Drewcifer's Tone Zone

This vid reminded me of my best studio story.

Back in ‘88 I worked with Roger Waters on one session as he passed through Boston for a couple days. He was mixing some live stuff for a Westwood One radio broadcast. I worked on “Money,” and on the live tracks, only two tracks of the four-track cash-register sounds had been recorded. Why? Because the live show was tracked in stereo, but the cash-register sounds were in quad, meaning the two rear surrounds had not been recorded.  So we had to replace the missing ones.

We had an Otari 4-track, and Water’s assistant brought a half-inch 4-track tape of the sounds. Handling the hallowed tape with that legendary Pink Floyd loop on it was, as you can imagine, a breathless moment for me, and one of the highlights of my life in the studio. I had to manually fly-in the sounds, in-synch with the intro on the live performance. We did it basically one sound at a time, punch in, rewind, play it again, punch in again, etc. It was a  royal pain and it took a long time.

This was all before Roger showed up to hear what the assistant and I had done. After about five hours, Sir Roger glided (as if floating on air) in to the control room for a listen. He was wearing sunglasses indoors and overall exuded the elegance and grace of a real British gentleman. Aristocratic. Monied. Rock Royalty in the flesh. I noticed the Rolex on his wrist - it was worth more than my car. As we played back the track, he nodded his head and said, “Right, lads. Good work. Sort of grand experiment but this proves it CAN be done. Work in-progress and all that.” He was really polite.

And here’s the best part: At the end he asked me, “Drew, would you fancy a beer?” “Well, sure,” I replied, “but this is Sunday and you can’t get beer in Boston.” He said, “Ah, no worries,” and with that he called the hotel he was staying at, The Four Seasons, which was several miles from the studio,  and had ROOM SERVICE BRING OVER SIX HEINEKENS! YES! The guy showed up at the studio wearing the white hotel jacket, and delivered the beers on a tray. Did I say Rock Royalty? As I was motioning to hand a beer to Roger, he said, “No, those are for you. Nice work today.”

Then he spirited off into the night. I sat there, alone and basically dumbfounded, drinking a Heineken that Roger Waters from Pink Floyd had bought me.

What an unforgettable day that was.

Queen of the Road

Big, beautiful and with lots to love, this well-appointed lady is looking for a new relationship. Everybody, meet Abbey…

Here’s a SPECTACULAR TG12345 Mk IV console with an incredible pedigree. The desk was initially installed in Abbey Road Studio Three in December of 1971. Three years later in November 1974 it was moved to the big room, Studio One, where it resided until it was decommissioned in December 1983. Studio One is Abbey Road’s largest live room, and can easily handle a full orchestra, plus a choir. Consequently, this desk saw quite a bit of use on film scoring sessions, including the orchestral portions for the film of Pink Floyd The Wall. Other film work included the original Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, Superman, Raiders of the Lost Ark and many others.

Although this particular desk is virtually unique, many of the channel modules are similar in design to earlier versions of the TG12345. This desk is the sound of Abbey Road throughout the 1970s, when classic albums such as Dark Side of the Moon, (recorded on the only other Mark IV ever made), were tracked and mixed on these legendary consoles. Only 14 of these desks are known to still exist, and most owners wouldn’t part with them for any amount of money. Never available to the public during their heyday - and maybe never available again - this is a unique opportunity to own a unique desk from the control rooms of Abbey Road.

For a date with Abbey, contact drew.townson-at-vintageking.com