio)는 영국 런던의 웨스터민스터에 위치한 음악 스튜디오이다. 1931년 11월에 설립되었으며 현재는 EMI 레코드 소유에 있다. 비틀즈, 클리프 리처드, 핑크 플로이드 등의 유명 가수들이 이곳에서 녹음을 한 것으로 알려져 있다.

역사 
원래 부촌인 북런던 교외 세인트 존스 우드 지역에 방 아홉 개짜리 저택으로 지어진 이 건물은 줄곧 개인 거주지로 쓰이다가 1929년 지역 건축업자 프랜시스 마이어스에게 1만 2,000파운드에 팔렸고, 그 다음엔 1만 6,500파운드에 그래머폰 사(EMI의 전신)에 팔렸다. 1931년 11월 12일, EMI가 설립된 지 반년도 채 안 됐을 무렵 스튜디오로 개장했다. 당시 다양한 음악을 수용할 수 있을 정도의 시설을 갖추고 있었으며 첫 맞춤형 스튜디오 단지였던 이 건물은 영국의 저명한 작곡가인 에드워드 엘가가 애용했다.

프로듀서 조지 마틴은 1962년 EMI의 팔로폰 레이블과 비틀즈의 계약을 주도한다. 같은 해 6월 12일, 애비 로드 스튜디오에서의 첫 녹음을 진행한 그들은 90%의 녹음물을 이곳에서 제작하며 1970년 해체까지 음악적 협업을 이어나간다. 비틀즈가 《페퍼상사》를 위해 부탁한 요구를 즉각 수용한 엔지니어 켄 타운센드는 두 개의 4테이크 녹음기를 함께 연결시켜 멀티트랙 녹음의 신기원을 이루는 등 스튜디오는 기술적 혁신의 선두에 있었다. 이후로도 혁신을 지속해 8, 16, 24테이크 녹음이 이루어졌다.

1967년, 애비 로드 스튜디오에서 최초의 전 세계 송출 위성 방송 《아워 월드》를 통해 〈All You Need is Love〉가 세계로 뻗어나간다. 비틀즈가 건물 앞의 길을 가로지르는 모습이 담긴 《Abbey Road》의 이미지는 가장 잘 알려진 이미지 중 하나가 된다. 비틀즈가 애비 로드에서 보낸 나날들 덕분에 스튜디오와 그 앞의 횡단 보도는 관광객들이 찾는 단골 장소가 됐다. 사람들은 《Abbey Road》의 표지를 흉내내기 위해 횡단 보도로 몰려들었고, 벽에 낙서를 했으며, 도로 표지판을 훔쳐가기까지 했다.

2010년, 애비 로드 스튜디오 건물은 문화유산 2급으로 지정됐으며 횡단 보도 역시 같은 해 문화유산으로 지정되었다. 유니버설 뮤직 그룹은 2012년 19억 달러에 EMI를 인수하면서 애비 로드 스튜디오를 관리하게 됐다. 현재 애비 로드 스튜디오는 일반인들이 출입할 수 없다. 주로 영화 음악이나 슈퍼스타들의 앨범을 녹음하기 위해 아직도 영업 중이기 때문이다. 하지만, 2012년 이후로 1년 중 두 번의 주말 동안 제2 스튜디오에 일반인이 출입할 수 있도록 하는 예외를 두었다.

내부 
세계에서 가장 넓은 녹음 스튜디오인 제1 스튜디오는 110인조 관현악단과 100인조 합창단을 거뜬히 수용할 수 있다. 영화 《스타워즈》 사운드트랙 역시 이곳에서 녹음한 것이다. 비틀즈는 대부분 제2스튜디오에서 녹음 작업을 했지만 가끔은 훨씬 넓은 제1스튜디오를 썼다. 〈All You Need is Love〉를 녹음할 때와 《아워 월드》를 촬영할 때가 그런 경우였다.제2 스튜디오는 비틀즈가 가장 많은 작품을 녹음했던 곳으로 폴 매카트니가 집 다음으로 좋다고 말할 정도로 반한 장소이기도 하다. 폴은 결국 제2스튜디오가 마음에 든다며 비슷하게 생긴 스튜디오를 자신의 집에 만들기도 했다. 제2 스튜디오에 있던 챌런 피아노는 세 대의 파아노로 특이하게도 E장조 화음을 약 1분간 동시에 연주했을 때 그중 하나로 쓰였다. 1967년 2월 22일 레논, 매카트니, 스타, 로드 매니저 맬 에번스가 연주했던 그 1분간의 피아노 E장조 화음은 〈A Day in the Life〉의 엔딩이 되었다.

애비 로드 스튜디오에서 가장 작은 녹음실인 제3 스튜디오는 원래 클래식 피아노 독주를 녹음할 때 쓰던 곳이었다. 실험적인 작품 제작이 많았던 이곳은 밴드가 일제 연주해 녹음하기 쉬운 구조로 설계했고 벽을 거울로 둘러싸 독특한 잔향 사운드를 얻을 수 있는 미러룸이라는 방도 있다.

비틀즈가 제3스튜디오에 들어섰을 때 이들은 약간 낡은 업라이트 피아노 한 대를 발견한다. 런던 챌런 사에서 만든 이 피아노는 그들이 1946년 4월 6일, 〈Tomorrow Never Knows〉를 위해 처음 제3스튜디오에서 녹음이 이뤄진 이 날과 그 다음 날에 기타, 베이스, 드럼 등 비틀즈의 기본 악기와 함께 쓰였다. 그 모든 소리가 해먼드 오르단에 연결된 회전형 레슬리 스피커를 통해 나오자 프로듀서 조지 마틴은 이를 가리켜 "대단한 혁신"이라 말했다. 쟁글 피아노로 알려진 이 악기는 〈Paperback Writer〉, 〈Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da〉, 〈Old Brown Shoe〉 같은 곡을 녹음할 때에도 쓰였다.

핑크 플로이드 또한 역시 제3스튜디오에 있던 이 챌런 피아노를 《The Dark Side of the Moon》, 《Wish You Were Here》를 녹음하는 데 사용한 것으로 알려져 있다. 한편, 이 피아노는 2010년에 런던 경매시장에 등장하며 약 15만 파운드의 예상가가 나왔지만, EMI 측에서 이의를 제기해 경매 자체가 취소되었다. 이 피아노의 출연으로 애비 로드 스튜디오에는 챌런 피아노가 두 대 있었다는 사실이 알려졌다. 한 대는 1950년대 말에, 다른 한 대는 1960년대 구입했는데 비틀즈는 이 두 대를 모두 사용했다.

각주

참고 문헌

외부 링크 

  

1931년 설립된 기업
런던의 음악
영국의 녹음실
시티오브웨스트민스터의 건축물
EMI
1831년 완공된 건축물