| Advision Studios | |
|---|---|
 | |
| General information | |
| Address | 23 Gosfield Street, W1W 6HG[1] |
| Town or city | Central London |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Coordinates | 51°31′11″N 0°8′31″W / 51.51972°N 0.14194°W |
Advision Studios was a recording studio in Fitzrovia, central London, England.[2]
Founded in the 1960s by Guy Whetstone and Stephen Appleby,[1] Advision originally provided voiceovers and jingles for television advertisements. The studio was initially located at 83 New Bond Street, but moved to 23 Gosfield Street in 1969.[1][3] The studio complex was built to be able to house a 60-piece studio orchestra and had a 35mm film projector screen for synchronising with motion picture images.[2] Producer Martin Rushent began his career as a projectionist at Advision.[4]
By the mid-1960s, Advision had become one of the top London studios for rock and pop music. The Yardbirds recorded their 1966 album Roger the Engineer at Advision on a four-track machine. The Move recorded some of their early hits at Advision, engineered by Gerald Chevin, including "Flowers in the Rain" in July 1967.[5] In early 1968, Advision became one of the first studios in the United Kingdom to obtain an eight-track machine. The Advision unit was built in the United States by Scully Recording Instruments. Among the first artists to use the eight-track machine were T. Rex, the Who and Caravan. In 1970, the studio used a custom 24-channel desk with an eight-track recorder.[1][2] Advision was also among the first studios in the UK to install 16- and 24-track machines in the early 1970s.[6]
In 1971, a 20-channel Neve console was added to the mixdown suite.[1] During the 1970s the studios' focus moved towards progressive rock music, and the company began producing music for bands such as Yes, Gentle Giant, Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Premiata Forneria Marconi, as well as Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds.[2]
A 1974 re-fitting gave the studio a console built in California by Quad-Eight Electronics for quadraphonic mixing, and the UK's first computer-aided mixdown desk.[2][7] Producers and engineers who worked at Advision include Eddy Offord,[8] Eddie Kramer,[9] Martin Rushent,[4] Paul Northfield[10] and Hugh Padgham.[11]
The Gosfield Street location has been occupied since 1993 by a studio called The Sound Company.
The following is a partial list of work either recorded, mixed or mastered at Advision Studios between 1966 and 1986, taken from [1].
