Advision Studios

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 synchronizing 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 4-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 the first studio in the UK to obtain a professional 8-track machine, which was built in the United States by Scully Recording Instruments. Among the first artists to use the 8-track machine were T. Rex, The Who, and Caravan. In 1970, the studio used a custom 24-channel desk with an 8-track recorder.[1][2] Advision was also among the first studios in the UK to install 16- and 24-track recorders in the early 1970s.[6] The Natural Acoustic Band recorded "Learning to Live" there in 1971, produced by Milt Okun.

In 1971, a 20-channel Neve console was added to the mixdown suite.[1] During the 1970s the studios' focus moved toward 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 to have 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 .

• Photograph from Advision Studios in New Bond Street (Photo was taken in December 1968. The Scully 8-track recorder can be seen in the background.)
• The Sound Company Ltd History of 23 Gosfield Street London at sound.co.uk (with full Advision client list)