London, UK (October 23, 2024)—The EMI TG12345 MkI Prototype recording console used to record The Beatles and other acts at London’s EMI Studios in the late 1960s and early 1970s will be put up for sale online starting October 29.

Installed inside EMI’s Studio 2 from 1968 to 1971, the console captured the Fab Four’s 1969 classic album Abbey Road and some of the group members’ 1970s solo endeavors like John Lennon’s single “Instant Karma,” Paul McCartney’s McCartney, George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass, and Ringo Starr’s Sentimental Journey. Other artists recorded with the EMI TG12345 Mk1 include Cliff Richard and The Shadows, The Hollies, Marky Hopkin, Doris Troy and Billy Preston. The desk was removed from Studio 2 in September 1971 and moved to Studio 1, where it was later decommissioned the following year.

The desk will offered for sale through the online Reverb shop of MJQ Ltd., though it won’t be the first time the EMI TG12345 has been proffered in recent years. Most recently, the console went under the hammer in a 2023 Bonhams auction—a move reflecting the growing trend of using rockstar gear as alternative investments—but the desk didn’t meet its guide price of “a seven-figure sum.”

For memorabilia hounds, it might not be a clear-cut investment, but for audio pros, the EMI TG12345 is something of a grail piece. Sporting 24 mic inputs, compressors on every channel and eight outputs, the console was the prototype for the mere 17 desks that EMI produced. More importantly, it is also fully functional and working, having undergone a five-year restoration under the guidance of Beatles collaborator and former EMI engineer Brian Gibson.


https://www.mixonline.com/business/beat ... p-for-sale

I think Abbey Road sounds sterile compared to the previous records. But that could also have to do with the move to 16 track.

I mean it's awesome but I dunno about holy grail.

penningtron wrote: Thu Oct 24, 2024 5:35 am I think Abbey Road sounds sterile compared to the previous records. But that could also have to do with the move to 16 track.

I mean it's awesome but I dunno about holy grail.

Not sure where or how I learned this, but I believe Abbey Road marks the change from a tube-driven board to a solid state one.

penningtron wrote: Thu Oct 24, 2024 5:35 am I think Abbey Road sounds sterile compared to the previous records. But that could also have to do with the move to 16 track.

I mean it's awesome but I dunno about holy grail.

I think it's generally a headroom and fidelity things you are hearing evolve in situ with the Beatles stuff because their records were a big motivator for the money being spent on recording technology at EMI. What sounds sterile is really just lower distortion an "room" in the dynamic range. I would imagine that placed in a modern studio being interfaced with modern (even something like a Studer 820) that console performs with a lot less "Color" than people would expect by using the Beatles records as a reference. I bet it sounds pretty clean unless pushed, and probably, if anything, kinda not that interesting than using any other console. I don't believe in magic sounds for the most part. I bet it sounds fine and feels really limited to work on.
Nobody is mixing records to sound like Beatles records anymore, so the records you make on this board aren't going to sound like Beatles records, unless you have the entire signal chain, staff, ... and Beatles.

Wood Goblin wrote: Thu Oct 24, 2024 1:08 pm

penningtron wrote: Thu Oct 24, 2024 5:35 am I think Abbey Road sounds sterile compared to the previous records. But that could also have to do with the move to 16 track.

I mean it's awesome but I dunno about holy grail.

Not sure where or how I learned this, but I believe Abbey Road marks the change from a tube-driven board to a solid state one.

Yep, I believe that's correct. I think the old one was featured on that McCartney 3, 2, 1 show a few years ago.

Kniferide wrote: I think it's generally a headroom and fidelity things you are hearing evolve in situ with the Beatles stuff because their records were a big motivator for the money being spent on recording technology at EMI. What sounds sterile is really just lower distortion an "room" in the dynamic range.

Yeah, and all that bouncing on 4 tracks added to the sound too.

But if a way-too-rich person was thinking they could get some of that "magic" into their studio then this is kind of a weird way of going about it.