B&W 804 D4 review and measurements by Stereophile

[Geert]

no genelec or Neumann. Check the website of abbey. You see the B&w speakers.

... and ATC, and ADAM, and Focal,.. and also Genelec.

along with most of the high end recording studios

Complete BS.

 

[sarumbear]

Last time I visited they were using 801s, to keep the doors open.
Keith

Can you show us where those doors are, please?

Penthouse Studio - Abbey Road

Our Penthouse studio offers a large scale digital mix and production for the recording and mixing of film soundtracks and albums from leading artists.

www.abbeyroad.com

 

[Sancus]

Nope. Abbey uses 801 diamonds from B&w along with most of the high end recording studios. no genelec or Neumann. Check the website of abbey. You see the B&w speakers.

I think there is a common misunderstanding about the purpose of control rooms in recording studios. I was recently in the control room at Abbey Road Studio 1. The B&Ws in there(800 D3) sound fine, they get the job done. They're certainly not amazing, and the room itself is a bit too dead to really sound good for stereo anyways. That probably helps the speakers since off-axis response doesn't matter as much. The seating positions of the various people working on the recording are all over the place. The room is not optimized for great sound either, as stated by the senior recording engineer on duty at the time. Not my opinion. The large glass window causes undesirable reflections and the large console causes bass issues.

During the process of recording, they're not EQing the sound or adjusting microphones based on what comes out of those speakers. They're for monitoring the music that is being recorded -- what typically gets adjusted is the musicians playing the music.

The place where the sound of the final output is decided is the mixing/mastering studios. Some of those(especially classical ones) do still use B&Ws, but many do not. And in general, most competent studios are going to check music on several different models of speaker before finalizing it, not just 1.

 

[Geert]

Maybe a picture of The Penthouse studio that didn't pass their commercial guy? Look what's on top of the console:

 

[Sancus]

Maybe a picture of The Penthouse studio that didn't pass their commercial guy? Look what's on top of the console:

There is an equipment list here. Smaller, optional monitors are available for use from many brands including Genelec and Adam.

 

[sarumbear]

The place where the sound of the final output is decided is the mixing/mastering studios.

Which the Penthouse Studio is, using D800…

 

[Purité Audio]

PMC have also paid for their turn to be seen at Abbey Road.
Keith

 

[Sancus]

Which the Penthouse Studio is, using D800…

Well, the whole place is just tools for people to produce music, right? If you want your whole album produced there on B&W speakers using their engineers, I'm sure you can have that. I would be pretty surprised(and question the competence of) any audio engineer tasked to mixing/mastering who would ADVISE their clients to do that though. There's a reason they have all those other monitors.

In general I think most of their biggest clients do mixing/mastering elsewhere though. Especially US-based film studios and musicians.

 

[Geert]

There is an equipment list here. Smaller, optional monitors are available for use from many brands including Genelec and Adam.

Yes, that's what I said a few posts earlier.

 

[Sancus]

Yes, that's what I said a few posts earlier.

I didn't see a link, maybe I missed it. Pretty sure we're both arguing the same thing, though...

 

[Geert]

maybe I missed it

The big photo with the Adam's on the console?

Pretty sure we're both arguing the same thing, though..

I guess so. Rest assure they're not mixing pop or rock music on these B&W's only.

 

[sarumbear]

In general I think most of their biggest clients do mixing/mastering elsewhere though.

You do realise that we are talking about Abbey Road Studios, right?

 

[Sancus]

You do realise that we are talking about Abbey Road Studios, right?

Yes. The place where the majority of their business now is film scores. I would guess US-based film productions usually do mixing and mastering at US studios around LA.

 

[sarumbear]

Yes. The place where the majority of their business now is film scores. I would guess US-based film productions usually do mixing and mastering at US studios around LA.

Source?

 

[Geert]

You do realise that we are talking about Abbey Road Studios, right?

Of course they're also mixing over there. A reference; Brockhampton, again in the Penthouse studio, on ATC's monitors... https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/inside-track-brockhampton-weight?page=3

 

[Sancus]

Source?

It was stated by the engineers while I was there that they mostly recorded film scores and the manager of the composer noted that, to get time in Abbey Road Studio 1 specifically, you generally had to "challenge" a bunch of dates 18 months in advance and pre-pay for the time then, because the vast majority of the dates were blocked off for major film studios. So then they would give you the date(s) if the owner of the larger block didn't object(and I assume also pre-pay and specify the project needing that date block, wasn't too clear on what happened if they rejected all of your challenges).

We're getting pretty far afield though. My point was mainly it's a wrong assumption that the use of these B&Ws in recording studios imply that they have a substantial effect on the final sound. IF they're used for mixing/mastering, then they obviously would, but that is by no means the rule even at studios that heavily advertise B&W use. They still have other stuff available and use it, as I would expect from any competent professionals.

Mixing/Mastering on one brand or even worse one model of speaker doesn't really make any sense.

 

[sarumbear]

It was stated by the engineers while I was there that they mostly recorded film scores and the manager of the composer noted that, to get time in Abbey Road Studio 1 specifically, you generally had to "challenge" a bunch of dates 18 months in advance and pre-pay for the time then, because the vast majority of the dates were blocked off for major film studios. So then they would give you the date(s) if the owner of the larger block didn't object(and I assume also pre-pay and specify the project needing that date block, wasn't too clear on what happened if they rejected all of your challenges).

We're getting pretty far afield though. My point was mainly it's a wrong assumption that the use of these B&Ws in recording studios imply that they have a substantial effect on the final sound. IF they're used for mixing/mastering, then they obviously would, but that is by no means the rule even at studios that heavily advertise B&W use. They still have other stuff available and use it, as I would expect from any competent professionals.

Mixing/Mastering on one brand or even worse one model of speaker doesn't really make any sense.

You are generalising the studios based on the studio 1 being used for large orchestras. It is designed specifically for that but Abbey Road Studios have six studios. They record everything from classical to film scores to pop. They are owned by UMC, the world’s largest label.

Meanwhile, my comments were started as a reply to this unfortunate comment.

Last time I visited they were using 801s, to keep the doors open.
Keith

 

[Sancus]

You are generalising the studios based on the studio 1 being used for large orchestras. It is designed specifically for that but Abbey Road Studios have six studios. They record everything from classical to film scores to pop. They are owned by UMC, the world’s largest label.

Meanwhile, my comments were started as a reply to this unfortunate comment.

Fair enough.

I also disagree with that comment, B&Ws are still widely used there and elsewhere. I'd rather they weren't, but that applies to plenty of things, and the circle of confusion isn't going away any time soon.

 

[thewas]

Nope. Abbey uses 801 diamonds from B&w along with most of the high end recording studios. no genelec or Neumann. Check the website of abbey. You see the B&w speakers.

The Dolby Atmos mixing studio uses Revel. Pix online, someplace... Revel matches each speaker to a reference curve.

Just because some use it, that doesn't make it the rule, look for example what big broadcasting studios use all over the world which need to fullfil 24/7 the requirement list I wrote above and you won't really see passive hifi loudspeakers but the mentioned pro studio monitors. Sound quality and neutrality wise a Revel at least wouldn't be a problem but that is not enough for real professional use.

 

[Purité Audio]

You are generalising the studios based on the studio 1 being used for large orchestras. It is designed specifically for that but Abbey Road Studios have six studios. They record everything from classical to film scores to pop. They are owned by UMC, the world’s largest label.

Meanwhile, my comments were started as a reply to this unfortunate comment.

Not unfortunate at all when I visited there were B&W 800 speakers left in the corridor and another pair were being used to keep some swing doors open.
Keith