The EMI REDD .17, .37 and .51 were

vacuum-tube A vacuum tube, electron tube, valve (British usage), or tube (North America), is a device that controls electric current flow in a high vacuum between electrodes to which an electric potential difference has been applied. The type known as a ...

-based

mixing consoles Mix, mixes or mixing may refer to: Persons & places * Mix (surname) ** Tom Mix (1880-1940), American film star * nickname of Mix Diskerud (born Mikkel, 1990), Norwegian-American soccer player * Mix camp, an informal settlement in Namibia * Mix, ...

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...

for their

Abbey Road Studios Abbey Road Studios (formerly EMI Recording Studios) is a recording studio at 3 Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London, England. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of British music c ...

. They were used to mix several influential albums, including most of

the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

' albums and the first two

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experimentation, philo ...

albums.

History

Abbey Road Studios’ technical engineer Lenn Page established the Record Engineering Development Department (REDD) in 1955 to develop equipment that would facilitate stereo recordings. At the time, mass-produced recording studio equipment was not available, and EMI/Abbey Road custom-built equipment in-house. The first REDD console, the REDD.17, was developed in 1958 by Peter Burkotwitz at

EMI Electrola Electrola is a German record label and subsidiary of Universal Music Group. Based in Munich, its roster has included Chumbawamba, Matthias Reim, Helene Fischer, Brings, Höhner and Santiano. History On 8 May 1925 the British Gramophone Company ...

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

, and was Abbey Road Studios' first dedicated stereo mixing system. Employing a modular design still used in large-format consoles today, the REDD.17 was one of the first modern-style mixing consoles. The REDD.37 and its successor, the REDD.51, had a similar design with added outputs needed to accommodate Abbey Road Studios' new four-track tape machines. Both models featured 14 Painton quadrant faders to control the level of eight microphone input channels, two auxiliary channels, and four master outputs. The REDD.51 featured new amps that offered more headroom and lower distortion; Abbey Road installed the first REDD.51 in Studio 2 in 1964. Only three REDD.37s and four REDD.51 consoles were ever built. Abbey Road Studios was forced to retire their 4-track REDD consoles in November 1968, replacing them with the

EMI TG12345 The EMI TG12345 was a mixing console designed by EMI for their Abbey Road Studios, which was used to mix several influential albums, including The Beatles' ''Abbey Road'' and Pink Floyd's ''The Dark Side of the Moon''. Overview The TG12345 was i ...

, which featured the eight outputs necessary for the studios' new 3M 8-track

recorder Recorder or The Recorder may refer to: Newspapers * ''Indianapolis Recorder'', a weekly newspaper * ''The Recorder'' (Massachusetts newspaper), a daily newspaper published in Greenfield, Massachusetts, US * ''The Recorder'' (Port Pirie), a news ...

Legacy

Most of the Beatles' albums, including '' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'' were produced with the REDD consoles at Abbey Road Studios. Pink Floyd's 1967 debut album, ''

The Piper at the Gates of Dawn ''The Piper at the Gates of Dawn'' is the debut studio album by English rock band Pink Floyd, released on 5 August 1967 by EMI Columbia. It is the only Pink Floyd album made under the leadership of founding member Syd Barrett (lead vocals, gu ...

'' and its follow-up, ''

A Saucerful of Secrets ''A Saucerful of Secrets'' is the second studio album by the English rock band Pink Floyd, released on 28 June 1968 by EMI Columbia in the United Kingdom and on 27 July 1968 in the United States by Tower Records. During recording, the mental ...

'', were also produced on the studios' REDD consoles. One REDD.17 console is currently in use at

Toe Rag Studios Toe Rag Studios is an analogue recording studio located in Hackney, London, England. History The studio was founded in 1991 by Liam Watson and Josh Collins in the Shoreditch area of London. In 1997, the business relocated to Hackney due to ...

in London. One REDD.37 console, purchased by

Lenny Kravitz Leonard Albert Kravitz (born May 26, 1964) is an American singer-songwriter. His style incorporates elements of rock, blues, soul, R&B, funk, jazz, reggae, hard rock, psychedelic, pop and folk. Kravitz won the Grammy Award for Best Male Roc ...

in 1992 and used at his own Gregory Town Sound studio in The Bahamas. The only remaining REDD.51 in existence, originally employed in the EMI studio in Milan, Italy, is located at

British Grove Studios British Grove Studios is a recording studio located at 20 British Grove in Chiswick, West London, and owned by musician Mark Knopfler. British Grove Studios was built by David Stewart, the studio's former manager, and commissioned by Knopfler as ...

in London.

Software emulations

In 2013,

Waves Audio Waves Audio Ltd. is a developer and supplier of professional digital audio signal processing technologies and audio signal processing, audio effects, used in recording, mixing, mastering, post production, broadcast, and live sound. The company's ...

released a plug-in that emulates the REDD.17, REDD.37 and REDD.51 mixing consoles. Chandler Limited established a partnership with Abbey Road Studios to develop and produce several plug-in emulations of the studios' classic recording gear, including a plug-in that emulates the REDD.47 microphone amplifier circuit from the REDD.51 mixing console.

References

Mixing consoles EMI {{music-stub