Two new DVD-ROM packages, one a "refill" of samples for Propellerhead’s Reason 3.0 music creation software, and the other loops for Sony’s Acid music program (and Acid-compatible programs) demonstrate how far PC-based home recording has come.
Propellerhead’s Abbey Road Keyboards samples seven instruments that have been in use in the world’s most famous recording studio since the days of the Beatles. Andy Babiuk’s extremely well-researched book titled Beatles Gear documents the drums, guitars and keyboards that John, Paul, George and Ringo personally owned. But Propellerhead’s Abbey Road Keyboards is a reminder that the Fab Four also had access to a variety of additional unique instruments as well, just by the nature of where they recorded.
The instruments included in the Propellerhead set include a Steinway Upright, which the discs' accompanying 40-page booklet, written by vintage keyboard expert Mark Vail, says is called "The Mrs. Mills Piano" because of a popular 1950s British recording artist who used this instrument extensively. But the following decade, so did the Beatles: play a few staccato major chords on it, and you’ll immediately recall the opening to "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da". Mrs. Mills’ namesake piano was apparently also used on "Lady Madonna", and anytime the Beatles wanted a jangly honky tonk tack-hammer upright piano sound.
Propellerhead’s set also includes samples of Abbey Road’s Challen Studio Piano, a warmer, darker sounding upright. And the Mannborg Harmonium, the original of which uses pedal-driven air pumps to generate sound. Also in the set is the Hammond RT-3; used in Abbey Road since the mid-1960s, it’s the classic Hammond B-3 organ’s big brother. If there’s a fog upon L.A., this is the instrument that’s generating it...
Those are the more traditional keyboards on the DVD. Things get a bit more exotic, beginning with the Mellotron M400, which powered some of the Beatles’ most iconic tunes from their classic Sgt. Pepper era, including "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", and "Strawberry Fields Forever", which many (including your humble narrator) feel is one of the Beatles’ crowning achievements as musicians and songwriters.
The Abbey Road Keyboard collection also includes two instruments that rather stretch the definition of "keyboard", but are still fun nonetheless. There’s a Schiedmayer Celeste, one of the oldest instruments in Abbey Road, and a set of Tubular Bells, sampled from the same set that gave Mike Oldfield’s iconic 1970s album its name. They were also used on the Beatles’ "When I’m 64" and "You Never Give Me Your Money".
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