Abbey Road RS124 compressor
Abbey Road RS124 compressor
Description
Waves
Abbey Road RS 124 Compressor (v12)
The holy grail of smooth compressors
Give your music the sound of silky Abbey Road RS124 compression – the legendary velvety tones heard on every Beatles recording made at Abbey Road. With two different flavors to choose from, this classic tube model is the only software emulation of the ultra-rare RS124s approved by Abbey Road Studios.
Few parts define music history like the RS124 does. The RS124 custom compressors were the secret weapon of the Abbey Road engineers in the 1960s – preferred by Geoff Emerick for his powerful bass tones; by Ken Scott for a luscious guitar treatment; by Norman Smith for lightly gluing the entire rhythm bus. RS124 was also a popular choice for mastering in Abbey Road’s cutting rooms.
The RS124 sound is best known for the thick, creamy bass it produced on Beatles classics such as “Rain” and “Come Together.” Abbey Road’s engineers usually pushed the RS124’s input deep into 15-20 dB gain reduction, which would produce wonderfully lush results across a variety of sources.
Today, Grammy-winning pop/R&B and hip-hop engineer Tony Maserati consistently applies RS124 tones to his vocal tracks, including those by Beyoncé and Alicia Keys, to complement their stunning vocal abilities.
The RS124 was actually an extensive in-house modification of the American Altec 436B compressor. It is believed that only 25 units were ever made and each serial number was hand-built by Abbey Road/EMI engineering legends Bill Livy, Len Page and Mike Bachelor.
Of course, no RS124 unit sounded exactly the same. Each had different sound qualities and attack/release times, due to constant tinkering with the components used. As a result, some units were more suitable for tracking, others for bus compression and disc-cutiing / mastering
Accordingly, the Waves Abbey Road plugin has two different RS124 flavors, modeled after the original hardware:
- Studio models RS124 serial no. 60070B – A favorite unit used for tracking in Abbey Road from the late 1950s through the 1960s, due to its faster attack and release times. This is the more aggressive sound of the RS124, which creates a beautiful “squeezed” sound at transients.
- Cutter is a modification with slower attack and release times. The slower RS124s were favored for studio reduction mixes and in the Abbey Road cuttingrooms in the 1960s. The more relaxed attack made these units more suitable and forgiving for bus compression and mastering purposes.
The RS124 is a feedback compressor with variable recovery. Do you want it to be more aggressive? The included “Super Fuse” mode matches the release time to the attack time, creating a brutal compression character that sounds like it’s “fighting itself”.
The legendary RS124 has left a huge sonic “fingerprint” on the sound of the 60s Abbey Road. Since its rediscovery in the early 2000s, this important, rare and unique compressor is still in use at Abbey Road Studios. Now, the unique sound is yours.
- Accurate modeling of Abbey Road’s ultra-rare RS124 tube compressor
- Silky smooth sounds for vocals, bass, drums, bus compression and mastering
- Developed with Abbey Road Studios
- Heard on every Beatles recording made at Abbey Road
- The creamy compression tone for classic recordings: from Paul McCartney’s bass to Beyoncé’s vocals
- Includes two signature RS124 tube flavors: “Studio” and “Cutter”
- Added Super-Fuse mode for more aggressive results
- SC-HP, Mix button and MS options included
See extra information
Extra Information
Abbey Road RS124 Compressor (V12) – System Requirements
Mac
CPU
Intel Core i5 / i7 / i9 / Xeon
Apple M1 (ARM-based) processors are not yet supported.
Memory
8 GB RAM
8 GB free disk space on the system drive
Operating System
10.13.6, 10.14.6, 10.15.7, 11.0.1 (Intel only)
Screen Resolution
Minimum: 1024×768
Recommended: 1280×1024 / 1600×1024
USB displays are not supported as the primary display.
V12 plugins require a graphics card that supports ‘Metal’. Learn more.
Windows
CPU
Intel Core i5 / i7 / i9 / Xeon / AMD Quad-Core
Memory
8 GB RAM
8 GB free disk space on the system drive
Operating System
Windows 10 64 bit
Screen Resolution
Minimum: 1024×768
Recommended: 1280×1024 / 1600×1024
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