What kind of mixing board did George Harrison have?

In the EPK for the 30th Anniversary of ATMP, George is seen adjusting the faders on what I assume is the mixing board in his home studio.

The faders look quite "vintage" to me. Did George have an old board??

Maybe Ken Scott can chime in here...

 

Yeah, that's an old board, I think an API (if memory serves). Those weird rounded faders were also used on EMI's 1960s consoles.

What the video doesn't show is a lot of the new mixes were comped and tweaked in Pro Tools (at least the stuff done by Jeff Lynne). I seem to recall George was a fan of tracking to 2" analog and then going to Pro Tools for the mix, to take the edge off digital recording.

 

Perhaps an EMI TG 12345

 

Thanks for posting that!

I believe those faders are Painton found on those EMI boards. I wouldn't be surprised if that's an EMI board.

 

Here's an interesting link...http://www.tgmixers.co.uk/Frames/frameset.html

 

Thanks for the links/answers!

 

His board was an old Cadac, modified by Eddie Veale. And George had no Protools set up in his studio. He would only work the good old fashioned way.

Cheers

 

Ah, thanks a million for that Ken!

I'd hate to open a can of worms, but how in the world did the 30th Anniversary reissue wind up in the mastering hands of Astley, the CEDAR king? It's like the total opposite of what George seemed to be going for. He said it himself, "I actually like a bit of tape hiss, personally."

 

Good or bad, that's not the way producer Jeff Lynne worked. I don't doubt that Harrison tracked his music analog, but they went through Pro Tools before they were released, at least during the last 10 years.

I don't believe that Pro Tools is inherently good or bad -- it all depends on who's using it.

 

Hmm..not familiar with that board. Was it an EMI design? I'm not familiar with Eddie Veale as well. What's his background?

BTW Ken, I was listening last night to the Magical Mystery Tour demos/outtakes which you engineered and I must say that kick drum in "Your Mother Should Know" sounded wonderful. Lots of air....and I was listening to a vinyl pressing.

Kinda a cool night listening to those tracks and segueing into the "Lady Madonna" single..then to the "White Album" demos on Anthology. I must say it was the right mood, what with the stormy weather and candles on, anticipating a power outage

 

Eddie Veale is an engineer who also worked with John Lennon on the "Imagine" album sessions (watch the Gimme Some Truth documentary where John is complaining about the engineers: "I'll make Veale stroganoff", he says).

 

Here's a link to vintage Cadacs: http://www.lodgerecording.co.uk/studio/cadac.htm

 

Great information!!
Really enjoy Bill Price's work on "Empty Glass".

 

Gorgeous sounding consoles! They're class A boards if I recall correctly (sound like they are anyway). The sound reminded me of a Neve 8068, very thick and dense (in a good way).

I think I read Cadac consoles are favored by sound guys on Broadway.

 

I work with a Cadac board here in The Netherlands.
Huge board, absolutely gorgeous sound.
It was indeed modified (in fact the whole studio was designed) by Eddie Veale.

Our Cadac is from 1978, it has 40 channels and Optifile automation. It's continuusly kept in condition.
It's a big, warm and friendly beast!

 

Lynne did and does use Pro Tools, but Lynne was not (as far as I know) involved at all in the "All Things Must Pass" reissue. That reissue only involved remixing for the handfull of bonus tracks anyway.

Lynne used Pro Tools for the "Brainwashed" stuff apparently, and that's about it as far as I know. The only other material Lynne worked on with George Harrison that I know of in George's last 10 years would have been the "Threetles" reunion songs, and other than some pre-production work on one of the two demos, "Real Love", everything on the two "reunion" songs was tracked/recorded on analog.

In any event, I don't see any sort of trend that occured with Lynne and Harrison and Pro Tools, because "Brainwashed" was the only project of George's that Lynne worked on after the advent and widespread use of Pro Tools, as far as I know. It certainly is the only released work from that timeframe.

For that matter, I think it was only in the late 90's when Lynne started using Pro Tools regularly (and I believe Lynne also, even with his own material, tracks on analog tape and then dumps into Pro Tools for editing, mixing, etc.). I don't think Pro Tools was used at all when Lynne worked with McCartney in 1995/96.

 

I've heard he disliked the Neve sound.

 

A further example of Cadac would be Crime and Crisis by Supertramp. O/D's and mixing done on Cadac board using Cadac monitors (7 ft tall and half a ton each. Amazing sound).

George recorded almost all of Brainwashed as "demos" which, upon his passing, were "tarted up" by Jeff and Dhani on Protools.

Lastly, Mr Astley came highly recommended. I will say no more.

Cheers

 

Is that bigger than the "White elephants" at Abbey Road?

 

I think I still have some old Cadac brochures around here someplace.

 

I had no problem with the "tarting up" of George's demos for Brainwashed.

ProTools or not, the heart of the music was still there... and it turned out to be one of George's best. I think he would've approved.

Thanks for that little bit of info on Astley, Ken. Totally understandable... the guy has indeed made a name for himself with all the work he's done for The Who (like it or not).