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42-852: The Gramophone Company Limited ( The Gramophone Co. Ltd. ), based in the United Kingdom and founded by Emil Berliner , was one of the early recording companies , the parent organisation for the His Master's Voice (HMV) label, and the European affiliate of the American Victor Talking Machine Company . Although the company merged with the Columbia Graphophone Company in 1931 to form Electric and Musical Industries Limited (EMI), its name "The Gramophone Company Limited" continued in

84-665: A centre for rock and roll music when Cliff Richard and the Drifters (later Cliff Richard and the Shadows ) recorded " Move It " there, and later pop music material. EMI is closely associated with the Beatles, who recorded almost all of their albums and hits there between 1962 and 1970 using the four-track REDD mixing console designed by Peter K. Burkowitz. The Beatles named their 1969 album Abbey Road . Iain Macmillan took

126-637: A long time," although he did not name them or include himself among them. "I have so many memories there with the Beatles," McCartney said, "It still is a great studio. So it would be lovely for someone to get a thing together to save it." In March 2015, Abbey Road Institute was founded as a school for music production and audio engineering. In addition to the London location, Abbey Road Institute offers education globally with schools in Amsterdam , Frankfurt , Johannesburg , Miami , Paris and Sydney . All of

168-509: A new type of loom for mass-production of cloth and an acoustic tile . Berliner, who suffered a nervous breakdown in 1914, also advocated for improvements in public health and sanitation . He also advocated for women's equality and, in 1908, established a scholarship program, the Sarah Berliner Research Fellowship , in honor of his mother. On August 3, 1929, Berliner died of a heart attack at his home at

210-530: A product inferior to the Gramophone, which he called the Zonophone and began solely marketing that instead of the gramophone. Berliner cancelled his contract with The National Gramophone Company, and in turn was sued for breach of contract. In 1900, the U.S. parent of Gramophone lost a patent infringement suit brought on by Columbia Records and Zonophone , and was no longer permitted to produce records in

252-834: The Adams Company in Dubuque, Iowa, whose Adams-Farwell automobile used air-cooled three- or five-cylinder rotary engines developed in-house by Fay Oliver Farwell (1859–1935). Berliner, his assistant R.S. Moore, and Farwell developed a 36-hp rotary engine for use in helicopters, an innovation on the heavier inline engines then in use. In 1909, Berliner founded the Gyro Motor Company in Washington, D.C. The company's principals included Berliner, president; Moore, designer and engineer; and Joseph Sanders (1877–1944), inventor, engineer, and manufacturer. The manager of

294-688: The Franco-Prussian War , Berliner migrated to the United States of America in 1870 with a friend of his father's, in whose shop he worked in Washington, D.C. He moved to New York and, living off temporary work such a paper route and cleaning bottles, he studied physics at night at the Cooper Union Institute . After some time working in a livery stable, Berliner became interested in the new audio technology of

336-676: The Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, D.C., at the age of 78. He is buried in Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, D.C., alongside his wife and a son, Herbert Samuel Berliner . Patent images in Tag Image File Format Abbey Road Studios Abbey Road Studios (formerly EMI Recording Studios ) is a music recording studio at 3 Abbey Road , St John's Wood , City of Westminster , London. It

378-572: The helicopter . According to a July 1, 1909, report in The New York Times , a helicopter built by Berliner and J. Newton Williams of Derby, Connecticut , had Williams "from the ground on three occasions" at Berliner's laboratory in the Brightwood neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Between 1907 and 1926, Berliner worked on technologies for vertical flight, including a lightweight rotary engine. Berliner obtained automobile engines from

420-585: The telephone and phonograph . He invented an improved telephone transmitter, one of the first types of microphones . The patent was acquired by the Bell Telephone Company (see The Telephone Cases ), but contested, in a long legal battle, by Thomas Edison . On February 27, 1901, the United States Court of Appeals would declare Berliner's patent void and awarded Edison full rights to the invention. "Edison preceded Berliner in

462-725: The 1940s. The building used for these operations exists at 774 Girard Street NW, Washington, D.C., where its principal facade is in the Fairmont-Girard alleyway. On June 16, 1922, Berliner and his son, Henry , demonstrated a helicopter for the United States Army . Henry became disillusioned with helicopters in 1925, and the company shut down. In 1926, Henry Berliner founded the Berliner Aircraft Company, which merged to become Berliner-Joyce Aircraft in 1929. Berliner's other inventions include

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504-526: The 3-studio facility that would come to be known as EMI Recording Studios (and eventually Abbey Road Studios ) opened on 12 November 1931. In March 1931, Gramophone merged with the English Columbia Graphophone Company to form Electric and Musical Industries Ltd (EMI). The "Gramophone Company, Ltd." name, however, continued to be used for many decades, especially for copyright notices on records. Gramophone Company of India

546-538: The British government declared Abbey Road Studios a Grade II listed building which protected it from major alteration. The following December, the pedestrian crossing at Abbey Road was listed on the National Heritage List. Paul McCartney , speaking to BBC Newsnight on 16 February 2010, said there had been efforts to save Abbey Road by "a few people who have been associated with the studio for

588-756: The Edison machine and substitute a Gramophone, which he did. In 1900, Emile Berliner acquired the US rights to the painting and it became the trademark of the Victor Talking Machine Company in 1901; the UK rights were retained by the Gramophone Company. Victor utilized the Nipper trademark far more aggressively than the Gramophone Company, first using it on their record labels in 1902. Nipper

630-534: The Gramophone Company introduced new labels featuring the famous trademark known as " His Master's Voice ", generally referred to in the UK as HMV, to distinguish them from earlier labels which featured the Recording Angel trademark. The latter had been designed by Theodore Birnbaum, an executive of the Gramophone Company pressing plant in Hanover, Germany . While the general public in the UK came to refer to

672-480: The Studio Two room, where the Beatles made most of their records. While a new mixing console was being installed in the control room, the studio was used to host a video presentation called The Beatles at Abbey Road . The soundtrack to the video had a number of recordings that were not made commercially available until the release of The Beatles Anthology project over a decade later. In September 2012, with

714-589: The U.S. The agreement allowed Columbia to produce disc records themselves in the United States, which they began doing in 1901, with the UK Gramophone Company and others continuing to do so outside of the US. Emile Berliner established Berliner Gramophone in Montreal , where he became Victor's Canadian distributor and held the rights in Canada to the "His Master's Voice" trademark. In February 1909,

756-509: The UK into the 1970s. The Gramophone Company was founded in April 1898 by William Barry Owen and Edmund Trevor Lloyd Wynne Williams , commissioned by Emil Berliner, in London. Owen was acting as agent for Emile Berliner , inventor of the gramophone record , whilst Williams provided the finances. Most of the company's early discs were made in Hanover, Germany at a plant operated by members of Berliner's family, though it had operations around

798-421: The album's cover photograph outside the studios, with the result that the nearby zebra crossing has become a place of pilgrimage for Beatles fans . It has been a tradition for visitors to pay homage to the band by writing on the wall in front of the building even though it is painted over every three months. In December 2010, the zebra crossing at Abbey Road was given a Grade II listed status . After becoming

840-481: The building from any major alterations. Originally a nine-bedroom Georgian townhouse built in 1831 on the footpath leading to Kilburn Abbey , the building was later converted to flats where the best-known resident was Maundy Gregory , who was famous (or infamous) for selling political honours. In 1929, the Gramophone Company acquired the premises. The property benefited from a large garden behind

882-588: The campuses offer the same course, the Advanced Diploma in Music Production and Sound Engineering, which has been developed in collaboration with industry leaders and the team at Abbey Road Studios. Some campuses offer additional short courses, including Portfolio Preparation, Song Production Masterclass, Music theory Fundamentals for Producers amongst others. In April 2021, Abbey Road Institute London announced it would be expanding and moving into

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924-546: The command of EMI head Fred Gaisberg . The recordings went on to spur a revolution among Bach aficionados and cellists alike. "Fats" Waller played the Compton organ there. Glenn Miller recorded at the Abbey Road studios during World War II , when he was based in the United Kingdom. In 1931 an echo chamber was built in the studios, in the early days of artificial reverberation. In 1958, Studio Two at EMI became

966-570: The company was Spencer Heath (1876–1963), a mechanical engineer who was connected with the American Propeller Manufacturing Company , a manufacturer of aeronautical related mechanisms and products in Baltimore, Maryland. By 1910, Berliner was experimenting with the use of a vertically mounted tail rotor to counteract torque on his single-main-rotor design, a configuration that led to practical helicopters of

1008-475: The dog lived from 1884 to 1895 and is honoured in England with a celebrated grave marker. In the mid-1920s, company chairman Trevor Osmond Williams approved funding for the company to secure property and build a recording studio, putting F. H. Dart from the company's technical recording department in charge of the project. Number 3 Abbey Road was acquired in 1929 and, after nearly 2 years of extensive renovations,

1050-550: The opening of the studios in November 1931 when Edward Elgar conducted the London Symphony Orchestra in recording sessions of his music. In 1934, the inventor of stereo sound , Alan Blumlein , recorded Mozart 's Jupiter Symphony which was conducted by Thomas Beecham at the studios. The neighbouring house is also owned by the studio and used to accommodate musicians. During the mid-20th century,

1092-584: The recording apparatus. [1] Marjorie Hayward, violin I Edwin Virgo, violin II Raymond Jeremy, viola Cedric Sharpe. cello Emil Berliner Berliner was born in Hanover , Germany, in 1851 into a Jewish merchant family. Though Jewish, he eventually became agnostic. He completed an apprenticeship to become a merchant, as was family tradition. While his real hobby was invention, he worked as an accountant to make ends meet. To avoid being drafted in

1134-478: The records and company as "His Master's Voice" or "HMV" because of the prominence of the phrase on the record labels, The Gramophone Company was never officially known as the HMV or His Master's Voice Company. The painting "His Master's Voice" was made in the 1890s with the dog Nipper listening to an Edison cylinder phonograph . In 1899, Owen bought the painting from Francis Barraud, the artist, and asked him to paint out

1176-456: The sessions included The Mike Sammes Singers , who backed up The Beatles on "I Am the Walrus" and "Good Night." In 1979, EMI commissioned the British jazz fusion band Morrissey-Mullen to record Britain's first digitally recorded single record at Abbey Road Studios. Abbey Road Studios got its start in the film scoring business in 1980 when Anvil Post Production formed a partnership with

1218-500: The site into luxury flats. It had also been reported there was a possibility the studios could be purchased by the National Trust to preserve what was in effect a historical building. A Save Abbey Road Studios campaign attempted to ensure the premises remained a working studio. On 21 February 2010, EMI stated it planned to keep the studio and was looking for an investor to help finance a "revitalisation" project. Meanwhile,

1260-551: The studio effect known as automatic double tracking (ADT). The chief mastering engineer at Abbey Road was Chris "Vinyl" Blair, who started his career as a tape deck operator. From 1966 to 1971, the Walt Disney Music Company recorded vocals, instrumentals and narration and dialogue for over a dozen albums at Abbey Road for U.S. and international release, including The Aristocats, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Doctor Dolittle, Heidi and The Wizard of Oz . Most of

1302-429: The studio was extensively used by British conductor Sir Malcolm Sargent , whose house was located near the studio building. The Gramophone Company merged with Columbia Graphophone Company to form Electric and Musical Industries (EMI) in 1931, and the studios later became known as EMI Recording Studios. In 1936 cellist Pablo Casals became the first to record Johann Sebastian Bach 's Cello Suites No. 1 & 2 at

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1344-406: The studio's general manager in 1974, Ken Townsend began a rebranding effort to capitalise on the studio's connection with the Beatles. To emphasise the studio's independence, Townsend commissioned the artist Alan Brown to design a unique logo, and in 1976 the facility officially changed names from EMI Studios to Abbey Road Studios . Having previously been mostly restricted to UK-based EMI acts,

1386-664: The studio's name-change served the added purpose of encouraging non-EMI acts to record at the studio. Notable producers and sound engineers who have worked at Abbey Road include Fred Gaisberg (who had first recorded Enrico Caruso in Milan in 1902, and had set up the first recording studio in London at Maiden Lane in 1898), Walter Legge , George Martin , Tutti Camarata , Geoff Emerick , Norman "Hurricane" Smith , Ken Scott , Mike Stone , Alan Parsons , Peter Vince , Malcolm Addey, Peter Bown, Richard Langham, Phil McDonald, John Kurlander, Richard Lush and Ken Townsend , who invented

1428-417: The studio, called Anvil-Abbey Road Screen Sound. The partnership started when Anvil was left without a scoring stage when Denham Studios were demolished. It ended in 1984 when EMI merged with Thorn Electrical Industries to become Thorn EMI . Abbey Road's success in the scoring business continued after the partnership ended. From 18 July to 11 September 1983, the public had a rare opportunity to see inside

1470-479: The takeover of EMI, the studio became the property of Universal Music . It was not one of the entities that were sold to Warner Music as part of Parlophone and instead the control of Abbey Road Studios Ltd was transferred to Virgin Records . On 17 February 2010, it was reported that EMI had put the studios up for sale because of increasing debts. There was reported interest by property developers in redeveloping

1512-494: The townhouse, which permitted a much larger building to be constructed to the rear; thus, the Georgian façade belies the true dimension of the building. The architectural partnership Wallis, Gilbert and Partners was hired to convert the property into a recording studio , an unusual request at the time. Three purpose-built studios were constructed and the existing house was adapted for use as administration offices. Pathé filmed

1554-425: The transmission of speech," the court would write. "The use of carbon in a transmitter is, beyond controversy, the invention of Edison". Berliner moved to Boston in 1877, where he became a United States citizen four years later. He worked for Bell Telephone until 1883, when he returned to Washington and established himself as a private researcher. Berliner also developed a rotary engine and an early version of

1596-659: The world. In 1898, Fred Gaisberg moved from the U.S. to London to set up the first disc recording studio in Europe; it was situated in Maiden Lane. Among early artists he recorded was Syria Lamont , an Australian soprano whose single "Coming through the Rye" was one of the first ever issued. In December 1900, Owen gained the manufacturing rights for the Lambert Typewriter Company , and the Gramophone Company

1638-515: Was the Beatles , who used the studio – particularly its Studio Two room – as the venue for many of the innovative recording techniques that they adopted throughout the 1960s. In 1976, the studio was renamed from EMI to Abbey Road. In 2009, Abbey Road came under threat of sale to property developers. In response, the British Government protected the site, granting it English Heritage Grade II listed status in 2010, thereby preserving

1680-488: Was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company , a predecessor of British music company EMI , which owned it until Universal Music Group (UMG) took control of part of it in 2013. It is ultimately owned by UMG subsidiary Virgin Records Limited (until 2013 by EMI Records Limited, nowadays known as Parlophone Records and owned by UMG's competitor Warner Music Group ). The studio's most notable client

1722-471: Was for a few years renamed the Gramophone & Typewriter Ltd. This was an attempt to diversify the business model, in response to a series of lawsuits by Edison Bell . The Berliner Gramophone Company was hit the hardest with a lawsuit that involved a former employee, Frank Seaman. Berliner had hired Seaman, part of The National Gramophone Company, to handle the distribution of record players and disk as an exclusive sales agent. In secret, he started producing

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1764-409: Was formed in 1946. The Gramophone Company Ltd legal entity was renamed EMI Records Ltd. in 1973. After EMI was acquired by Universal Music, the company was renamed to Parlophone Records Ltd. and taken over by Warner Music. From the 1890s to mid-1925, recordings were made without any electrical equipment, relying instead upon the energy inherent in the sound waves generated by the performers, to activate

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