A&M RECORDS STUDIO B
A&M RECORDS STUDIO B HISTORY
With 20,000 cubic feet, Studio B had tracking and overdub facilities, this is the studio Herb Alpert patterned after Gold Star. 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'.
Among the notable recordings made in Studio B:
* Carpenters preferred studio 1969-1974
* Carole King's Tapestry and Music
* Bruce Springsteen mixed Unplugged
* Melissa Etheridge's self-titled album
* Karen and Richard Carpenter filmed their video of "Hurting Each Other"
* Tony Peluso guitar solo on Carpenters "Goodbye to Love"
* Barbra Streisand vocals for Butterfly
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. It was later 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.
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).
Alpert sold the mixing console in 2007. The pictures in the gallery below show the console with modifications made by its new owner.
STUDIO B EQUIPMENT
| 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 |