Dolby ATMOS playback of Robin Trower’s ‘Bridge of Sighs’ – Thursday 16th May 2024
Watch our Unboxing of the Bridge of Sighs 50th Anniversary CD/BluRay Box Set
Robin Trower Talks to Phil Aston about the Bridge of Sighs 50th Anniversary (Podscast)
There are certain albums that you remember hearing for the first time. Like, Stevie Ray Vaughan, “Texas Flood”, I remember having to pull the car to the side of the road.
Robin Trower’s, “Bridge of Sighs” is another such album. I actually bought it by mistake. I was heavily into jazz at the time and the 2007 remix was reviewed in the jazz section of the Financial Times (FT) newspaper. I thought I was putting a jazz album into the CD player.
I remember just staring at the speakers with my mouth open, while my supper burned. It was one of those albums the “repeat” button on the CD player was made for. Carol, in the downstairs flat from me was partially deaf, something I was grateful for.
When I was invited to hear a Dolby ATMOS playback at Dolby’s studios in Soho, London. I jumped at the chance.
The night followed the following format.
After a brief introduction by David Sinclair, the album was played in full.
It was interesting to hear the audience after playback, there was a two second pause and an audible collective “wow” from the audience before we applauded.
There then followed a short interview by David Sinclair with Richard Whittaker the sound engineer on the ATMOS version. He’s completed Atmos versions for The Who, Def Leppard, Thin Lizzy, etc.
Richard Whittaker explained that with modern Pro tools, you can do just about anything you want. Richard said he would investigate the history of the album, where it was recorded, the engineer, their style and any “tricks” they might have used.
For example, Geoff Emerick the original engineer in the studios at the time came up with the idea to mic up the guitar with three mics at a distance to give the big guitar sound as if it was live.
What did the album sound like in ATMOS?
For me the recording was very different than listening to a stereo image. Richard Whittaker had already explained that his style was not to have sounds whizzing around like a quad mix but to create the ATMOS mix as true to the stereo recording as possible. You were therefore immersed in the sound and could sit and listen, rather than have a cinematic sound which requires you to detect movement around you.
Following the interview with Richard Whittaker, there was a video interview with Robin Trower.
Having written the booklet for the new album, David Sinclair asked questions and was able to go into some detail with Robin as to many aspects about the album.
Robin explained that two tracks had been recorded at Olympic Studios and these two tracks they had already been playing live. The rest of the album was written and recorded in 16 days at Air Studios in Oxford Circus.
Robin also said in his interview that from a kit perspective he had two Marshall amps and a specially built cabinet that gave high levels of gain from the guitar. Robin said the amp was distorted but it wasn’t designed as a distortion amp.
Robin explained that most of it was live, with as few overdubs. One such overdub was on “Too Rolling Stoned”. Robin explained they wanted that to sound like there was a party in the studio and the people shouting on the track was the band, the road crew and anybody they could find in the studio.
It was great that the place wasn’t just music journalists, the guy sitting next to me was a fan, he had won a ticket off the Robin Trower Facebook page.
A great album, a great mix, heard in a great setting!
Tim Hughes | Now Spinning Magazine
