A&M RECORDS STUDIO B
A&M RECORDS STUDIO B HISTORY
This is the studio Herb Alpert patterned after Gold Star. In 1970, the room was 25' x 35' with an 18' ceiling. It allowed up to 20 musicians to work in it. The control room was 17' x 24'.
By the late 1990s, wiith 20,000 cubic feet, Studio B had tracking and overdub facilities. Studio B was accessed through an 18' by 19' control room. It had two small ISO booths, one on each side of the control room. The main recording room was 20' by 30'. The original console was a HAECO installed around. The room was also equipped with six Altec 604E monitors, Scully 16-track tape and Auratone for mixing.
Among the notable recordings made in Studio B:
* Carpenters preferred studio 1969-1974; video of "Hurting Each Other"
* Tony Peluso guitar solo on Carpenters "Goodbye to Love"
* Score for "The Karen Carpenter Story"
* Carole King's Tapestry and Music
* Herb Alpert Just You and Me
* Peggy Lee Mirrors
* Letta Mbulu There's Music In the Air
* Ethel Merman The Ethel Merman Disco Album
* Joni Mitchell Court and Spark
* Bruce Springsteen Unplugged (mix)
* Melissa Etheridge's self-titled album (mix)
* Don Henley End Of the Innocence
* Barbra Streisand vocals for Butterfly
* Sarah Vaughan 1971 recording
* Brian Wilson 1988 solo album (mix)
A private lounge and a very large crystal Herb Alpert found completed the studio.
In 1975 A&M Studios acquired an API Model 3324 Recording Console 32/16/24 and two more monitors were added. Sometime after 1984 the API was replaced with a Trident TSM. The API moved into Herb Alpert's private studio at A&M and remained in service until 1994 when Alpert stored it at the Herb Alpert Foundation. Alpert sold the mixing console in 2007. The pictures in the gallery below show the console with modifications made by its new owner.
Custom powder coated in blue and screen printed for A&M, it features:
32 input channels
24 monitor channels
4 mono echo return modules
4 monitor busses
16 submasters
Quad panning on all channels
26 - 550A EQ modules
6 - 550 EQ modules
28 - 912B Mic Pre Amps
4 - 912C Mic Pre Amps
4 - 525 Compressors
1 - 575 Oscillator Unit
Studio B was updated in 1986 by Continental Studio Builders (CSB).
In 1998, the studio had SSL tracking and mix with a 6056E with G Series EQ.
STUDIO B EQUIPMENT
EQUIPMENT IN 1970s
CONSOLE: HAECO 30 input, 24 output 1974: 20 input, 16 output MICS: AKG TAPE RECORDERS: 1970-1973: Scully 16-tr, 8-tr, 4-tr, 2-tr, 1-tr 1974: 24-tr, 16-tr, 8-tr | 3 CUE SYSTEMS MONITOR SPEAKERS: Altec AMPLIFIERS McIntosh SPECIAL EQUIPMENT: Dolby 1974: dbx added INSTRUMENTS: celeste |
LATE 1990s
CONSOLE: 56-channel, 112-input SSL SL 6056E TAPE MACHINES: Studer A800 Multitracks MIXDOWN/REFERENCE: A&M proprietary A-to-D and D-to-A MAIN MONITORS: Custom A&M/Van Haaff systems with NEAR FIELD MONITORING: Yamaha NS-10Ms | OUTBOARD EQUIPMENT: Compressor/Limiter: Fairchild 670 Mic Pre-amps/EQ: Neve Model 1073 Modules Reverb/Effects: Eventide H-3500 Delays/Effects: AMS DMX Gates/Proc: Drawmer DS-201 gates |