SOS visit the World-Famous Capitol Studios in Los Angeles
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- Опубліковано 15 тра 2024
- The world-famous Capitol Studios has hosted artists from the Beach Boys to Frank Sinatra to Arcade Fire. With recording studios A, B and C, mastering rooms, production suites and even Dolby Atmos, Capitol Studios is fully equipped and was refurbished in 2012 when Universal Music took over.
Sound On Sound visited the iconic Hollywood building to find out more from Paula Salvatore, Vice President/Studio Manager, and staff recording engineer Steve Genewick.
www.capitolstudios.com
00:00 - Start
00:29 - Capitol Studios Beginnings
01:54 - Studio A - Orchestral & Big Band
04:30 - Studio B - Capitol's Rock Room
06:53 - Blending Studio A & Studio B Spaces
08:43 - Classic Instruments, Outboard & Microphones
12:05 - Echo Chambers Designed By Les Paul
13:27 - Routing Audio Around The Building
14:33 - Recent Renovations
16:48 - Speaker Upgrades
19:00 - Film & TV Audio Work
19:41 - Studio C - Dolby Atmos Suite & Mixing Music For Atmos
25:20 - Mastering Suites
27:02 - Maintenance Department
28:30 - Favourite Memories Of Capitol Studios
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I owned the console and tape machine that was in Studio B throughout the 70s - custom-built by the Capitol engineering staff over an Electrodyne frame with Quad-Eight parts, as well as in-house designed preamp & EQ section. Total Frankenstein monster and maintenance headache, but we loved it anyway. The tape machine was a 1970 3M M56, serial # 17. We moved it from Hollywood in 1984 and kept it running until 1989. The late Jay Ranellucci, who had been there since about the time the studios opened, gave me a wonderful tour of the rooms. I later found, when we dismantled the old system which was beyond any more repair, that I had a lot of extra paperwork among the thousands of pages of technical data, going back to 1950s architectural drawings, internal memos, etc. Paula was wonderful to work with in re-connecting that history with the building, and I was very sorry to hear that she has recently been let go by Capitol.
I think she changed role, and also now the studios are closed for two years.
??
They didn't let her go, Universal (they own captiol now) picked her up to a VP role to be over all of their studios. She's a legend in her field. They would never let go.
Back in the 70's our country rock group, Stagecoach, recorded an album at Studio West in San Diego. We had the album pressed to vinyl , so being ambitious young men, we jumped in our car and drove up to this Capital record building in L.A. and somehow thought we'd just "march into the building and get to talk to an A&R man about our new record". Well we marched into the building, alright, with our new record album, which even had a couple of songs written by Jack Tempchin, who wrote Peaceful easy feeling for the Eagles, but the first guy we ran into was the security guard. He stopped us and ask us where we were going. Of course we told him we wanted to talk to someone about our new album, but he told us basically: It ain't gonna happen. He said go over to this spot and talk to that person, so we did. Well that person told us there's no way we're gonna talk to an A&R man or any one else for that matter, but you can leave your album here if you want to, along with a whole bunch of other albums that other groups and artists have brought in, and we'll call you if we're interested. Soooooo, we did that but we never heard back from them. Well that was our first reality check with the music business, and we almost gave up, but I said to the band. Hey, let's go over to A&M records. I did a session over there with a friend of mine some time back, (which I had done), so we went there. We couldn't even get in the parking lot at first, but I talked to the guy on the speaker phone and told him we'd like to talk to a guy named Ed Soltzer, (I believe it was). Well Ed Soltzier was the guy who ran our session when I was there, and just happened to be Karen Carpenter's producer at the time, so they let us drop the album off, but we never got to talk to Ed, but at least they let us leave our album there. Well, shortly after that, the band let me go for another pedal steel player, but the leader later called me up and said that A&M did call him back and I think they, Stagecoach, maybe went back to A&M and did a re-cut on one of the songs on the album, but apparently it never went anywhere. All I can say, 50 years later is: Man what a ride the music business is, and like the man said, There's no business like show business. Marc Trainor.
Hey I went to school at Studio West for engineering. What a small world
Marc Trainor, , yep good ole shoe business,, we have heard and seen
78s, 45s,33s,4&8 track, cds, to the cloud,, crazy now the record co. Is your cell,, but like Vince Gill said (I think, you can get a download of my song for .99 or an app that farts, the app is doing well. ...
Music was very important to us it’s not so much any more, yay studio west I did a lot of work there,, Bill Blue!! Where did he go good soul!
B well,
Loved reading your story, Marc, and The Carpenters' agent/producer at A&M Records was Ed Sulzer. Not sure if they ever gave him an official title, but he was basically their A&R guy, (Artist & Repertoire), who would listen to demos for Karen and Richard, including mine in 1973, I think. Funny, I still remember A&M's address and phone number... 1416 N. LA Brea, (213) 469-2411. Can't believe that's all still in my head! Now it's Jim Hensen's place, (Muppets). Anyway, I used to hang out at that place, and like you, dreamed of a recording contract, but as I was then a session player at Capitol Records (playing for music groups and singers that were on Capitol's "we're interested" list), I realized that I never wanted to be a "star". I only wanted to do session work. But I also grew tired of that, after doing so many sessions, and I grew especially tired of sound engineers treating all these up and coming people like crap. So much for the glitz and glamour. Sessions are hard work, as you know. And I've been up in Capitol's tower playing my own demos to the A&R guys, but that's another story. And in conclusion I did appear on The Merv Griffin Show in 1974, which was taped at the famous Hollywood Palace, so I got to sing on that stage where every famous person in Hollywood performed. From Judy Garland to the Beatles. So that's my personal experience in Show Biz. Or some of it. Nothing special about it or me, I guess. Thanks for your memories, as I pictured everything you and your band experienced. Sounded familiar.
you make me laugh old man, with no masonry degree you spent your time since the begging good luck in next incarnation.
@@stevenbagner3407 👏
I would hang outside that studio dreaming about recording there until it was time for me to go to work at the Wendy's on Sunset and Labrea.
Dante' it’s possible i’ve seen you bc i used to walk by capitol every day to get to work at 33 taps
@@SOUNDCONTROLFLA You know it was a music store that was close by them? I only saw the lobby of Capitol Records, Oh! and Motown Records, I think it was on Sunset.
@@SOUNDCONTROLFLA Jordan, what is 33 taps?
Fortnum Sound nahh you cant but I know what you mean. Yes, you can make a commercially viable record on a laptop, that’s for sure. But to suggest that a cheap mic, into a cheap interface, into a laptop, all recorded in a room with almost 0 acoustic treatment, will sound “just as good” as a multi million dollar facility that’s designed & built from the ground up with the best acoustics, gear, and recording & mixing engineers, is completely false. There’s a reason studios and expensive gear still exist.
Matthew G You are wrong, it’s all perception. My music I made at home sounds better than most commercial made music in million dollar studios. Expensive studios are the past. What you have is just an opinion.
[raised hand] That old equipment you mentioned that doesn't work well anymore that doesn't stick around - do you ever throw it in your dumpster with the follow up question where does Capital keep it's dumpsters?
"We have this door between rooms. We can open it. We can open it halfway... We can even have it closed. Absolutely unique! Nowhere else in the world"
Has science gone too far?
Can you imagine the confidence (or insanity) to look at the big room Sinatra recorded his 50s tracks in, and then say...."I'll make it better, let's change it all around..." Thanks for the tour!
My buddy was Chief Electronic Engineer and he took me there a few times. I’ve been everywhere in that building.
It would have been really nice to see more of the studios.
This building is so much a part of the California vibe. Glad the studios still exist.
One thing not mentioned in this, in the 70's the Capitol Records parking lot (once a month) was the greatest place to buy bootlegs!🤣
Tons and tons of vinyl.
Hello from a former studio employee, maintenance tech, and Grammy nominated sometime mixer who, along with Jerry Jensen, John Harkin, Ted Novak, and others, designed and built that Neve 8068 SN 001, which also had the first NECAM system in the U.S. We spent many hours demolishing the old, and building the new Studio B, which has a circular staircase up to the lounge above. Plus, you can prolly still find my fingerprints on those Neumann lathes, which we modified for more reliability (sometimes they would start up at the wrong speed). Any way, this is a great story about the studios. That view down the hallway is so memorable, and I wish you had opened up the double-doored echo chamber patch cabinet. Or was that the mic locker? It's been too long since I was there. Maybe I will have to visit again if possible. -- Mitchell Tanenbaum.
PS Al Schmitt used to call me Mitchkin.
My late father (Milt Holland) played tons of sessions there, he retired in about '85.
He told me some guys would play a 'joke' on the engineers by blowing cigarette smoke into a ribbon mic and calling them in saying something was burning...haha? Ring any bells?
@@TiqueO6 I never saw that, but I'm sure it helped to break the tension during a long and maybe difficult recording session. Over the many years since I worked there, I have often missed just being around, and who knows, maybe even helping great musicians such as your father make their music. But Shelley Mann once chastised me for putting up too many mics on his kit. I was just doing Hugh Davies' standard drum setup, but of course it was my fault anyway.
Mitchell Tanenbaum Milt was always impressed with the clarity of the play back in the great studios, he used to comment how it was getting better and better. But around the time of more tracks and more isolation there was a setback in natural sound recording and things started sounding thinner for a while.
Milt has a system built in to our home in Laurel Canyon and as I remember it was designed by “Bones” Howe (sp?). I still have the Altec Lansing mono power amps and a Marantz 7 preamp but sadly the speakers were lost in a remodeling job.
PS, I’m a huge fan of ribbon mics (been collecting since about 1997) and very pleased they’re coming back into use (I often advocate for all-ribbon sessions because too many people put condenser mics on the drum set and then expect the ribbons to be able to compete with the exaggerated high-end?? And the results of using all good ribbons is so rich that it’s hard to argue with, of course artistry works with all kinds of mics and techniques in the right hands and ears.
@@TiqueO6 If I recall correctly, the ribbons (RCA 44's and 77's) were used by the great mixers as overheads on the drum kits. And those amps you mention are classic and I think quite valuable today. The mixers at Capitol in your father's heyday would have been John Krause, Hugh Davies, and others I was too late to know. I was often Hughie's assistant, but specialized more in classical recording for Angel. But most of my time was spent as a maintenance tech, so I saw everyone. And as I tell everyone, Al Schmitt called me Mitchkin. I'm still very proud of that for some (well, obvious) reason.
Got to visit Capitol a few months back, was the thrill of a lifetime, and meeting Al Schmitt was a pleasure.
"We have 8 live echo chambers. They get used everyday. We fight over them all the time". Amazing.
Amazing waste of real estate. Especially when there are a vast myriad of reverb units (both digital AND electroacoustic) available on the market today.
The 2nd session in studio A on the new console was the GRAMMY Band. We came in a day or two after Paul. Great experience and I was honored to produce those sessions with Steve. Al Schmitt mixed it
Great look into such an iconic studio!
Great interviews with this iconic studio, thank you!
Great video - really fascinating to see the inner workings of such a legendary studio :)
Great video. Thanks for producing & posting it ! Very entertaining, and informative ..... and nostalgic.
Yet another iconic studio where the equipment is more worthy than most current artists.
😁
Hahaha. How true. And it gets more valuable and they decrease ever year.
Great to see such places behind the scenes. More please
That was marvelous, including voiceover -- thank you so much. To think the old (and new) literal echo chambers are still in use!
Thank you very much for this video!
Love these SOS studio tours. Great insights provided by the staff.
Studio A , one of the best rooms in music ! From the phenomenal Acoustics to Nat King Coles Steinway. Thank you for keeping this place so well preserved for the generations of musicians yet to come and experience .
What a great insight into this iconic studio. I have walked and driven by hundreds of times. Now I have a much better idea of what’s inside! Thank you.
Thanks Paula, Steve, and Sound On Sound magazine for the enjoyable and informative visit! 👍👍
never seen a major studio like this that has such a healthy and artistic approach still inside it all. so refreshing omg yes
| glad to have seen the inside of this iconic studio
What great history was made in those walls! Amazing equipment for sure, but equally amazing people to bring it to life! Thanks for the tour!
Fantastic! Loved every minute of it and will continue to do so. Thank you so much for sharing this. I remember vividly doing an internship with the AR department in 1993. This was around the time when "All Balls Don't Bounce" by Aceyalone had come out. Along with The Beastie Boys (Grand Royal) label with Abstract Rude, Tribe Unique. The film scores, classic television series, and the magnetic albums that has changed all of our lives. Thank you so much for everyone involved with the project. Gift!
Great interview
Ouh, Boah
What a amazing report.
This would be my dream working in this music studio.
You are lucky guys.
Thank you.
Wow!
Iconic landmark.
26:44 ...they do traditional digital mastering also.
Congrats, folks, we're there. Digital mastering is "traditional".
Great video guys!
I love how much these people know and care about what they're doing!!!
Lot of good information.
This is amazing.
I visited once for a masterclass really wonderful atmosphere there, and yes very social. I remember leaving A to go for a walk while they were setting up the session and running into Corine Bailey Rae in the hallway (which was literally on my bucket-list back then).
this is so cool, what a dream job!!!!!!!
She said, "Universal and Capitol has a lot of catalog." Uh, not anymore for Universal. It's all gone!
Scott Stuit agreed... a shocker
Yup! But that under UMG's negligence in 2008, before they acquired Capitol Records (2012).
The geniuses at Universal improperly stored master tapes that went up in flames. They almost buried that story successfully. IDIOTS
@@lionheartroar3104 yeah, they were at Universal's back lot. That was one STINKY fire. Lol!
Amazing post.
Great little video!
awesome video
Really enjoyed this
I love how excited he gets about the ATMOS room lol
Awesome!!
Great studio!
Nothing short of absolutely amazing. Kudos to the maintenance crew.
it's hard to even find good techs here now, this is the stuff of fluffy pink dreams.
Really interesting, thanks
GREAT ! Hugs from Brazil
Got to watch recording in the Nat King Cole room for a tv score. Musicians were exemplary and the room sounds great!
this sounds like a great museum!
These studios must have some crazy signal flow, amazing!
Great! Interesting stuff!!
Fabulous video.
Ive never been this quiet in 59 years.......
IM 59 BTW !
I'm in love with the outboard gear!
Then you need to get out more and see humans ;-)
I feel that same feeling.
that was great!
Enough 1176s to pave a small family home garden patio with...
I want to work with Steve! He sounds like a great guy and a good recording engineer! Yeah, Steve!
HISTORY ....and skills of the engineers and stuff...musicians...analog mics and keyboards....compressors...and ideas from 1970/80 which very rare come today...
I am both old and selectively old school, and how I love the Capitol philosophy of gear! I haven't been to Capitol in decades, but maybe a 60 year old version of "a runner", i.e., a rather fast walker, can secure a gig. lol
I did a session there in the mid eighties. At one point the engineer came on the squawk and said "Do a good job, you're using Frank Sinatra's mic. I looked at it, and sure enough, it was aU-47 with the Capital logo.
I've seen pictures of Sinatra singing in that mic.
It was on the front cover of our issue a few years ago. Did you get a shiver down your spine?
@@soundonsound Yup, I sure did! :D
Awesome
Love how they have the old tech and new
That video was amazing so much history! Open question: I am not sure if it is proprietary but; where can I find out how the RedNET setups were done in such a complex facility? I am very interested in AoIP and the various ways it is being incorporated.
Narrator sounding like a sat nav
Ayman Zygote Totally overcompressed. Whoever mixed the audio should have made the voiceover more prominent too. It’s way too quiet in comparison to the people being interviewed.
@@AlexKnightVancouver The technical issues pale into insignificance compared with the actual delivery!
They should have done it in Dubly
@@cartnhorse Yeah, whatever you say....
The worlds 54 most jealous people in music business are the ones who hit "dislike" :)
This is the greatest studio I've ever worked in!!!
Professionalism personified! American Exceptionalism!
I only recently learned that the Capital Records building has studios in it. Then found this vid, spectacular!
"Capitol"
Yeah, I always thought it was just administration .. mind blown
cool stuff
Wow...she used to be at sound city for a long time.
PMC studio speakers are among the best I ever heard.
My dream is to record here with Al Schmitt on the board!
thanks :-)
very cool
Fun video!
nice studio
Wow!
The house that Nat built..... so true. Every time I drive past, so proud.
In the early 80s, an older accountant from Capitol saw one of our shows in LA and invited us over for a tour. This was our big break!.. so we thought. Little did we know that we'd be touring the upper offices and not the studios. I think we made it to the 3rd floor. The whole thing is so laughable now :)
The room that Nat built. Never knew that. Imagine that, during that era in American history. One black artist made the company enough money to build and entire building and really a business that's still around to this day. Interesting and revealing.
this is deep
This was really dope! I would love to visit this studio and check out a real echo chamber
Dope?
It's amazing that they spent $150K or more on PMC speakers yet retained the old Yamaha NS-10's on top of the console. :)
Translation, ... gotta assure your mix translates across various systems. The NS10s have a very mid-fi familiarity that many engineers want to check their mix on.
Or, you already know and simply being funny.
Either way, there you go.
@@FOH3663 Yep I know. And love them. Was saying that no matter what you spend them NS-10's still are reliable as shit.
@@GeoZero
Gotcha
Perfect example of comment section miscommunication
Mixers are artist, sculping frequencies! Cheers
There's a famous clip of legendary bassist Carol Kaye (Wrecking Crew film), who wanders into Capitols main entrance to give a glimpse of where she worked to help create some of pops greatest records. The idiots in reception had no idea who she was and basically ran her off.
You have to have clearance in order to enter. They probably knew who she was but it’s very strict security in order to get in
@@sobe3045 There is NO EXCUSE for morons not knowing their history and giving Carol carte blanche. Don't forget the morons at Capitol passed on the Beatles first several singles and LP - that's how hip they were - and are. Plus she had a camera crew, identified herself and they basically acted like total fools in the end - that's all that matters. ⏚
it wouldnt kill you to show those storage rooms
It wouldn’t kill you to be a little more polite and respectful, or perhaps even use the word ‘please’!
Super 👌 extraordinary 👆
Sinatra recorded one of His best albums with Nelson Riddle "Songs For Swingin Lovers" (1955-56) @ Capitol Melrose Studios @ 5515 Melrose Ave 'around the corner from My grandparents' N Bronson Ave home
Its Paula from Soundcity!
She's now President of Capitol Studios after years of being the studio manager at Capitol. Talked with her many times in the 1990's. Was always a wonderful person.
The always beautiful and studio legend Paula Salvatore. Sound City and then Capitol.
edited to correct spelling of Capitol. Damn auto correct. 😂
"Capitol"
@@mattiemclean9882 Yes...good catch.
Whoa!
Nice
Use clear graffiti tint on both sides of all glass, reduces reflection improvement. Area coverage adds up. Also there is paint water based that gives a reduced reflection. Note: equivalent of 5" mat insulation.
Estes estudios nao sabem os momentos de felicidade que suas musicas nos deram.
As to the old Neve stuff - Even Rupert (god rest his soul) wasn't real keen on that old stuff. I was invited to meet him at an AES in NYC back in the 1990's. On further phone calls with him I asked how he liked wimberley tx where he had just relocated. He told me how he and his wife loved it and how it was so sunny, "... unlike dreary old England". I then asked what he was doing down there - he was still working for AMEK and Harmon (wasn't real fond of that either) and mentioned something about rebuilding all those old modules like the ones every pulls out of stuff like 8068's and rack mounts to use in their DAW studios.
His response - "I don't know why anyone would use that old gear - it's just God-awful... Wayne, you know how far things like semiconductors and passives have come along... why would anyone use that old stuff? This was during a conference call and I remember the guy from Mercenary on the line. And this was well before he spun off the Portico line and his other company (still exists to this day run by his widow and Josh from Amek)
So later I see this interview with him - where he says EXACTLY that - ua-cam.com/video/k6OwY0XbqV4/v-deo.html
This should start at 17minutes and 24 into the interview.
I recall looking at a lot of gear in my lab (see me beating on a newer digital thing here: ua-cam.com/video/zDGTD7bGh3k/v-deo.html ) and it's true. But I knew this. I had been a broadcast engineer as well as studio tech from the mid 1970's onward) and recall all the issues with that old gear...
I have to say - analog will probably never be totally replaced - in fact, most of the signals going in to DAW's and the like are in the analog domain. I find it difficult to really fatten a kick track with any plugin I've come across. As a bassist, I recall when I got my first modeling amp and playing 1,000's of gigs here in D.C. with Jon Fritz. Unlike the old analog amps I used, once the night and crowd got going and they wanted to turn it up a notch, the modeling amp would just fold... "You just hit all 1's - no more headroom for you!!" It was frustrating... unlike the old analog amps where it'd hit the rail and even tho it didn't get more amplitude per se, i did generate some harmonics that filled it out and made it so you felt like you had some headroom.
So anyway - great to see these old studios. Love to have one.
Kinda like how people love vinyl again. I recently did a rant on Facebook in response to the NPR article talking about how vinyl outsold CD's. I mentioned working as the head tech in a high end audio shop - Opus One in Pittsburgh (RIP Tasso) and dealing with things like MC cartridges on stuff like Linn-Sondek tonearms on Thorens tables. I remember working on Transcription tables - the ones that went for $3K or more.
And that sucked. Really did. So I mentioned all this in my rant.
Well, the next day none other than Larry Boden - the guy that wrote the book on mastering vinyl "Basic Disk Mastering" commented; said I nailed it - everything wrong with vinyl - even tho I didn't mention a good bit of stuff I used to deal with as a tech. I think you might be hearing more from Larry about all this...
But when I asked Larry in a phone call if he'd get another lathe and do it again... "Hell yea..." was his reply. Once stuff like that gets in your blood it's intoxicating.
Kinda like me - Love to have a pair of Studer 827's - even tho the tape will eventually go sticky shed. Not the most practical way of doing it nowadays.
But I love the romance of it.
BTW - heard that United Recording just closed it's studios ua-cam.com/video/FxrPsN80Fi4/v-deo.html
"...universal and capitol have a lot of catalog".... Yeah, and they block it all, right here on UA-cam! 🤣🤣🤣
What great history. I wish they talked more about the history, like what proceeded the PMC loudspeakers. I think I spotted some '70s vintage Altec 2-way speakers in studio A for talkback, and that old Altec amp looked vaguely familiar, like something I had seen in an old installation in my past. Years ago I just missed an eBay ad for a pair of Westlake speakers marked "BRITRO London" for a bargain price; I wonder if the old monitor speakers are in storage at Capitol Studios like they said, or in the hands of a collector in Japan. It would be a shame for some "restorer" to remove the pedigree, and all of that history in one fell swoop!
In one of the rooms, there was a pair of HUGE Altec Lansing (Voice of The Theater) speakers hanging from the ceiling, close to the console. I did some sessions there in the 70's. Couldn't believe they hung those huge cabinets so close to that board.
@@richardisley9063 Wow. I worked in sound reinforcement when PA speakers were going from being stacked onstage to being flown over the stage. It took me a while to learn to trust the riggers on that; I can only imagine how it felt in that studio!
My God that "Frank Sinatra" mic must have a crazy value on it