How to Create Space in a Heavy Guitar Mix

Following his blog piece capturing the genius of Paul McCartney, Abbey Road's Cameron Colbeck delves into the prolific career of famed musician, producer and ex-Abbey Road engineer, Alan Parsons. Alan Parsons’ work spans decades and disciplines, from his humble beginnings of starting at EMI Studios aged 16, to the vast success on several significant albums, including The Beatles' ‘Abbey Road’, the eponymous debut album by Ambrosia, as well as Pink Floyd's ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’. ...

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. ...

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. ...

Last year we launched the Abbey Road Scholarship Programme to support two aspiring black music engineers to join Abbey Road Institute’s Advanced Diploma in Music Production and Sound Engineering and then undertake a one year engineering placement at the Studio. Applications closed in February and we were delighted and overwhelmed by the response and the very high standard of submissions. ...

We sat down and spoke with our own Oli Morgan, who specialises in stem mastering here at Abbey Road, to answer these questions and more, along with demonstrating his workflow for a stem mastering session. ...

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. ...