[[email protected]]

Hi,
I am interested in learning about where the great recording studios
are. Or, rather, I am interested in learning about what the great
recording studios of old are NOW. Someone told me that the studio
where Stevie Ray Vaughan recorded Texas Flood is now a school.
Today's technology has killed the "traditional recording studio
environment."

While there is absolutely nothing wrong with using
technology to create art I think these living monuments to the past
have to be documented.

My goal is to start by creating a map section here on Google showing
these studios around the world then to take the concept to the next
level.

Please visit my group at http://groups.google.com/group/lost-...dios?lnk=gschg
and make your suggestions.

Thanks.
G

[kellykevm]

On Dec 27, 6:58*pm, "Tim Perry" wrote:
wrote in message

It's nice to have nice stuff to work with but it's People that make great
recordings.

Precisely. The great studios were(are) more than a collection of "nice
stuff to work with" in large spaces. It was(is?) so much more about
the great vibe, and efficient and accurate work environment created by
insightful owners, studio managers and most importantly, engineers,
assists, staff who facilitate the creation of great music by talented
people every day.
While not all recordings that come out of bedroom Digi 002 studios
lack quality or interest, the well designed "real" studio facilitates
and encourages musical collaboration. Grabbing a good sounding rhythm
section, all playing at once, enjoying the hell out of the music
because they can hear each other well and are comfortable playing, is
better than sex and almost as good as Guiness on tap.

[Steve King]

"kellykevm" wrote in message
...
On Dec 27, 6:58 pm, "Tim Perry" wrote:
wrote in message

It's nice to have nice stuff to work with but it's People that make great
recordings.

Precisely. The great studios were(are) more than a collection of "nice
stuff to work with" in large spaces. It was(is?) so much more about
the great vibe, and efficient and accurate work environment created by
insightful owners, studio managers and most importantly, engineers,
assists, staff who facilitate the creation of great music by talented
people every day.
While not all recordings that come out of bedroom Digi 002 studios
lack quality or interest, the well designed "real" studio facilitates
and encourages musical collaboration. Grabbing a good sounding rhythm
section, all playing at once, enjoying the hell out of the music
because they can hear each other well and are comfortable playing, is
better than sex and almost as good as Guiness on tap.

People or nice stuff? It's really both IMO. As someone who worked as a
studio engineer from 1964 to about 1980, the thing that strikes me is how
easy it was for us to record then. We worked very hard to design in good
accoustics for the musicians. At Sound Studios in Chicago we had two music
rooms, one (very approximately) 40 by 25 and the other more like 18 x 30.
(We were a small studio compared to Universal Recording and RCA, both of
which had rooms that would fit a symphony orchestra.) Our larger studio was
pretty good to play in. The smaller one not so good. Musicians were simply
able to play better in the larger room. Rythm section tracks were tighter
in the better space. It was easier for the engineer, too, with better
separation. We had a bunch of mike stands with mics on them in one corner
of the room to choose from --- all the now classics from Neumann,
Telefunken, Schoeps, etc. That was our mic closet. Set-up for a 10-15
piece orchestra took a half-hour or so, and that included dusting off the
chairs and vacuuming the floor. It took only 5 or 10 minutes after all the
musicians were seated to get an initial mix. By that time the players had
rehearsed, and everyone was ready to lay down tracks --- all three of them
at the beginning;-), 16 tracks by the mid 70s. Two hours later the studio
was stripped and ready to set up for the next group. A typical day was a
couple of jingle sessions with mix to mono and/or stereo and a record
(phonograph, I mean) session later in the day going into the evening. If an
engineer couldn't get a good mix going in 10 or fifteen minutes, he was an
EX-engineer. Same with the musicians. If they couldn't cut it after a
couple of run-throughs, they didn't get hired again. The key, from the
engineer's perspective, was the studio was equipped for fast and easy
set-up. So was the control room. The desk had great pre-amps. We had
plenty of outboard EQ and compression/limiting. Later, we replaced some of
the outboard equipment with a Neve desk, one of the first in the USA, which
made things even easier and faster. Today's home-style studios, even the
better ones, lack the equipment redundancy we took for granted. They lack
the "ready-to-go" no matter what size group set up we had. Musicians only
had to think about playing their best and having fun doing it. It was
great. Better than sex? I'm not so sure. Almost as good as Guiness? Very
close. But pretty fun none the less.

Steve King

[Andy Eng]

"Steve King" wrote:
"kellykevm" wrote in message
On Dec 27, 6:58 pm, "Tim Perry" wrote:
wrote in message

snip

Steve -- Great story...

G - Your site should include chronicles and anecdotes. Need to get 'em
while folks are still alive...

Andy

[Deputy Dumbya Dawg[_11_]]

Yeah! Make a few videos like "standing in the shadows of
motown" that documents the motor city studio. Start looking in
the back issues of tape-op ( (http://www.tapeop.com/) the best
recording mag and free) for the people and studios they have
documented during their run.


good luck
peace
dawg

Hi,
I am interested in learning about where the great recording
studios
are. Or, rather, I am interested in learning about what the
great
recording studios of old are NOW. Someone told me that the
studio
where Stevie Ray Vaughan recorded Texas Flood is now a
school.
Today's technology has killed the "traditional recording
studio
environment."

While there is absolutely nothing wrong with using
technology to create art I think these living monuments to
the past
have to be documented.

My goal is to start by creating a map section here on Google
showing
these studios around the world then to take the concept to
the next
level.

Please visit my group at
http://groups.google.com/group/lost-...dios?lnk=gschg
and make your suggestions.

Thanks.
G

[David Morgan \(MAMS\)]

wrote in message...

Someone told me that the studio
where Stevie Ray Vaughan recorded Texas Flood is now a school.

The Dallas Sound Lab was a rich boy's toy. It never needed to make
a penny for it's owner. It was "promoted" into oblivion as a part of the
Studios at Las Colinas (essentially a real estate development project)
which made a valiant effort to bring film and music production to an
overpriced area of real estate just east of DFW International Airport.

The real estate conglomerate spent millions on promoting Dallas as,
"The Third Coast" of the music and film industry. It seems to have
been able to hold it's own in aiding the Dallas area's exposure and
availability to film and movie production. Lot's of 'names' were
eventually lured into that particular recording studio over a relatively
short span of time, after which it promoted and priced itself out of the
reach of the local market, never really catching on nationally as there
was really nothing to make it unique enough to keep the interest of an
industry which was already well settled into specific markets, studios,
and already had faaar more than enough backs to scratch.

Yes... it's now a recording school. It still doesn't have to make any
money, place any graduates, or make any platinum selling recordings.
It's a nice room with nice people, hoping that their family's real estate
holdings continue to go up in value... and somewhere inside, are good
people that are still loving the business of music making & recording.

That Stevie Ray record and a few overdubs for Phil Collins and others
who were passing through Dallas while on tour, are about all the business
venture really yielded in the way of 'name' products. Not bad though, if you
ask me. While I believe they priced themselves out of the market that they
should have been serving, they had no choice because of the millions they
laid out for the real estate, for Public Relations, Marketing "experts," bloated
advertising, etcetera, etc., etc..

Today's technology has killed the "traditional recording studio
environment."

No... it hasn't. People who understand recording, realize that the
"environment" plays a far greater role than does the technology
in a great number of cases, if not in most cases. The experience
of the personnel on *both* sides of the glass makes a great deal of
difference in the outcome of the syudio 'experience'.

"Technology" has allowed technically incompetent imbeciles to buy
a PC and some software, and the print business cards claiming to
be a "producer, arranger, recording engineer, mastering engineer"
etc., etc., etc.... when in reality, they may have little to no clue. This
rather recent phenomenon of cheap technology (say, 10 years) having
made cheap home recording a possibility, seems to be losing it's control
over musicians with a creative conscience. It may even be losing it's
influence over your average Jowe Blowe muso, who simply wants the
pleasure of a real studio experience with competent people in a nice
environment.

While there is absolutely nothing wrong with using
technology to create art I think these living monuments to the past
have to be documented.

In the global scheme of things, that particular studio is a creation from
little more than yesterday... it is *hardly* a "monument" to anything more
than a buzz in the main monitors, some seriously sore pocketbooks, and
what can be done with near river-bottom swamp-land in Irving,Texas.
insert smiley-face here

My goal is to start by creating a map section here on Google showing
these studios around the world then to take the concept to the next
level.

Hmmmmmmm.............

[Jason]

In article b9586ced-9a09-4dee-b4c6-
,
says...
Hi,
I am interested in learning about where the great recording studios
are. Or, rather, I am interested in learning about what the great
recording studios of old are NOW.

A while back a friend let me borrow his copy of

Temples of Sound: Inside the Great Recording Studios by William Clark,
Jim Cogan, and Quincy Jones

Not sure it's what you're seeking, but it was fun to read! (And confirms
some of the comments here about how great people & atmosphere trump
fancy gear. Some of the most successful studios were cobbled together in
unlikely kinds of spaces.)

Jason
--
reverse my name in email address