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Waves Now Shipping the Abbey Road RS124 Compressor Plugin
Knoxville, TN, December 7, 2020 — Waves Audio, the world’s leading developer of professional audio signal processing technologies and leading maker of audio plugins for mixing, music production, mastering, sound design, broadcast, post-production and live sound, is now shipping the Abbey Road RS124 Compressor plugin.
The Abbey Road RS124 is the holy grail of smooth compressors. Give your music the sound of silky-smooth Abbey Road RS124 compression – the legendary velvety tones heard on every Beatles recording made at Abbey Road. With two distinct flavors to choose from, this classic tube model is the only software emulation of the ultra-rare RS124s approved by Abbey Road Studios.
Few pieces of gear define music history as the RS124 does. The custom-built RS124 compressors were the secret weapon of Abbey Road engineers during the 60s – favored by Geoff Emerick for punchy bass sounds, by Ken Scott for lush guitar treatment and by Norman Smith for lightly gluing the entire rhythm bus.
Furthermore, the RS124 was also a popular choice for mastering in Abbey Road’s cutting rooms. The legendary RS124 left a huge sonic fingerprint on the Abbey Road 60s sound. The RS124 sound is especially famous for the thick, creamy bass tones it produced on Beatles classics such as “Rain” and “Come Together.”
Abbey Road engineers would typically push the input of the RS124 deep into 15-20 dB of gain reduction, producing wonderfully lush results on numerous sources. Since its rediscovery in the early 2000s, this important, rare and unique compressor in still being used at Abbey Road Studios today. Now, its one-of-a-kind sound is available for you as well.
Today, GRAMMY®-winning pop/R&B and hip-hop engineer Tony Maserati consistently applies RS124 tones to his vocal tracks, including those of Beyoncé and Alicia Keys, to supplement their stunning voice qualities.
The RS124 was actually an extensive in-house modification of the American Altec 436B compressor. It is believed only 25 units were ever created, and each unit/serial number was hand-built by Abbey Road/EMI technical legends Bill Livy, Len Page and Mike Bachelor. Naturally, no RS124 unit sounded exactly the same. Each had different sonic qualities and attack/release times, due to constant tinkering of the components used. As a result, some units were more suited for tracking, others for bus compression and disc cutting/mastering duties.
Accordingly, the Waves Abbey Road plugin features two distinct RS124 flavors, modeled from the original hardware:
- Studio models RS124 serial no. 60070B – a favorite unit used for tracking at Abbey Road from the late 50s into the 60s, due to its faster attack and release times. This is the more aggressive sound of the RS124, which creates a beautiful “squashed” sound on transients.
- Cutter is a modification with slower attack and release times. The slower RS124s were favored for studio reduction mixes and in Abbey Road’s cutting rooms during the 60s. The more relaxed attack made these units suitable and more forgiving for bus compression and mastering purposes.
The RS124 is a feedback compressor with a variable recovery. Want it to become more aggressive? The included “Super Fuse” mode matches release time to attack time, creating a brutal compression character that sounds like it’s “fighting against itself.” Try this on your drum bus for complete room destruction.
Mirek Stiles, Head of Audio Products, Abbey Road Studios, comments, “The RS124 left a massive sonic fingerprint on Abbey Road Studios’ 1960s sound. This rare beast is a thing of beauty for any genre in the modern production chain. Inserting the RS124 plugin instantly creates vibes hard to emulate in other ways. It pumps beats and glues synths quite unlike anything I have ever heard in the studio. It’s unique, crunchy and lush – it will not disappoint.”
Mick Olesh, Waves EVP of Sales and Marketing, comments, “Since the beginning of our collaboration with Abbey Road Studios in 2011, we have developed an impressive line of over a dozen exclusive products including this new release – the Abbey Road RS124. Waves is delighted to offer musicians, producers and engineers accessibility to this unique tool, enabling new and innovative sonic capabilities. This exciting release is another step in our ongoing policy of offering distinctive and creative tools for enhancing the artistic creativity and workflow of Waves users.”
Waves Abbey Road RS124 features:
- Precise modeling of Abbey Road’s ultra-rare RS124 tube compressor
- Silky-smooth tones for vocals, bass, drums, bus compression & mastering
- Developed with Abbey Road Studios
- Heard on every Beatles recording made at Abbey Road
- The go-to creamy compression tone for classic recordings: from Paul McCartney’s bass to Beyoncé’s vocals
- Two distinctive RS124 tube flavors included: “Studio” and “Cutter”
- Super-Fuse mode added for more aggressive results
- Sidechain, Mix knob and MS options included
The Abbey Road RS124 Compressor is included in the Waves Abbey Road Collection bundle.
For more information, visit https://www.waves.com/plugins/abbey-road-rs124-compressor.
Videos:
Introducing the Waves Abbey Road RS124 Compressor Plugin: https://youtu.be/c4hQASeBPvIThe Holy Grail of Smooth Compression: Behind the RS124: https://youtu.be/8Z9Yg5rjc1U
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Photo file 1: AR-RS124.JPG
Photo caption 1: Waves Abbey Road RS124 Compressor interfaceAbout Abbey Road Studios
A global music icon and the world’s first purpose-built recording studio, Abbey Road Studios opened on 12 November 1931 and was the blueprint for modern recording.Home to countless landmark recordings and pioneering advances in music technology, the legendary studio complex has a phenomenal history spanning over 89 years, encompassing numerous innovations and celebrated work by many of the world’s most famous artists from The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Ella Fitzgerald, Fela Kuti, Kate Bush, Oasis and Radiohead to Sam Smith, Florence + The Machine, Ed Sheeran, Kanye West, Lady Gaga, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Frank Ocean, Amy Winehouse, Brockhampton and Adele.
Since the score for Raiders of The Lost Ark was recorded at the studios in 1981, Abbey Road has developed into one of the world’s premier destinations for movie scoring. Blockbuster films from The Lord of The Rings Trilogy, Skyfall, most of the Harry Potter and Star Wars series and the Oscar-winning Gravity and The Shape of Water feature scores recorded here, while more recent projects span Black Panther, Bohemian Rhapsody, Avengers: Endgame, Mission: Impossible – Fallout, Rocketman, The Lion King and the multi award winning 1917. The studios have also hosted sessions for video games including Halo 5 and Call of Duty.
Abbey Road is one of the foremost mastering houses in the world, with a unique combination of iconic EMI mastering desks, state-of-the-art gear and Grammy-winning engineers with specialist expertise in vinyl mastering, restoration and half-speed mastering. Recent projects include music from The Beatles, Sam Smith, Sade, Abba, The Big Moon, Black Midi, Dido, The Police, Fontaines DC, Goat Girl, Johnny Marr, Krept & Konan, Roxy Music, New Order, Frank Turner, Rita Ora, Queen, Brian Eno, The Rolling Stones and Novelist.
In Spring 2017, in the biggest transformation since opening, two smaller studios were opened - The Gatehouse and The Front Room – designed to make the magic of Abbey Road accessible to a new generation of recording artists. The new spaces have already welcomed artists including Mura Masa, Tayla Parx, George Ezra, The 1975, Novelist and Jaden Smith as well as legends Nile Rodgers and Noel Gallagher. A new Dolby Atmos Premier accredited and IMAX Audio compatible Mix Stage also opened in 2017 making Abbey Road the only facility in the UK to offer both scoring and film sound post-production, with recent projects including Tim Burton’s live action Dumbo, Josie Rourke’s Mary Queen of Scots and the blockbuster film Downton Abbey.
Symbolic of the new era, in March 2018, Abbey Road appointed multiple Grammy Award winning producer, guitarist, arranger and composer Nile Rodgers (of The CHIC Organization) to the specially created role of Chief Creative Advisor. The role sees Nile establish Abbey Road as his primary creative base, writing with artists including Bruno Mars, Anderson .Paak, Jorja Smith, SG Lewis and David Guetta.
Increasing accessibility to the studios, Abbey Road’s Production Hub was launched in 2019 – an online studio, allowing anyone, anywhere in the world to work directly with its engineers to perfect their music via online mixing and mastering services, or to recreate the ‘Abbey Road sound’ with audio plugins and studio hardware, together with an award-winning free songwriting app called Topline.
Abbey Road Studios has been shaping the future of music technology since 1931. From the patenting of stereo in 1933 to the invention of countless recording techniques, the studios’ rich heritage of innovation inspired the creation of Abbey Road Red in Autumn 2015. Abbey Road Red is Europe’s first music technology incubator, designed to support the endeavours of the brightest music tech entrepreneurs, researchers and developers and help introduce the next set of universally adopted technologies into the music business. The programme has expanded beyond the incubator to encompass in-house R&D activities including hackathons and explorations in spatial audio.
The Abbey Road Institute is another new initiative, offering vocational diplomas in music production and audio engineering to students at the studio complex in London and state of the art facilities in Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Sydney and Miami.
Finally, the Abbey Road Shop, located next door to the studios, sells exclusive gifts and souvenirs to the 300,000+ music fans who make a pilgrimage to the zebra crossing each year and write on the wall outside the studios.
Abbey Road Studios is part of Universal Music Group, the world leader in music-based entertainment.
About Waves Audio Ltd.:
Waves is the world’s leading developer of audio DSP solutions for the professional, broadcast, and consumer electronics audio markets. Since its start in the early '90s with the introduction of the Q10 equalizer plugin, Waves has gone on to develop a comprehensive line of over 150 audio plugins, including industry standards like the L1 and L2 Ultramaximizers, popular vintage console models, and innovative mixing tools like Vocal Rider and the Artist Signature Series. For its accomplishments, Waves received a Technical GRAMMY® Award in 2011, and the Q10 was selected as an inductee into the TECnology Hall of Fame. In 2016, Waves released the eMotion LV1 mixer, a revolutionary live digital mixing console that provides real-time audio mixing for front-of-house, monitor, studio and broadcast engineers. Waves technologies are now used to improve sound quality in virtually every sector of the audio market, from recording, mixing, mastering and post-production to broadcast, live sound, and consumer electronics. Waves has over 25 years of expertise in the development of psychoacoustic signal processing algorithms that leverage knowledge of human auditory perception to radically improve perceived sound quality. Waves’ award-winning processors are utilized to improve sound quality in the creation of hit records, major motion pictures, and top-selling video games worldwide. Waves offers computer software and hardware-plus-software solutions for the professional and broadcast markets. The company’s WavesLive division is a market leader in all live sound sectors, spearheading the development of solutions for all live platforms. Under its Maxx brand, Waves offers semiconductor and licensable algorithms for consumer electronics applications. Waves technologies dramatically enhance audio performance and are used by industry leaders such as Dell, Google, Fitbit, Acer, Asus, Hisense and more.
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