In this free four-part video series for Studio One Expert, Brent March shows us how to use the Waves Abbey Road RS124 Compressor to mix an entire drum sound.

Abbey Road RS124 Vintage Tube Compressor

The custom-built RS124 compressor defined the sound of Abbey Road engineers during the ‘60s – and is especially famous for the thick, creamy bass tones it produced on Beatles classics such as Rain and Come Together. Abbey Road engineers would typically push the input of the RS124 deep into 15-20 dB of gain reduction, producing wonderfully lush results

The RS124 was actually an extensive in-house modification of the American Altec 436B compressor. It is believed only 25 units were ever created, and each serial number was hand-built by Abbey Road/EMI technical legends Bill Livy, Len Page and Mike Bachelor.

Naturally, no exactly the same. Each RS124 unit sounded different and had varying sonic qualities, attack/release times, and as a result, some units were more suited for tracking, others for bus compression and disc cutting/mastering duties.

The Waves Abbey Road RS124 plugin features two distinct sounds modelled from the original hardware:

• Studio models RS124 serial no. 60070B – a favourite unit used for tracking at Abbey Road from the late ‘50s into the ‘60s, due to its faster attack and release times. This is the more aggressive sound of the RS124, which creates a beautiful “squashed” sound on transients.

• Cutter is a modification with slower attack and release times. The slower RS124s were favoured for studio reduction mixes and in Abbey Road’s cutting rooms during the ‘60s. The more relaxed attack made these units suitable and more forgiving for bus compression and mastering purposes.

In this first Video, Brent focuses on the kick; he uses the RS124 in cutter mode to retain the kick's transient. He also jumps through the Super-Fuse Circuit and the Studio Unit Type to demonstrate how the RS124 adds weight and body to a kick.

Features

• Precise modelling of Abbey Road’s ultra-rare RS124 tube compressor

• Silky-smooth tones for vocals, bass, drums, bus compression & mastering

• Developed with Abbey Road Studios

• Heard on every Beatles recording made at Abbey Road

• Two distinctive RS124 tube sounds included: “Studio” and “Cutter”

• Super-Fuse mode added for more aggressive results

• SC-HP, Mix knob and MS options included

• High-Frequency Roll-Off option included

For full details and videos, please head over to the Waves website.