Interesting articles

UNITED RECORDING closes..scales down.....near dead....LA's Abbey Road?

www.latimes.com

'We're losing our Abbey Road': Famed L.A. music studio United Recording lays off staff

The real-estate company that owns the studio responsible for landmark albums from Frank Sinatra to Green Day announces mass layoffs and a shift in direction.
www.latimes.com www.latimes.com

unitedrecordingstudios.com

Homepage | United Recording

unitedrecordingstudios.com unitedrecordingstudios.com

variety.com

Los Angeles’ United Recording Studios, Known as ‘the Abbey Road of the West,’ Scales Down Music Operations

After more than 65 years, Los Angeles’ legendary United Recording Studios, where Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, as well as the Beach Boys, Sam Cooke, Jay-Z, Green Day, and more re…
variety.com variety.com

Are we watching an extinction of another dinosaur great?

clip....motive?
"By that same token, the cultural and historical value of United Recording Studios is of far less importance than the well-appointed land the building sits on.
In fact, Hudson owns the Sunset Gower lot where United Recording is located. In 2017, Hudson applied to move the studio, demolish the remaining structures and build multiple high-rise buildings in their place, the Los Angeles Times reports." clip
 
Sounds a bit like the fate of Sound City, doesn't it. The landscape is littered with studios that have closed. AIR Montserrat, Caribou, Trident, Sound 80, Gold Star, Stax.

Unless you've got a wealthy patron that doesn't worry about money, a facility has to pay it's way. With the way real estate has skyrocketed in SoCal, it makes it tough for a business like that to not only survive, but prosper. Obviously the owners aren't really interested in building a musical empire or legacy. They're a real estate company who make money by building stuff, selling it or renting it. Rinse and Repeat!

Hopefully, something will spring up somewhere, in some out of the way place. Or someone will discover that if you put some rockwool panels in the bedroom, you can record your masterpiece there are make a million bucks!
 
grimtraveller said:
There's a link in the article to a good companion piece on acoustic guitar EQ~ing in a mix.
Click to expand...
There's some good advice in there. I kind of wound up learning most of that after several years of scouring online articles and sifting out the bits I could easily apply with my setup. That and an audio frequency spectrum chart helps me get into the zone.
 
This isnt really an article but I thought it was bizzarre. Someone at Abbey Roads had some little phone video and this was captured.
I took a screen shot to show the "working environment" with such expensive mics.....many might think a Neumann is like a expensive Rolex watch of Microphones...
but in this picture theres just a bucket of 87's , a couple 47/48? and many others tossed in a rubbermain plastic bowl?

ABBEYROAD MIC Screenshot 2023-05-07 15.37.52.png
 
next level up ? "an external mic preamp of course"

Is the Outboard Preamp required? Is it truly a step up? is it a tone changer or just a placebo? does a person hear the iron? is the tube sound really warmer? Does a better mic and external preamp take it to the next level.?

Anyone else have their experience after buying the PREAMP OUTBOARD UPGRADE? just curious...
was it a step up or another questionable purchase with buyer skepticism head scratching let down , expectations too high?

Anyway, I agree with the above video article that this is a common path to seek the Outboard Preamp...of course!
I will imagine most newbies with high hopes will be let down as the Outboard Pre is a small upgrade in tone. Even the amazing ISA ONE, it doesnt
sparkle a vocal, it makes it solid, confident and huge gain and cool cool box....but alone, its not sparkly.

I agree the preamp was a tool that helped take it to the next level, but interface preamps have improved over the years too...so hmmm?
My first preamp suggested was from here on this site, I was trying various mics and didnt hear much difference...my portastudio pre's were limiting.
A outboard preamp was suggested here, it did allow the various mics to show more subtle differences. It was a upgrade from the really cheap preamps (but it took a compressor to start getting the "studio sound". The DMP3 and RNC was the standard response back then2004/5.. and it was a wow moment combo upgrade. I soon went for more, JoeMeek Channel Strip "british sound"....then compared high end to it and none were better imo, only different, several LA610, Emperical Labs, Focusrite ISA 430, 220, One and Two and KTA, Lindell 1176 CStrip...and forgotten others.
Today JoeMeek Brick and VC1Q and ISA 430, and APHEX 207 are left...Mics were another LEVEL UP search but I found with EQ and Compression abd Reverb being splattered on every track...the KSM44 could cover about anything I need, or a SM7B...and even a MXL V67G sounds great and is $100.

Todays preamps in interfaces are good, and plugins came to popular what year? 2010? RealTime plugins 2009?

oh well... to the Next Level....
 
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