HISTORY IN THE REMAKING: GEOFF EMERICK PRODUCES RE-RECORDING OF “SGT. PEPPER’S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND” WITH JBL LSR6300 SERIES STUDIO MONITORS

NEW YORK, NEW YORK, October 5, 2007 — Commemorating the 40th anniversary of what many regard as the most influential rock album of all time, legendary engineer Geoff Emerick produced and engineered the remake of The Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” using JBL LSR6300 Series studio monitors. In the new collection, the original 13 tracks are covered by some of the most popular recording artists in the world, including Bryan Adams singing the opening Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band track, followed by Razorlight performing With A Little Help From My Friends, Athlete performing Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds, Kaiser Chiefs version of Fixing a Hole, She’s Leaving Home by the Magic Numbers, Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite performed by Jamie Cullum, Within You Without You performed by Oasis, Lovely Rita by Travis, Good Morning Good Morning by the Zutones, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band (reprise) by The Stereophonics, and A Day In the Life by The Libertines.

For the recordings, Emerick assembled much of the original equipment used on The Beatles’ album, including two of the original Studer one-inch four-track tape recorders and two of the original EMI mixing consoles provided by Mark Knopfler and Lenny Kravitz. Additionally, Emerick borrowed essential vintage AKG microphone models from the AKG Museum in Vienna, Austria. Richard Lush, who assisted Emerick on the original 1967 recording, joined Emerick as assistant engineer on this project, with Richard Cooper from British Grove Studios.

With the exception of Oasis’ recording of Within You Without You, which was recorded at Abbey Road Studios, the entire collection of songs was recorded at Mark Knopfler’s British Grove Studios in Chiswick, England, which is home to one of the original EMI mixing “desks.” Emerick’s technical approach was to stay true to the original, recording to four-track tape and mixing in mono. “Being four-track recordings, as were the original Beatles tracks, the drums were in mono,” Emerick noted. “The second track was typically bass, guitars or keys, which were all mixed together onto a single track. The third track was allocated to vocals and the last track was allocated to overdubs. So we just used what we had when we did the original.” As with the original “Sgt. Pepper” project, some of the four-track tapes were sub-mixed to a second four-track recorder, providing additional tracks for overdubbing.

For this monumental project, Emerick turned to JBL LSR6300 Series studio monitors, as he has for numerous recent projects. “When I’m mixing I like to feel that I’ve captured a moment,” Emerick said. “To me, there’s only one mix, and that’s the real mix. Like lots of engineers, I was having problems when I’d listen to mixes outside of the control room. Often, the relationship between instruments and vocals is not consistent. However, since I’ve started mixing on the JBL LSR Series, the perspective in the mastering room has been exactly the same as in the control room. They have that quality and punch I’m used to getting from the drums and the bass, and the guitars of course--that really good, solid sound.”

The “Sgt. Pepper” re-recording originated when Emerick was approached by musician/activist Bob Geldof, who had read the 2006 book, “Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of The Beatles,” (Gotham Books) co-authored by Emerick and Howard Massey. Geldof thought it would be a great idea to produce a radio documentary and a TV documentary for the BBC of Emerick re-recording “Sgt. Pepper” using some of today’s top artists and the original equipment. “The first rule of the recordings was that we were going to have fun,” Emerick said. “ When I can, I still work in analog, so we were going to [record on] tape. That means if we mess up in the middle of the rhythm track, we go back to the beginning and start recording again. For me, the performance has to come almost in its entirety from the studio floor.”

“I recall an early listening session with the JBL LSR6300s at Capitol Records Studios,” said Peter Chaikin, Director of Marketing, Recording & Broadcast, JBL Professional. “Geoff put up a CD of ‘Sgt. Pepper’ and I watched as he listened intently for certain aural cues from the monitors. As ‘Sgt. Pepper’ played, I was flooded with images and memories of where we were and what we were doing the summer the album was released. I wondered in that moment if Geoff knew the impact his work has had on so many of us. It is an honor for JBL to be working with Geoff and for the LSR Series be part of this historic project.”

The documentary recently aired on BBC Television and a two-hour radio documentary, on BBC Radio 2.

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Headquartered in Northridge, California, JBL Professional is the world’s leading designer, manufacturer, and marketer of professional loudspeakers for recording and broadcast, musician, cinema, touring sound, commercial sound and contracting applications. Celebrating its 60th Anniversary in 2006, JBL Professional is the proud recipient of the 2005 Technical GRAMMY® award. JBL Professional is part of the Harman International network of professional and consumer audio companies. For complete product and company information, go to the JBL Professional website at www.jblpro.com.

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