The Great British Recording Studios by Howard Massey

The book is a bit dense (in reading and heft), but provides the information as promised. Many studios that I did not know about. I would have enjoyed seeing more anecdotes and pictures about the great recording artists from these fabulous studios. There are some celebrity photos, to be sure, and many obscure (to me) individuals.
The writing is somewhat dry. Not a book that I will dip into for enjoyment, more for background. But it delivers on what the title states.

This book is written for both the avid listener and the technician. Covering British studios of today and those that have closed, it presents an interesting history of the growth of recorded British music and the evolving methods of recording techniques. With frequent asides to the American music recording methods, it details how the British engineers and producers sought to, at first, emulate the sound and, then, develop their own voice. For the non-technical reader, each chapter of each studio is divided into sections detailing the various microphones, recorders, and processors and may easily be skipped. Valuable, though, is the section listing several recordings produced at each studio for reference. My only caveat is that the text is heavily bent toward rock and pop recordings. Classical, opera, and other large form recordings are given short shrift (aside from some mentions of film soundtracks). That may be because there was not as much experimentation with recording these, however. Lots of pictures and anecdotal sidebars and a glossary of tech terms if you need them. Very comprehensive.

“Suddenly, good sounds were being made in good studios. Not just from the big boys like EMI and Decca, but also in little independent studios that gave free rein to their clients.” George Martin.

“A recording studio is an immediate imposition as compared to sitting around a fire strumming.” Robert Plant.

I know this book has been around a few years and has been reviewed, but I was looking up some information I needed and was again struck on how great this book is, so I couldn’t help but add my comments about this fine book.

Not only laid out nicely, this book covers the major and minor studios, that if you read the back of album covers or CD inserts, you”ll recognize quite a few of the studios in this book. Filled with both general and more technical information (which you can skip unless you’re an audio engineer and/or even more of a recording information nerd than I am) there’s also a lot of great photos that give you an idea of what these studios were like. Plus at the end of each essay there’s a list of important artists/recordings that were done at that particular studio.

This book’s information runs the gamut from general information that’s easy to understand to more esoteric stuff (different mixing consoles, monitors, signal processors, etc.) that mean relatively little to someone like me, or things like a de-emphasis curve chart (as an example) which, while important aren’t the real reason I like this book. Having for years read the names of studios like EMI, Decca, Phillips, Trident, AIR, and other well known studio names, along with other smaller studios like De Lane Lea, Morgan, Chalk Farm, Island, The Manor, RAK, Roundhouse, and others, it’s great to be able to see these studios in photos (and a number of artists in the studios you’ll recognize) and read about these places of seemingly audio magic. Plus the various mobile studios are included, like The Rolling Stones Mobile, Pye Mobile, Ronnie Lane Mobile, and several others which are also important in the history of British recording.

There’s a glossary and index included, both valuable to have for quicker reference. Also throughout the book are interesting and informative sections called “Stories From The Studio” which add both more information to the general body of information and are pretty interesting to read on their own. The many b& w photos (and some color) are very important for a better understanding and feel of each studio. If you’re the type of person (like me) who likes to know how recordings are made (and you like other books about how albums are manufactured for example) this book will add a lot of interesting information about all the places where so much great music has been recorded. These studios represented the hey-day of British recording and this book does justice to that era. Worth adding to your library.

Un libro eccellente, sia dal punto di vista dell’edizione che dal punto di vista dei contenuti, con interviste e aneddoti inediti. Foto a corredo e box esplicativi ovunque. Se vi piace la storia della musica registrata, non potete non averlo.

I was interested in learning about various key recording studios, the gear they had, the room layouts and dimensions and sound treatments, the people who ran the sessions and their techniques. The two main books that came up were this book (TGBRS) by Howard Massey, dealing with British studios, and “Temples of Sound” (TOS) by Jim Cogan and William Clark, which is about American studios. TOS was published in 2003 while TGBRS was published in 2015. Now that I’ve read them both, I can make some comments. Both books are easy and enjoyable to read. My only gripe with both books is that I wish the lists of important recordings made at each studio was significantly longer.

The initial idea for TOS was a photo book of great musicians in the recording studio creating their masterpieces. There are a lot of photos and they capture the feeling of being there. Each chapter is 8-15 pages dedicated to one studio: Capitol, United Western Recorders, Sunset Sound, RCA Studio B, Stax, Sun Studios, J&M, Chess, Universal, Motown, Sigma, Atlantic, Columbia, Van Gelder, Criteria. You get a brief history focusing on the biggest stars, producers, engineers. Little focus is on the gear, room and treatments, and techniques used to record. It’s more about the people and the times, and not how the classic recordings were made (from a technical or engineer pov). A nice feature is a list of 12 “essential” songs that were recorded in each studio. This book has become very hard to find and very expensive (maybe it’s out of print?). I’m glad I did not pay more than $20 for it (I found a mint condition ex-library book copy via Amazon.ca third-party vendor), as I probably could have found all its information by searching the internet.

TGBRS is a far more thorough book and more about the building, rooms, gear, engineers and their techniques than it is about the famous artists. This information is not so easily found on the internet, and it’s collected here very nicely. The studios covered in this book are: Abbey Road (EMI), Decca, Pye, Philips, IBC, LAnsdowne, Advision, CTS / The Music Centre, Holloway Road, Olympic, trident, AIR, LEvy’s / CBS / Whitfield Street, Star Sound / Audio International, De Lane Lea / Kingsway, Ryemuse / Mayfair, Marquee, Sound Techniques, Wessex, Morgan, Chappell, Chalk Farm, Apple, Island / Basing Street, Pathway, The Manor, Scorpio Sound, Chipping Norton, Ramport, Sarm, Sawmills, Roundhouse, RAK, Utopia, Good Earth, Matrix, Townhouse, Ridge Farm, Odyssey. Also covered are these mobile studios: Rolling Stones, Pye, Ronnie Lane, Manor, Island, RAK, Maison Rouge. The mobiles section is very interesting and a nice addition. It would have been nice to read about American equivalents, had it been included in TOS.

In TGBRS, the information for each facility follows the same sequence, which is a nice organizational touch: history of the building and studio, key personal, physical facilities, acoustic treatments, room dimensions, echo chambers, key equipment, mixing consoles, monitors, tape machines, main microphones, outboard signal processors, key technical innovations, selected discography. There’s obviously more information and pages dedicated to the larger studios but the book seems to have balanced it out well.

TGBRC gives you a lot more information than TOS. The 14-page Introduction is an excellent summary of the origins and history of British recording studios, as well as an explanation of the difference between the British and American recordings. The history and explanations of all the equipment and technical gear (microphones, monitors, tape machines, outboard signal processors, reverb plates, mixing consoles, etc.) is given, and it’s excellent. Lots of inside stories about key recordings and techniques. At the end of the book is a glossary of technical terms.

Oddly enough, TGBRS is written by an American, Howard Massey, who has already published two other excellent books called Behind the Glass, Volumes 1 & 2, full of interviews with important recording engineers. All these books are highly recommended for music history buffs and musicians with home studios.