[RadioMoo]

You mean you like that outdated sound? What's wrong with stuff recorded in Cool Edit at 16/44.1 with stock sound cards?

Well...geez! OK. First, get these books: 'The Beatles Recording Sessions' by Mark Lewisohn and 'All You Need Is Ears' and 'Summer Of Love: The Making Of Sgt. Pepper,' both by George Martin. Then be prepared to lose a lot of sleep.

Then, try to find these interviews with Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick: EQ, November 1995, and Mix, October 1992 and October 2002. Someday I promise I'll scan-and-share.

Some stuff: Most equipment at Abbey Road (including the tape!) during the Beatles era was custom built by EMI. (Lots of tubes/valves). Very little non-EMI equipment was allowed to be used (the one notable exception being the Fairchild 660 and 670 limiters which came into heavy use starting with 'Revolver').

Mics included Neumann (Telefunken) U47s, sometimes AKG D20s for kick drum, and what is now known as the Coles 4038 ribbon mic--designed by the BBC--for overheads.

The album 'Abbey Road' was the first-and only-Beatles album recorded and mixed on a solid state console.

Lenny Kravitz now owns one of the tube consoles from that era, and one of the four-track tape machines is still in use; I can't recall the studio name, but the machine has been converted to a 1/2 inch two-track.

About the bass, Geoff Emerick says, "I used to try to pull the bass out of the track to get its own space and hear it more defined. And one way I tried to do it was to put a tiny bit of chamber echo-well, actually I should say reverberation-on it. I started to do that on 'Revolver,' but Paul could always detect even the slightest amount, and he wouldn't accept it...[W]hen we were doing Sgt. Pepper...I started using a C12 on figure of 8 about eight or 10 feet away from his cabinet, which I would bring into the middle of Number 2 Studio. I'd bring it out into the open from the corner area where it was baffled off because I wanted a bit of the room sound." (copyright 2002 primedia business magazines and media)
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Should say one inch two-track.

Moo.