Abbey Road

Has anyone tried, or heard of this service? http://www.abbeyroadonlinemastering.com/default.aspx
Does anyone have any feedback about it? Is it worth £90 to try?

Is it worth £90 to try?

Only if you don't mind one of the conditions of service....

9.  GRANT OF LICENCE

You hereby grant Abbey Road and its affiliates a non-exclusive, royalty-free, fully paid up, perpetual, irrevocable and fully sub-licensable right and license to reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, display and otherwise use the Materials you provide throughout the world in any media for the purpose of promoting the Abbey Road Studios and the Services.

Still want to use them? I suppose you might, considering that the chances of this actually happening aren't exactly great...

There are plenty of these mastering services around now, all competing with each other for very little work, I think. Even if I was producing the sort of material they might be able to work with, I don't think I'd bother, myself.

I had my doubts about it anyway, but I hadn't seen that clause! I wondered how they could produce a worthwhile product when I never even talk to the people. There are plenty of people with sufficient skill for my level of production  , so I shall use them instead. Thanks Steve

I suspect there will be enough people who get a tickle out of the vanity tag "Mastered at Abbey Road Studios" to keep them somewhat busy.

There are a lot of aging rock stars out there trading on the strength of a 40 year old reputation, you can't blame some of the studios from doing the same.

9.  GRANT OF LICENCE
You hereby grant Abbey Road and its affiliates a non-exclusive, royalty-free, fully paid up, perpetual, irrevocable and fully sub-licensable right and license to reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, display and otherwise use the Materials you provide throughout the world in any media for the purpose of promoting the Abbey Road Studios and the Services.

They don't have the same clause in the recording contract do they Steve?  I didn't see anything on the booking form, taking a German band there in March.

I suspect there will be enough people who get a tickle out of the vanity tag "Mastered at Abbey Road Studios" to keep them somewhat busy.

Must happen of course, but we took the decision to 'record' at Abbey Rd from a purely commercial point of view, in that fans might be a lot less hesitant in buying the album knowing that if the album was recorded at Abbey Rd, it was most likely commercially reproduced too (which it will be), rather than CDR on a home PC (there's a lot of it about), which plays on the DVD player sometimes - but doesn't play in the car or on the HiFi.  We didn't plan too but on reading Steve's post mastering there is now not an option.

Keith, my apologies. I should have also stated that working with a high profile entity can also be a good marketing move, as well as a pleasant experience. My remarks were intended for the rather more impersonal "email it to us, and we will email it back to you" model.

Keith, my apologies. I should have also stated that working with a high profile entity can also be a good marketing move, as well as a pleasant experience. My remarks were intended for the rather more impersonal "email it to us, and we will email it back to you" model.

Very kind 'Ron' but apology absolutely not necessary, I agree with you completely that 'those' that get mastered at Abbey Rd are most likely doing so for vanity, as their charges are pretty much inline with everywhere else, but with the clause that Steve pointed out the vain should think about it very carefully I feel.

I should perhaps also point out that this is just one of the conditions you won't like... How about:

In addition, you acknowledge that by using this Website and/or the Services, you are not submitting Materials for the purpose of consideration by any music label associated with or affiliated with Abbey Road Studios and your Materials will not be reviewed for purposes of submission to any label.

That's vague, but it doesn't look good. It's that last bit that bothers me, because I don't understand exactly what it means - it's ambiguous.

And don't expect to be able to put anything you like about the mastering service on your CD either - that's pretty tightly controlled:

We hereby give you permission and you agree to include the following credit in relation to any CD or other record that has been mastered by the Abbey Road Studios Online Mastering Service and released to the public by you:

Mastered by Abbey Road Studios Online Mastering Services 
www.abbeyroadonlinemastering.com

Such credit shall be included in a suitable place in the inner sleeve liner notes of the CD or record and shall be in the same size, typeface and font as any other similar information included in such liner notes.  For the avoidance of doubt, we do not grant you any permission to use the Abbey Road and/or the Service’s name(s), logo(s) and/or brand(s) and/or the name of our individual mastering engineer in any way, save as set out above.

It's simply not worth it, is it?

As far as I'm aware, the recording contract is entirely different - you'd have to ask them about any limitations there, because they aren't on the website.

I've used their normal mastering service for vinyl in the past and it gave me a good reason to actually go and visit the place. I'd certainly use Abbey Road again.

James.

The trouble with the on-line mastering from that POV is that the one thing it doesn't do is give you any chance of a visit!

The trouble with the on-line mastering from that POV is that the one thing it doesn't do is give you any chance of a visit!

I couldn't Agree More.