EMI TG12345

An EMI TG12345 Mk.II on display

EMI TG12345 Mk.III on Abbey Road Studio 3, with Steve Lake

The EMI TG12345 was a mixing console designed by EMI for their Abbey Road Studios, which was used to mix several influential albums, including The Beatles' Abbey Road and Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon.[1]

Overview

The TG12345 was installed in Abbey Road Studio Two in late 1968,[2] making it possible for the studio to double the number of tracks it could record simultaneously, from four to eight. The mixer had twenty-four microphone inputs and eight tape outputs,[3] a significant increase over the eight microphone inputs and four tape outputs of the REDD .51 mixing console that it replaced.[4] This also enabled the studio to replace its four-track Studer J37 multitrack tape recorder with the eight-track 3M M23.[5]

The TG12345 was Abbey Road Studios' first solid-state mixing console and, unlike its predecessors that were based on vacuum tubes, it featured a compressor as well as equalization built into each channel.

Several influential albums were mixed on the console, including The Beatles' Abbey Road and Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon.[6]

The original console was rescued from a skip, restored over a period of 4 years and placed for auction in October 2024 [7]

Hardware recreations and software emulations

In 2011, Chandler Limited released the Curve Bender, a rackmount recreation of the TG12345's EQ section.[8] In 2014, Waves Audio released a plug-in that emulates two channels of the TG12345.[9]

References

1. Stanfield, Geoff (2015). "An "Abbey Road" Plug-In? G. Stanfield Reviews Waves' Emulation of the EMI TG12345 Channel Strip". Tape Op. USA. Retrieved 2015-12-03.
2. Massey, Howard (2015). The Great British Recording Studios. Lanham, Maryland, US: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 15. ISBN 978-1-4584-2197-5.
3. Pickford, John (2014-07-29). "Studio Icons: EMI TG12345 Mixing Console". MusicTech. UK: Anthem Publishing Ltd. Retrieved 2015-12-03.
4. Pickford, John (2014-06-11). "Studio Icons: EMI REDD .51". MusicTech. UK: Anthem Publishing Ltd. Retrieved 2015-12-03.
5. Harris, Tony; Burns, Phil. "Abbey Road Studios London". Archived from the original on 2016-02-11. Retrieved 2015-12-03.
6. Stanfield, Geoff (2015). "An "Abbey Road" Plug-In? G. Stanfield Reviews Waves' Emulation of the EMI TG12345 Channel Strip". Tape Op. USA. Retrieved 2015-12-03.
7. "Recording console used by Beatles on Abbey Road album up for sale". BBC News. 2024-10-29. Retrieved 2024-10-29.
8. "Chandler Curve Bender Review". MusicTech. UK: Anthem Publishing Ltd. 2011-09-19. Archived from the original on 2013-11-03. Retrieved 2015-12-03.
9. "News: Waves & Abbey Road release EMI TG12345 plug-in". Sound on Sound. UK: SOS Publications Group. 2014-10-09. Retrieved 2015-12-03.