Abbey Road sound gets by with a little help from CIT

In a likely world first, scientists from Cork Institute of Technology (CIT) have developed technology which is being used by the iconic Abbey Road recording studios to create super sharp music tracks.

The collaboration came about after experts at CIT’s Nimbus Centre developed Audio Photoshop Technology which they used to create far sharper tracks of Beach Boys classics such as ‘Good Vibrations’, ‘Help Me Rhonda’, and ‘I Get Around’.

Bosses at Abbey Road recording studios, made famous by The Beatles, were so impressed with the breakthrough that they invited the Nimbus team, headed by Derry Fitzgerald, to make it available to audio engineers and musicians.

The software developed by Dr Fitzgerald’s team makes it easier to separate different sounds on a piece of music for sampling, remixing, and remastering tracks.

A leading researcher in the field of sound source separation, Dr Fitzgerald first pioneered the technology on the Beach Boys classics in 2012. The collaboration with the studio, known as project AIDE, is being funded by Enterprise Ireland.

“A lot of existing audio software lets you edit out frequencies but it’s very time consuming,” said Dr Fitzgerald.

“We’re aiming for something more user-friendly, with far more functions. Abbey Road’s engineers have a wealth of experience. They hear things differently and in more detail than normal people do.

“The project aims to create a next-generation audio editor, in effect providing a photoshop for audio.

“This will allow musicians and engineers the game-changing ability to manipulate music in ways not currently possible, for example, automatically extracting a lead guitar or the singing voice from a pop song.”