What do you need in order to start recording in a home studio? Abbey Road takes you through seven essential pieces of studio equipment required to get you up and running.

When you’re new to the recording studio environment, some common issues may present themselves. Nerves during recording sessions are an extremely common issue amongst both beginners and professionals alike. Abbey Road engineer John Barrett discusses some of the most faced problems he comes across when recording artists and musicians, along with the steps he takes to help them overcome it.

You asked, and we listened! Today marks the release of an exciting new update for our Topline songwriting app on IOS, bringing a whole host of new functionality to the App. New features include the ability to add reverb to your tracks, an updated mixer panel and Bluetooth connectivity.

When mixing or producing a track, you can use distortion and saturation in subtle ways to mimic other processing chains, achieving more musical results overall and without making the track sound clipped. Below are three tips using our Waves Audio / Abbey Road Saturator and J37 tape plugin.

Layering your lead vocal with doubles can add thickness, colour and lift to the most important element of any song; the lyrics and melody. We explore numerous ways you can achieve that rich vocal sound in your mix with the Abbey Road / Waves Reel ADT, a technique originally developed by former Technical Engineer and Managing Director, Ken Townsend.

What exactly is it about tape that gives it that 'magic'? Technically, tape distorts and can degrade the audio. Regardless, it remains a highly sought-after sound, providing the vibe and character, or the sweet-sounding saturation, that digital can’t replicate. Our Abbey Road / Waves Audio J37 tape emulation plugins are an easy and relatively inexpensive way to apply a close simulation of the sound of tape to your mixes.

Ever wondered how a record is cut-to-vinyl at half-speed? Step inside award-winning mastering engineer Miles Showell’s mastering suite at Abbey Road Studios as he takes you through the process and explains more about the “holy grail of vinyl cutting” - half-speed mastering.

So, you've recorded, arranged and mixed your project, but you're not finished yet. If you decide to send your mix to be professionally mastered, our mastering engineers have included some essential tips to check first.

In music production, mastering is the final step in the creative process. But in order to get there, it’s crucial to prepare your music for the ‘master’ to create an extra layer of magic on your creation. So, time for the elusive question. What exactly is mastering and why is it important? To explain more, here’s Darcy Proper; an extremely successful mastering engineer, amassing three Grammy awards and nine nominations for her work. A role model for many within the industry, we were thrilled to have Darcy as part of our Abbey Road Equalise International Women's Day festival, hosting our panel talk on Becoming a Recording and Mixing Engineer.

Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, attended sessions for our mastering engineers are still not permitted. So how can we allow artists and bands to be part of the final process in the production chain? Well, when Chilean band Bintage got in touch with our mastering engineer Oli Morgan looking to stem-master their latest LP, Oli found an innovative solution thanks to our newly acquired start-up company, Audiomovers.

“With an admirable portfolio of audio plugins and production tools, as well as years of experience developing start-ups, we felt that Abbey Road Studios is the natural home for our business. We built Audiomovers for those who need audio excellence, which is exactly what Abbey Road is all about. We have an ambitious and innovative roadmap and, powered by the Abbey Road team, we can become the global choice for remote audio collaboration.” – Audiomovers founders, Igor Maxymenko and Yuriy Shevyrov ⁣

Through our innovation arm Abbey Road Red, we're delighted to announce the acquisition of Audiomovers. Audiomovers is a tech start-up reinventing the remote production experience, allowing music professionals to stream, listen to and record high resolution multichannel remote audio in real time, with multiple collaborators, anywhere in the world.

If you’re a producer, there’s a strong possibility you either use sidechain compression or have heard of it. For those who are unfamiliar, sidechaining means using the output of one track, such as a kick drum, to alter the compression on another track, such as a bassline. In simple terms, it’s a way to set up your mix so that when one sound comes in, another one quiets down.

Other than the fact that it’s an effective tool for mixing, sidechain compression is a way to innovate because it allows you to turn non-instrument sounds into music.

How can you get heavy crunch guitars to sit properly in the mix, while still allowing the vocals, drums and bass to cut through? Learn how, using EQ plus the Waves Audio / Abbey Road EMI TG12345 console plugin and its unique “Spread” feature.

Creating lo-fi music in the digital realm is all about inducing the flavour of analogue imperfections, tape machine modulations and the colourations caused by worn equipment and mechanical artifacts. From adding more wow and tape flutter effects with our Waves Audio J37 plugin, to adding vintage vinyl noise and crackle with the Abbey Road vinyl plugin, here are a few tricks to add analogue imperfections and that warm nostalgic vibe to your sound.