On July 10th, 2013 Alicen Schneider and I were given a private tour of Abbey Road Studios in London. Our guide was Colette Barber. Here are some photos I took inside this legendary recording studio.
IN STUDIO ONE
Abbey Road Studio One can facilitate a 110 piece orchestra. In this room John Williams recorded the soundtrack for Return of the Jedi and The Empire Strikes Back. Also the Beatles famous live video for "All You Need is Love" was done here.
IN STUDIO TWO
This is Abbey Road Studio Two. More than 190 Beatles songs were recorded in this room. On the left you can see the 2nd floor window of the control room.
These two pianos were shoved into a corner of Studio Two. The Steinway on the left (the "Mrs. Mills") was used by the Beatles to record Penny Lane and Lady Madonna. The piano on the right (The "Challen") was used extensively on both Magical Mystery Tour and the White Album.
IN THE MICROPHONE ROOM
This is Lester Smith, Abbey Road's tech and microphone guy for 49 years. Here he's showing me a Blumlein microphone from the 1930s. Lester manages and maintains over 600 vintage and modern microphones for the studio. Below is one of the Neumann U47 microphones used to record Lennon and McCartney vocals.
