Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/17784
Hollywood: Recording Studio Mecca F Facing Changing Technology and Economic Hard Times, Legendary Studios Continue To Thrive By Darryl Morden or some 70 years, the recording studios of Hollywood have given us many of the biggest hits on the music charts and classic albums by world-famous talent. However, the past two decades have seen dramatic changes in the industry. From technology and the rise of digital recording formats and artists with home studios to a chang- ing market and major record companies downsizing has brought about shifting business models for music as a whole. mark. Te studio launched in 1956 and witnessed Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Peggy Lee, Lou Rawls, the Beach Boys, Steve Miller, Bob Seger and Duran Duran among the many who recorded there. “In addition to genres of music, we’ve also done film, TV and advertising,” says Senior Director Paula Salvatore. “We do many film soundtracks, too. We’re not as large as a soundstage, so it’s more economical, but we can still hold a 50-piece orchestra or open up Studio A and B to get an 80 piece orchestra in there, for things like award shows.” Sunset Sound has a Mickey Mouse history, literally, The iconic Capitol Records tower has hosted sessions by Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, the Beach Boys and many other top groups and stars since 1956. with Disney soundtracks starting in the ‘50s and into the early ‘60s, such as "Bambi", "Mary Poppins" and "101 Dal- matians". But then, rock came along with new owner Paul Camarata. Sister studio Te Sound Factory, acquired in the ‘80s, has its roots in the 1950s as well. Between the two, the roll call of artists and albums is stunning. For Sunset Sound, albums by the Rolling Stones (“Beggars Banquet,”) Te Doors, Janis Joplin, Led Zep- pelin, Van Halen and Prince; the Sound Factory has de- livered classic releases from Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt and Little Feat in the ‘70s to Los Lobos, Sheryl Crow, Crowded House, and Bonnie Raitt in the ‘80s right on up to present-day with Norah Jones, Te Black Crowes, Beck, Tom Jones, Kid Rock, My Chemical Romance and Cold War Kids. “Sunset Sound is the world’s oldest independent recording studio still under its original ownership,” says manager Craig Hubler, offering a brief history of Holly- wood recording studio evolution. “Tere were only a handful of commercial independent Some of the legendary studios of Hollywood are long gone, such as Gold Star, where Phil Spector produced his classic hits with the Ronettes, the Crystals, Darlene Love and many more which closed in 1984,. Other studios, not as well known as Gold Star, but around for decades, have gone under in recent years. Tose that have survived carry on by adapting to adopting new technology and finding new ways to bring in business. Perhaps no existing recording studio in Hollywood is more famous than Capitol Studios in the distinctive, cir- cular Capitol Records tower, now an historic city land- 34 DISCOVER HOLLYWOOD / FALL 2010 studios in L.A. in the late 1950’s and 1960’s. So they be- came the residences for most major artist recordings of that era. From about the mid- 1970’s onward, there was an explosion of additional commercial facilities into the market with many studios competing for bookings,” Huber explains. “As technology progressed more and more recording projects were being done away from the large commercial studios, and at lower costs. Tis put pressure on the rate structure of the for-profit studios. With the in- troduction of disc-based recording and editing –ProTools- - in recent years, that pressure has increased.