Spitfire Audio is releasing Abbey Road Two: Iconic Strings, a follow-up to its Abbey Road One: Film Scoring Selections series, which showcases the foundational film scoring sound of Studio One. Abbey Road Two: Iconic Strings offers a recording from the legendary Abbey Road Studio Two of an ensemble made up of five string players who are recorded by GRAMMY Award-winning engineer Sam Okell (The Beatles – Remastered) using an array of top gear from the studio’s collection.
The sonic fingerprint of Studio Two cannot be replicated elsewhere due to its combination of controlled acoustics and one-of-a-kind equipment, refined over 90 years — from the vintage four-track Studer J-37 studio tape recorder (used to record The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper in 1967) to the dizzying array of microphones, this is the first time that the sought-after signal path has been made available in a virtual string instrument.
The vintage mixes were recorded using the vintage REDD (Record Engineering Development Department) desk and parallel compression from the custom-built RS124, all passed through that Studer J-37 tape machine.
Coming in two editions, the core Abbey Road Two: Iconic Strings covers the essential microphone mixes—one vintage and one modern—while Abbey Road Two: Iconic Strings Professional offers a broadcast level of 12 signals. Those 12 signals feature four mixes—two vintage and two modern, and eight mic positions, affording composers the opportunity to customize their sound further by effectively taking a deep dive into Abbey Road Studios’ microphone cupboard. Classic microphones—including the actual Neumann U 47, KM 54, and M 50 used on those iconic ’60s sessions—can be explored, as can many more. Both editions of Abbey Road Two: Iconic Strings allow composers access to the Studio Two Echo Chamber, which was originally developed by the first generation of Abbey Road Studios pop engineers to create reverbs, delays and other spatial effects.
Abbey Road Two: Iconic Strings is available as an AAX-, AU-, VST2-, and VST3-compatible, NKS (Native Kontrol Standard)-ready plug-in that loads directly into a DAW for a time-limited promo price of $229 USD until January 6, 2022—returning thereafter to its recommended retail price of $299 USD. It can be ordered from here: https://www.spitfireaudio.com/shop/a-z/abbey-road-two-iconic-strings/.
Abbey Road Two: Iconic Strings Professional is available as an AAX-, AU-, VST2-, and VST3-compatible, NKS-ready plug-in that loads directly into a DAW for a time-limited promo price of $399 USD until January 6, 2022—returning thereafter to its RRP of $499 USD. It can be ordered from here: https://www.spitfireaudio.com/shop/a-z/abbey-road-two-iconic-strings-professional/.
