I recently picked up the Abbey Road Collection and I can’t seem to find information on an authentic signal path.
I understand there are many creative uses for these plugins, but I am new to exploring analog emulation and I would like to understand the logical way the original equipment was set up as a starting point. So in terms of at what point would the signal run through a console/desk in relation to additional EQ’s and Compressor’s? Also where to put in the Chambers or Plates? What things might be sequential vs parallel to each other? And finally what would be on Individual Channels vs. across Mix Busses vs. The Master, especially when using something like the J37 Tape?
I know there is kind of a lot here but any information you all have to offer would be much appreciated, Thanks!
I don’t have any real solid answers for you unfortunately. But it was common practice at the time to compress going to tape, quite possibly bypassing the console to get the cleanest signal path. That kind of thing REALLY mattered back then.
When they run out of tracks they would bounce a submix of all 4 tracks to another multitrack, assuming we’re talking Beatle era. In the process they would have had to balance the levels and add any eq and reverb before committing. Then they’d repeat the process, recording on the final 3 tracks and then bounce that back to the first machine.
The final result would have had a lot of tape compression, distortion and noise build up. But that’s the only way they could do it at the time. There was also no real highs or lows which is why all their tracks sound like its coming from a small speaker. But that was the best they could do at the time.