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Acoustic heritage of recording studios: physical characteristics and signature sound

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Acoustic heritage of recording studios: physical characteristics and signature sound

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ACOUSTIC HERITAGE OF RECORDING STUDIOS:

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND SIGNATURE SOUND

by

Kasey M. Viso

A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF HERITAGE CONSERVATION

December 2019

Copyright 2019 Kasey M. Viso

ii
Acknowledgments

I would like to first thank my committee chair Trudi Sandmeier. Trudi’s assistance, guidance,
and push to continue moving through this research and writing process was the support needed to
complete a project I thought I never would. I would also like to thank my committee members,
Jay Platt and Peyton Hall, for their input and advice. With every conversation came a new way to
think about this topic and I thank you for your insight. A special thank you to Mick Higgins,
Lawrence Malchose, and Paul Camarata for their time in showing me the studios and answering
my questions.

I want to thank my family as well. Music has been a large part of my life for as long as I can
remember and an appreciation in understanding the importance of music is very much driven by
the memories of music in my home.

Finally, I would especially like to thank my husband Stephen. The love and support you have
given me throughout this journey of graduate school is one of the main reasons I came out of it
successful. You fill our home with music, laughter, and love and I am eternally grateful to you.

iii
Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................... ii
List of Figures ..................................................................................................................... iv
Abstract ................................................................................................................................ v
Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1
Chapter 1: The Current State of Sound Preservation .......................................................... 3
Why We Love Music ............................................................................................... 3
Recording Media Preservation ................................................................................ 5
Acoustic Heritage and the Physical Space .............................................................. 7
Chapter 2: The Science of Acoustics ................................................................................... 9
Materials Construction and the Effect on Sound ..................................................... 9
Digital vs. Analog .................................................................................................. 16
Simulating the Physical Space: Plugins and Digital Technology ......................... 19
Chapter 3: Case Studies: History and Character-Defining Features ................................. 21
Sunset Sound, Los Angeles CA ............................................................................. 21
EastWest Studios, Los Angeles CA ...................................................................... 30
Capitol Records, Los Angeles CA ......................................................................... 36
Chapter 4: Criteria and Recommendations for Treatment ................................................. 43
Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 50
Bibliography ...................................................................................................................... 53

iv
List of Figures

Figure 2.1: Digital waveform vs. Analog waveform ......................................................... 17
Figure 3.1: Echo Chamber at Sunset Sound ...................................................................... 23
Figure 3.2: Sunset Sound studio 1 live room .................................................................... 24
Figure 3.3: Sunset Sound Studio 1 live room .................................................................... 25
Figure 3.4: Sunset Sound studio 2 live room .................................................................... 26
Figure 3.5: Sunset Sound studio 2 live room .................................................................... 27
Figure 3.6: Sunset Sound studio 3 live room .................................................................... 28
Figure 3.7: Gear room at Sunset Sound ............................................................................. 29
Figure 3.8: Neve 8088 Analog Console in Sunset Sound Studio 2 ................................... 29
Figure 3.9: EastWest Studios second level echo chamber ................................................ 31
Figure 3.10: Exterior structure housing two of the echo chamber at EastWest Studios (view
facing north) ...................................................................................................................... 32
Figure 3.11: EastWest Studios studio 1 live room ............................................................ 33
Figure 3.12: EastWest Studios studio 2 live room ............................................................ 34
Figure 3.13: EastWest Studios studio 3 live room ............................................................ 35
Figure 3.14: Neve 8028 Analog Console in EastWest Studios Studio 2 ........................... 36
Figure 3.15: Capitol Records studio A live room .............................................................. 38
Figure 3.16: Subterranean echo chamber below Capitol Records ..................................... 40
Figure 3.17: 660 Fairchild outboard compressor .............................................................. 41

v
Abstract

The preservation of recorded sound media and physical recording studios is an aspect of the
preservation discipline that is often inadequately recognized. The National Recording
Preservation Act was passed in 2000 and “requires the Librarian of Congress to: (1) establish the
National Recording Registry for the purpose of maintaining and preserving sound recordings that
are culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”
1
The construction, design, and material
of a recording studio all play a major role in the creation of a unique acoustic signature of a
space worthy of preservation. The auditory qualities of a space become a primary character-
defining feature when the space is exclusively linked to its creation of music. My thesis will
focus on the preservation challenges of music recording studios, important places that
significantly contributed to our collective musical heritage. I will explore the idea that the
physical features of the studio, or the character-defining features, create an acoustic signature
that helped shape culturally significant musical trends. I will explore this topic by tracing the
history of sound preservation, exploring acoustic science and recording technology, and
analyzing case studies of studios located in Los Angeles.

1
U.S. Congress, House, National Recording Preservation Act of 2000, HR 4846, 106th Congress, introduced in
House July 13, 2000, https://www.congress.gov/bill/106th-congress/house-bill/4846.

1
Introduction

For centuries, music has been studied as an undeniably important part of multiple cultures. The
study of a person’s psychological and emotional link to music has been well researched, and
music is a significant part of our history and everyday life. The preservation of music, recording
media, and the physical spaces where music is made and recorded is a significant preservation
challenge.

Recording studios all over the world have specific acoustic signatures based on their materials
and construction. The way sound waves react in a space plays a noteworthy part in the way
recorded music generated will sound. Passive acoustics, or the manipulation of materials in the
room, can make music sound fuller, warmer, brighter, or dull. This acoustic signature of the
room represents an intangible acoustic heritage of equal importance to cultural history associated
with these spaces.

Recording studios play a key role in the creation of music. Artists, producers, engineers, and
songwriters come together and record music in particular studio spaces specifically because of
how it sounds. The heritage of the acoustic signature generated in a recording studio based on the
materials and construction form a cultural significance worth exploring and preserving.

The focus of this thesis is to illustrate that the construction, design, and material of a studio
creates a specific acoustic signature which is historically significant for its contribution to trends
in musical history. The physical space plays a major role in the creation of music and an acoustic
signature specific to that location. Those acoustic signatures are sought out by musicians and
producers for music recording to replicate that signature over and over again and therefore hold a
significance all their own.

This thesis begins with why music is important and the link between psychology, music, and its
value to people. The preservation of music very much has two paths; the preservation of music
media and the preservation of the built spaces where music is created. The history and landscape
of the preservation of recording media is touched on for context.

2
Chapter Two examines the physical characteristics of recording studios and their acoustic
heritage through the lens of acoustic science to understand how sound waves, which comprise
music, react in specific material environments and what those materials do to change the way we
perceive sound, how an acoustic signature of the space is created and which character-defining
features of a recording studio help contribute to that signature sound.

Chapter Three looks at three Los Angeles based studios to showcase the character-defining
features of live rooms, echo chambers, and analog recording equipment and look at how
historically significant works of music have been shaped with the help of those features.

Chapter Four examines the challenges of preserving these spaces and possible treatment
approaches. Like-for-like materials are appropriate when matching the aesthetics of places in
need of repair. Like-for-like materials do not always replicate the same acoustic qualities in a
space. The preservation of materials, just as they are, becomes very important when thinking
through how to preserve important studios and the acoustics created there.

An additional layer is added to the history and significance of recording studios when we factor
in just how important the intangible acoustic heritage generated by the construction and materials
is. Recording studios and music culturally shaped the growth of Los Angeles and many cities
across the country, which when coupled with the importance of their construction, embody
historical significance under multiple criteria of the National Register of Historic Places.

3
Chapter 1: The Current State of Sound Preservation

Why We Love Music

The preservation of sound recording media, specifically for recorded music, is an aspect of
heritage conservation of growing interest amongst preservation professionals. One overarching
reason is that music has a psychological and emotional component that makes music recordings
we associate with our heritage and memories important pieces of history. Music has been proven
to create emotional and biological responses. It can generate memories and recall moments in
time that are important to us. The reason why the preservation of sound is so important goes
beyond preserving the “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” items in music
history.
2
Specific recorded sounds are biologically and psychologically important to us as
humans.

The study of the music dates back centuries and numerous areas of study have tried to
“understand the psychological relationship between human affect and music.”
3
Psychology and
music as an academic field is traceable back to the nineteenth century with the works by German
philosophers Wilhelm Wundt and Carl Stumpf, pioneers in psychology. Studies by these experts
sought to understand “the experience of rhythm with kinesthetic tension and relaxation” by
documenting the use of church organs “to isolate and understand pure and complex tones and
their perception.”
4
Decades later, Deryck Cooke published his work in 1959, The Language of
Music, and his theory that major keys evoke happiness and minor keys evoke sadness created a
more mainstream understanding of music psychology. This was studied simply by asking people
how they felt while listening to certain types of music.
5
More scientific approaches have also
been used to determine the emotional response evoked by music. It is important here to define
what is meant by emotion. Emotion is defined as relatively brief and intense feelings usually

2
U.S. Congress, House, National Recording Preservation Act of 2000, HR 4846, 106th Congress, introduced in
House July 13, 2000, https://www.congress.gov/bill/106th-congress/house-bill/4846.
3
John Sloboda. “Psychology of Music, History, The late 20th Century,” Grove Music Online, Oxford Music Online.
Oxford University Press (2001).
4
Ibid.
5
John Powell, Why We Love Music: From Mozart to Metallica - The Emotional Power of Beautiful Sound. (London:
John Murray Carmelite House, 2016).

4
linked to unconscious physical reactions like change in skin temperature.
6
In 2001, Anne Blood
and Robert Zatorre, neuroscientists at Washington State University School of Medicine,
conducted an experiment to “link music with biologically relevant, survival-related stimuli via
their common recruitment of brain circuitry involved in pleasure and reward.”
7
Brain scanners
were used on subjects to identify increased blood flow to areas of the brain associated with
reward and pleasure while listening to their favorite music. Blood and Zatorre found that music
related “chills,” which scientifically were measured with increase in heart rate and blood oxygen
level in the brain, were found to be similar to those in studies of other “euphora/pleasant
emotion.”
8
The physical reaction to music is so intense that similar results of biological change
were recorded in a studies where cocaine was given to cocaine dependent subjects.
9
The clear
change in measurables around “pleasure and reward” factors shows how tightly bound music and
human psychology are.

A 2012 study conducted by Stefan Koelsch confirmed similar results. Koelsch documented that
different kinds of music lead to increased blood-oxygen levels in various emotion-linked areas of
the brain and decreased oxygen levels in the amygdala, or the fear producing area of the brain.
10

The correlation that can be drawn between “happy” music to increased activity in the pleasure
centres of the brain and “unpleasant” music to the amygdala or fear producing centres of the
brain show that music is an important factor in the production of the differing emotions we feel
every day.

All these studies reinforce the importance of the concept of sound preservation. Important
recordings create emotional connections between the music and people. The effort to preserve
recorded sound media, and ultimately the physical places where these recordings were created, is
a worthy effort.

6
Ibid.
7
Anne J. Blood and Robert J. Zatorre, “Intensely Pleasurable Responses to Music Correlate with Activity in Brain
Regions Implicated in Reward and Emotion,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States
of America vol. 98 (20) 11818-11823 (September 2001), https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.191355898.
8
Ibid.
9
Ibid.
10
Stefan Koelsch, Brain and Music. (Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 2012).

5
Recording Media Preservation

An understanding of the current state of the preservation of recorded sound is an important
foundation when considering the preservation of acoustical space and physical features. Sound
preservation comes in two parts - the preservation of the recorded media and the physical spaces
which helped create and shape the music itself. It is important to understand the landscape of
preservation of recorded media while thinking about the preservation of the physical spaces. In
2010, the National Recording Preservation Board, an organization that was created by the
passing of the National Recording Preservation Act in 2000, completed a study on the current
state of recorded sound preservation in the United States. On the very first page of the study the
importance of the movement is stated:

Recorded sound is captivating. It is a technology that has enabled
us to physically etch, magnetically transcribe, or translate into
bytes a core part of the lived experience not only of this nation but
also of the entire world.
11

Preserving that captivating sound does not come without its issues. With continuously changing
technology and a never-ending amount of data to catalogue and safeguard, preservation of
recorded sound media is a process with no end.

One of the major hurdles in sound preservation is the scope of the number of recordings and data
held in archives and libraries throughout the country. A 2004 Heritage Preservation Inc. study
tried to quantify this number. When surveying public institutions, libraries, archives, museums,
historical societies, archaeological repositories, and scientific research collections, it found that
17,000 institutions took responsibility for the preservation of a portion of 46 million estimated
holdings. Of those 46 million holdings, 44% reported their collection in “unknown condition.”
12

Roughly 3 million of those recordings pertain to music and the music industry.
13

11
The State of Recorded Sound Preservation in the United States: A National Legacy at Risk in the Digital Age
(Washington DC: National Recording Preservation Board of the Library of Congress, August 2010).
12
Ibid.
13
Bill Holland, “Labels Strive to Rectify Past Archival Problems,” Billboard Magazine, July 1997.

6
The source of the money to catalogue, document, and preserve these collections is a daunting
thought. Funds for audio preservation and retention are normally grant-based and come from a
number of different agencies, including the National Endowment for the Arts, the National
Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Different
foundations also support preservation efforts such as the Grammy Foundation, the Association
for Recorded Sound Collections, and the largest donor The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
14

Funds coming from private agencies, such as the Grammy Foundation, are contingent on the
health of the music industry and a decline in funds from 2008 to 2009 of almost 65% shows the
identification and preservation of recorded sound media falling from priority as the music
industry declined.
15

In the public sector, there is a struggle with funding as well. The donations of archival recordings
to institutions without accompanying financial support has become a hindrance to sound
preservation efforts. When funds are not donated along with the physical recordings, there is no
way for institutions to maintain and preserve in perpetuity these important works. In addition,
rights need to be granted along with the donation to allow these works to be shared with the
public and scholars to use and potentially generate revenue, adding another layer of
complexity.
16
With the vast number of holdings throughout the United States alone, can
institutions like libraries withstand the demand of the public to utilize them? The donation of
these items to institutions that do not have the equipment, personnel, or funds to properly
maintain them or make them available to the public becomes a double-edged sword. Lack of
space for these recordings at institutions is also an issue in regard to the retention and
preservation of recorded sound.
17

A certain kind of setting is needed to house and make sound recordings accessible.
18
Commercial
studios and record companies shoulder the burden of storing analogue multi-track recordings
since they are essentially the only institutions with the equipment capable of playback, an

14
The State of Recorded Sound Preservation in the United States: A National Legacy at Risk in the Digital Age
(Washington DC: National Recording Preservation Board of the Library of Congress, August 2010).
15
Ibid.
16
Ibid.
17
Ibid.
18
Analogue recordings traditionally use 2-inch tapes and 7-10-inch reels.

7
essential component for preservation. Without proper funding for the storage, or the knowledge
of the importance of these recordings, a lot of material has been lost over time.
19
In an article by
Bill Holland in 1997 for Billboard Magazine titled, “Labels Strive to Rectify Past Archival
Problems,” the issue of how much media has already been lost due to lack of space or desire to
store them is addressed. Holland writes, “the biggest impediment to proper archiving of older
material has been constant administrative pressures at all companies to economize on storage
costs.”
20
Record labels just did not know what they had and there was also a perception that these
older recordings did not hold value therefore could not justify the cost of storing them.
21
In the
preceding decades, with a growth in interest for first generation recordings, and the passing of
the National Recording Preservation Act, studios are paying closer attention to their storage and
retention of all heritage material. Two of the largest and oldest music companies, Sony's
CBS/Columbia and BMG's RCA/Victor, both maintain state of the art vaults on the east coast
holding between 600,000 and 1.3 million tapes and reels of recorded sound media.
22

The preservation of the physical recordings present difficult and numerous obstacles, which
makes it hard to imagine the preservation of the built spaces that contributed to those recordings
as well. Acoustic heritage and the materials that help produce significant music recordings also
requires the attention of heritage conservators.

Acoustic Heritage and the Physical Space

Traditionally, heritage conservation is tightly bound to its relationship of visual characteristics. A
building’s “character-defining features” are catalogued in reference to visual materials, color,
scale, aesthetic dynamic, and overall sight/feel, as well as spatial qualities such as form, volume,
and massing. Yet, the overall aesthetic protection of a place does not protect the actions and
functions that occur in the space. In spaces where important music is recorded, the acoustic
properties and materials of the space are even more significant than the visual aspect and must be
taken into account.

19
Ibid.
20
Bill Holland, “Labels Strive to Rectify Past Archival Problems,” Billboard Magazine, July 1997.
21
Ibid.
22
Ibid.

8
Zerhan Karabiber, a researcher and professor at the Yildiz Technical University in Turkey,
completed a study focusing on the auditory importance of spaces and the heritage related to the
sounds generated by a site.
23
Karabiber writes in her study that the visual perception of sites has
always been regarded as the most important aspect of conservation. However, the auditory
perception of a site is of more importance when documenting a person’s total sensory experience
of a place, “especially where the activities are related to speech and/or music.”
24

Heritage can be thought of in two ways, the tangible items and places we can touch and the
intangible traditions, practices, stories and sounds that cannot be held.
25
The physical spaces
where music is recorded can be seen and touched as tangible pieces, but the acoustic signature
created by those physical features is an intangible piece of integrity we do not usually think
about. The very first line of a study published in the journal Building Acoustics by M.A. Poletti
in 2011 states, “The acoustical characteristics of any room used for performing live music have a
significant impact on the subjective impression of the performance” or in this case the recorded
music.
26
The way music sounds when it either reaches the ear or a microphone can be
manipulated depending on the acoustical characteristics of the room where the music is being
played. Capturing the same sound over and over depends on the preservation of similar acoustic
materials. We are able to quantify the acoustic properties of a space, like recording studios,
depending on material, shape, size, etc. and we can understand what kind of contribution that
will have on the recorded music. When a piece of music is revered for its acoustic quality, the
importance of integrity shifts from the visual perception of a space to the acoustic performance
of the materials that form and define that space.

23
Karabiber’s study focused on religious sites mainly in the Middle East.
24
Zerhan Karabiber, A New Approach to an Ancient Subject: Charisma Project (Istanbul: February 2000).
25
UNESCO, “What is Intangible Cultural Heritage?”, UNESCO, 2011, February 2019,
https://ich.unesco.org/en/what-is-intangible-heritage-00003.
26
M.A. Poletti, Active Acoustic Systems for the Control of Room Acoustics (Building Acoustics, Volume 18,
Number 3, 4, 2011).

9
Chapter 2: The Science of Acoustics

Materials/Construction and the Effect on Sound

The advent of electric recording in 1925 brought better sound quality to music recording and by
the 1940s musicians and engineers began to experiment and change the way recorded music
sounded by changing the environment the music was recorded in. The changing of the acoustical
property of a room by physical means is called passive acoustics.
27
Acoustic science is a field of
science that is concerned with “the production, control, transmission, reception, and effects of
sound.”
28
The search to alter sound waves and their reflection, absorption, and reverberation that
occurs when interacting with different materials, plays a specific role in the design of recording
studios and their physical features. It is important to understand the process of recording music,
the effects that materials have on sound waves, and the significance technology has on how
recorded music is perceived and how we listen to it.

A recording studio is comprised of a few basic rooms. A live room is a room where musicians
play and where their music is recorded by microphones. Isolation booths are also part of the
studio makeup and are normally found inside of the live room. These rooms, normally utilized
for vocals, drums, and string instrument, are separated spaces with more sound isolation than the
live room to create different effects on the sound waves. A control room is where the physical
gear to record the music is usually housed and the audio engineer/music producer mix the signals
recorded by the microphones in the live room. Studios may also have echo chambers or plate
rooms. Echo chambers are small rooms made of differing materials to add reverberation to
recorded tracks and plate rooms house metal reverberation plates which create synthetic
reverberation. Each studio is unique in it make up, but the composition of a recording studio
generally follows these guidelines.

The way human ears perceive sound is made possible by sound pressure, which is the vibrations
of molecules moving through the atmosphere. Sound is defined as “mechanical radiant energy
that is transmitted by longitudinal pressure waves in a material medium (such as air) and is the

27
Ibid.
28
Richard E. Berg, “Acoustics,” Encyclopedia Britannica, September 8, 1998. February 2019.
https://www.britannica.com/science/acoustics.

10
objective cause of hearing.”
29
Mechanical radiant energy is referring to the vibrations caused by
the movement of molecules from areas of high pressure to areas of low pressure. An exertion of
outward force, like playing an instrument, will create an area of high pressure which causes
molecules to move from their resting state towards neighboring molecules. This movement is
referred to as wave propagation and the movement of those molecules creates vibrations, or the
sound we hear.
30

A “sound wave” is the graphic representation of this movement of sound.
31
Waveforms can be
differentiated in a few ways, with the most prominent characteristics being amplitude and
frequency. Amplitude refers to the displacement of the sound waves above or below the
centerline, or how strong the initial outward force is. Frequency is “the rate at which an acoustic
generator, electrical signal or vibrating mass repeats within a cycle of positive and negative
amplitude.”
32
Frequency generally is how many times the sound wave moves above and below
the centerline in one initial movement. This is measured in a unit called hertz.
33

Once sound waves are created, there are a few ways they arrive at the recording device, or
microphone. This arrival has a profound impact on our perception of the sound wave created and
is directly correlated to the physical space and its materials. Direct sound waves are the sound
waves traveling from a source to the microphone with no impediment in its way. Sound waves
that do not reach the microphone directly, collide with solid surfaces in the room and react in a
very similar way as light waves do; they reflect off the surface. When sound waves hit a solid
material, they bounce off in an equal yet opposite direction as the initial angle of incidence and
are called reflections. The smoother the material, the more direct and linear that reflection
becomes, but an angled or rigid material will splay the sound wave off in different directions.
34

Sound waves travel through the air at a constant speed of 1130 feet per second and when direct
sound is combined with early reflections, which are reflections that reach the microphone within

29
“Sound,” Merriam-Webster, February 2019. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sound.
30
David Hubar Miles and Robert E. Runstein, Modern Recording Techniques, Seventh Edition (Burlington: Focal
Press, 2010).
31
Ibid.
32
Ibid.
33
Ibid.
34
Ibid.

11
30 milliseconds of the original sound, they merge to create a fuller sound.
35
The remainder of the
reflections in the room that do not merge with the direct sound continue to bounce around the
room, gradually decreasing in amplitude creating reverberation, or echoes. Reverberation
(reverb) is defined as, “the persistence of a signal that continues after the original sound has
ceased.”
36
Reverb has been known to create a feeling of fullness of tone by adding depth to the
music being recorded.
37
Thus, the construction of the room can help in the creation of direct
sound, reflections, and reverb which contributes to the acoustic quality of the recorded music. A
room with smooth, parallel surfaces will have fewer reflections or echoes and lead to a recording
that is thinner in sound. A room with non-parallel and textured surfaces will create more
reflections and the creation of a louder and fuller sound. The materials in the room will help
create an acoustic signature that is specific to that space.

The opposite action of the reflection of sound is the absorption or “dampening” of sound. If the
reflection of a sound wave is the act of bouncing off a material, the absorption of that sound
wave is the amount of acoustic energy lost when it strikes the same material. Different materials
will have different absorption rates, which means less of the original sound wave is sent back
into the room creating a tighter sound wave with less echoes. Since there are not many
reflections bouncing back into the room, the original sound wave is the only one picked up by
the microphone and it does not echo. For example, measurements done by Acoustical Materials
Association show that materials like concrete and wood have an absorption percentage of 0-15%
whereas carpet has an absorption percentage of up to 65%.
38
Many studios will use carpet in
isolation booths for vocals and drums to ensure the sound wave created is linear and “clean” with
no echoes.

High frequencies and low frequencies are absorbed by materials in reciprocal ways. High
frequencies travel in shorter wavelengths when moving through the air as compared to lower
frequencies. The amplitude above and below the center line has more force and is longer in
lower frequencies, thus more material is needed to stop it from bouncing back into the room.

35
Ibid.
36
David Hubar Miles and Robert E. Runstein, Modern Recording Techniques, Seventh Edition (Burlington: Focal
Press, 2010).
37
M.A. Poletti, Active Acoustic Systems for the Control of Room Acoustics (Building Acoustics, Volume 18,
Number 3, 4, 2011).
38
Ibid.

12
Porous and dense materials, like carpet, will easily trap a high frequency wavelength where low
frequencies are absorbed by more pliable materials, like plywood.
39
Depending on the material
of the room, the acoustic quality can be changed and altered. When materials are changed, the
sound waves created in that space change and thus the recorded music sounds different.

Many factors go into determining the reflectivity and absorptivity of a material, including the
material’s porosity, tortuosity, thickness, and density.
40
The porosity of the surface of a material
is important to allow for the sound waves to pass through and be dampened. This measurement is
defined as the “ratio of the volume of the voids in the material to its total volume.”
41
The more
porous, the more of the sound wave will pass through and be retained, thus softening the
resulting reflections. Tortuosity is the measurement of how the wavelengths flow once inside the
material. This measurement mainly describes where the wavelength will “peak” once it is
absorbed into the material.
42
Thickness and density differentiate from each other in a few ways.
Thickness is physically how much of the material you have, and density is the measurement of
porosity to solid material in any amount of that material. Thickness of a material plays a large
role in absorption when dealing with low frequency wavelengths, whereas the density of a
material is important when dealing with high frequencies.
43

Drums exemplify an instrument where the recorded sound is highly affected by the passive
acoustics of the recording environment. The sound of recorded drums is characterized in the
music industry in specific ways; live, dead, bright, dark, etc. These terms are used to define the
way the instrument sounds when played back.
44

In the 1960s and 1970s, muffled or “dead” sounding drums were popular and the use of drum
isolation booths were often used in recording studios. These isolation booths were built with
panels made of softer materials, such as muslin, foam packing, or carpet, that would absorb the

39
David Hubar Miles and Robert E. Runstein, Modern Recording Techniques, Seventh Edition (Burlington: Focal
Press, 2010).
40
Hoda S. Seddeq, “Factors Influencing Acoustic Performance of Sound Absorptive Materials,” Australian Journal
of Basic and Applied Sciences, vol. 3 (2009).
41
Ibid.
42
Ibid.
43
Ibid.
44
Ibid.

13
sound waves from the drum kit. These panels allowed for the acoustic separation of the drums
from any other instrument in the live room and the absorption allowed for a tighter, or non-
reflective/echoing, sounding drum kit.
45
Smaller rooms had similar effects since they created
more early reflection and direct sounds instead of reverb or echoes. These booths, rooms, and
materials play a major part in the dry, straightforward sound we associate with 1960/1970s rock
and roll recordings.

Another acoustic quality that was popular for drums at this time was the large echoey sounds of
drums like those recorded on Led Zeppelin’s “When the Levee Breaks” released in 1971 and
Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight” released in 1981. Led Zeppelin recorded their album Led
Zeppelin IV, which “When the Levee Breaks” was part of, in the 1785 three-story stone Headly
Grange House in Hampshire England.
46
The echoes created by the large room and masonry
structure spurred a movement that saw the construction of stone recording rooms throughout the
world. One of those studios was the Townhouse Two Studio in London built in 1978 which
became legendary after recording Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight”.
47
The larger and echoey
drum sounds that make “When the Levee Breaks” and “In the Air Tonight” so acoustically well-
known are created by the reverb of the sound waves bouncing off the concrete and stone.
48
Thus,
the physical spaces where these songs were recorded and the acoustic signature of those spaces
play an enormous role in their commercial success and influence.

The use of concrete has also played a part in the construction of echo chambers found in many
recording studios and these chambers have been credited with creating iconic sounds. One of the
most well-known studios for its use of echo chambers is Capitol Records in Los Angeles,
California. When the Capitol Records building was built in 1956, Les Paul, the creator of modern
recording techniques and of the famous guitar line, was commissioned to help design the studio’s
acoustics. In order to add reverb to the recording rooms, Paul designed eight concrete,
trapezoidal echo chambers thirty feet under the building.
49
Audio that was recorded in the studios

45
Philip Newell, Recording Studio Design, (Burlington: Focal Press, 2013).
46
Ibid.
47
Ibid.
48
David Hubar Miles and Robert E. Runstein, Modern Recording Techniques, Seventh Edition (Burlington: Focal
Press, 2010).
49
John Peabody, “The Secret of that Capitol Record Sound,” A Continuous Lean, February 2013, accessed February
2019, https://www.acontinuouslean.com/2013/12/02/secret-capitol-studios-sound/.

14
above was sent down to these chambers where a speaker at one end of the room played the
recorded sound and a microphone at the other picked it up. The sound was then sent back up to
the engineer where up to a 5-second delay was able to be added to the track.
50
The jagged
reflectiveness of the concrete chambers created the echoing reverb we have come to know on
tracks by artists like Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole. The echo chambers at Capitol Records are
also credited with helping to shape the sound of The Beach Boys second album by enhancing
their double harmonies, specifically on their title track “Surfin USA.”
51

Sunset Records in Los Angeles also houses an original echo chamber dating back to when the
building was converted from a car repair shop in 1968. This chamber is built of wood with a
latex paint which creates a much smoother surface, creating a different quality of reverb than
found at Capitol Records.
52
This chamber reflects sound waves in a more linear way and diffuses
it in a tighter pattern creating a more direct reverb.
53
Joni Mitchell recorded her debut album,
Song to a Seagull at Sunset Sound using the echo chamber to record her acoustic guitar. This
gave her album a unique acoustic characteristic, setting it apart.
54
An April 1968 Michigan Daily
Newspaper review of the debut album reads, “Joni has let her songs find out who they are and
has dressed them accordingly. As a result, instead of following others' directions she has started
on her own. If you ignore this album because you have enough old acoustic Joan Baez, Judy
Collins and Bonnie Dobson records, you'll be like someone ignoring spring because he's seen it
once before."
55
The use of the echo chamber and the acoustic signature of the room that
contributed to Mitchell’s sound helped set her apart as one of the greatest and most influential
artists of her time.

Music plays an undeniable part in people’s lives and we are psychologically linked to our love
for music. The physical features of a space hold acoustic qualities that come to life when music
is played and recorded in that space and those features should be considered as significant. When

50
Ibid.
51
Donte Fumo, “6 Echo Chambers that Shaped the Sound of Pop Music.” Reverb, February 2019. Accessed
February 2019. https://reverb.com/news/6-echo-chambers-that-shaped-the-sound-of-popular-music.
52
Ibid.
53
David Hubar Miles and Robert E. Runstein, Modern Recording Techniques, Seventh Edition (Burlington: Focal
Press, 2010).
54
Bud Scoppa, “Sunset Sound Studios: 50 Years of Studio Magic,” Mix Online, November 2012,
http://www.sunsetsound.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Sunset-Sound.pdf.
55
Black Les, “Thank You, Joni Mitchell,” The Michigan Daily, vol. 78 issue 162. April 12, 1968.

15
speaking with Mick Higgins, the technical engineer at Sunset Sound for over twenty-five years,
he stated, “Rooms should reproduce accuracy, but with heart. There is only so much technology
can do to add soul.”
56
It matters where musicians play, and it matters how the acoustical
signature of that “where” makes the music sound. It is also important that when music is
recorded, as much acoustic accuracy of that signature sound is captured. The format in which
music is recorded plays a huge role in that acoustical accuracy and becomes a character-defining
feature of recording studios.

56
Mick Higgins (Chief Technical Engineer at Sunset Sound Studioss) in discussion with the author on March 13,
2019.

16
Digital vs. Analog

In a world dominated by digital technology, and with the abundance of digital audio recordings
and technological advances, it has become increasingly difficult to differentiate recordings as
digital or analog. Though currently most music recordings are finalized in a digital format for
distribution, there is still an argument that analog audio recordings produce a much more
acoustically accurate sound. The format in which music is recorded is a huge factor in how we
perceive the quality of that music.

It is important here to define a few terms. When a musical instrument is played it creates sound
waves, as described at the beginning of this chapter. Those sound waves are turned into an
electric analog signal by a microphone. The electric analog signal is the electric representation of
the amplification of the sound wave. That electric analog signal is measured in a term called
voltage and the electrical signal can then be recorded in an analog or a digital form.
57

The term analog audio recording has a definition stemming from the term analogous which
means “similar to or comparable to something else.”
58
An analog audio tape recorder uses a
series of metal pieces to imprint and etch sound onto a strip of plastic that has been coated in a
magnetized material. That material is pulled at a constant speed and tension to create a uniform
etching of the sound. The tape can then be pulled across what is called a playback head, where
the alternate magnetic output of the strip of plastic is generated in the form of the original sound,
in this case the recorded music.
59

Digital audio recording on the other hand uses the same principles of analog audio recording but
takes the physical aspect out of it. In a basic definition, digital audio recording is defined as “a
process by which numeric representations of analog signals (in the form of voltage levels) are
encoded, processed, stored, and reproduced over time through the use of a binary number
system.”
60
When recording digitally, samples of the analog signal are grouped into binary words

57
David Hubar Miles and Robert E. Runstein, Modern Recording Techniques, Seventh Edition (Burlington: Focal
Press, 2010).
58
Ibid.
59
Ibid.
60
Ibid. The binary number system in the process of representing numbers using only 0 and 1 and is how data is
processed digitally.

17
that represent voltage levels as the sound wave changes. Samples refer to a digital snapshot of
the voltage level at a specific moment. Since a digital signal has a specific value set to it due to
the binary system, the representation of the signal is not continual like analog.
61
The process of
sampling ties each sample piece together to create a digital sound wave of the music. The more
powerful the computer, the more samples can be taken to get an accurate reading of the analog
signal. Yet, since computers do not have the power to perfectly recreate an analog signal, a
stepped sound wave is created instead of a smooth one. The difference of these two waveforms
plays into the acoustic accuracy of the music recorded and ultimately the biggest question
becomes: can digital audio recording capture as much of the original sound in the form of sample
width and bit depth as accurately as analog recording?

Figure 2.1: Digital vs. analog waveform. Photo courtesy of chegg.com.

Audio accuracy in a digital form has a few key components such as bit rate, sample rate, and
bandwidth. The amount of data, or bits, that is recorded per second by the processor is referred to
as the bit rate and is measured in terms of kilobits per second or kbps.
62
The number of samples
in each bit is referred to as the bit depth and those are measured in forms like 16-bit, 24-bit, and
32-bit. For example, 16-bit is the maximum bit depth that can be captured by a CD. The higher
the bit rate, the more samples of the music can be added to the bit depth and strung together to

61
“Analog Signal,” Chegg Study, Accessed March 2019. https://www.chegg.com/homework-
help/definitions/analog-signal-4.
62
“Understanding Audio Quality: Bit Rate, Samples Rate,” Micropyramid, March 30, 2017, accessed March 2019.
https://medium.com/@MicroPyramid/understanding-audio-quality-bit-rate-sample-rate-14286953d71f.

18
form a smoother and more accurate signal. The number of samples taken per unit is referred to as
a sample rate. The higher the sample rate, the closer you get to the original signal created by the
initial creation of the sound wave. In order to generate a higher bit rate, the processor needs to
consume more bandwidth. Bandwidth is the speed at which digital data is sent and received.
Simply, in order to produce audio quality closest to the original sound wave, more bit rate is
needed to create a higher sample rate and thus a higher bandwidth is required.
63

Since digital technology has its limitations for bandwidth power, the argument can be, and is
made in the music industry, that analog audio recording can capture more of the original sound
wave created because it is not restricted by a bit rate. Craig Hubler, the general manager of
Sunset Sound Studios, was asked in an interview if he ever thought analog would be replaced by
digital for good and he stated, “I have laughingly yearned for 128-bit / 512 kHz sampling to
come out so we can toss out the analog world for good, but the processing power for that level
would require a Cray supercomputer.”
64
With the limits to how much a digital processor can
capture, some of the acoustic accuracy created by the instruments and acoustic signatures of the
room are lost. The physical spaces are significant in the creation of sound, but recording that
sound accurately is important as well.

Yet, with most music files being compressed to be sent to digital streaming platforms anyway
and the process of analog recording being lost to decades past, some of what was originally
recorded will be lost in some form.

The higher the bit rate of a file, the more digital space is taken up when storing it on a
computer’s hard drive. Often digital recordings are digitally compressed to make the file smaller.
Digital compression is the act of taking out the low- and high-end frequencies of a song, bringing
down the bit depth and making the file smaller so it is easier to store, share, stream, and listen to
on electronic devices. There are certain frequencies the human ear does not hear, so the removal
of some low- and high-end frequencies does not alter the music enough for the average listener
to notice. Therefore, a lower quality product is acceptable to the everyday consumer. With the

63
Ibid.
64
Joseph Yanick, “Everything from Prince to Disney to Van Halen: A Discussion with Sunset Sound Studios’ Craig
Hubler,” Noisey, June 24, 2015, accessed March 2019. https://noisey.vice.com/en_us/article/rjx57d/sunset-sound.

19
advancement of technology, music is consumed so quickly on streaming platforms that it can be
argued the majority of the listening community is willing to give up some acoustic quality to
listen faster and cheaper, instead of purchasing a vinyl record or CD and listening on a physical
device. This means, that if the music is going to be compressed to a poorer quality of itself in the
end product, does capturing the entirety of the acoustic accuracy of the recording matter?
Preserving analog recording formats as character-defining features in recording studios becomes
important when wanting to capture as much of the acoustic accuracy of signature sounds in
spaces.

Simulating the Physical Spaces: Plugins and Digital Technology

Physical recording studios have had to keep up with the ever-evolving technology in the music
world. More people are creating and recording music in their own home instead of paying for
studio time at physical recording studios. In a March 2018 article written by Tony Vitti, a music
strategist and marketing advisor for companies like Universal Music Group and Sony BMG, he
believed there were three main reasons why recording studios do not have the same appeal they
had in decades past. Vitti’s first reason for the decline is that the consumer and artist has come to
tolerate “bad audio quality from illegal downloads and website’s file compression” with the rise
of MP3 and online streaming.
65
Acoustic quality of music gets lost when moving from the
recorded file to streaming platforms due to digital compression referred to above, so the upfront
cost of these studios to create a high quality product does not always feel worth it.
66
The cost to
upkeep these studios with a decrease in customer base is the second reason according to Vitti that
recording studios are closing up shop. The cost of recording a song or album used to rest in the
hands of a record label, but with these costs being pushed back on the artist and so many artists
creating music without labels, more and more are turning to home studios.
67
Vitti cites his final
reason as people being able to watch and learn from videos of prominent engineers and
producers online while applying digital technology to their home recorded music that emulates
the sounds of actually being in these significant spaces.
68
Warren Huart, a well-known producer

65
Tony Vitti, “Recording Studios,” Medium, March 2018, accessed March 2019.
https://medium.com/@tonyvitti/patience-will-beat-record-labels-658cf040c693.
66
I will talk more about sound quality across digital and analog further in the chapter.
67
Tony Vitti, “Recording Studios,” Medium, March 2018, accessed March 2019.
https://medium.com/@tonyvitti/patience-will-beat-record-labels-658cf040c693.
68
Ibid.

20
and engineer, creates “how-to” videos right out of Sunset Sound’s famous studio rooms.
69
These
studios and acoustic signatures of their spaces are no longer out of reach out for the everyday
musician because the sounds can recreated with digital plugins right from home.

Technology has changed the idea that getting a certain sound can only be done by playing and
recording in specific types of rooms with the creation of plugins, or computer programs that
simulate the sounds of specific studios. There are plugins that simulate a number of well-known
studios and their acoustic signatures - UAD’s “Oceanway” plugin mimics the sounds found at
Oceanway Studios in Los Angeles and “Abbey Road Chambers Plugin” mimics the reverb found
at the famous Abbey Road Studio in London. Just recently, Sunset Sound Studios began to
sample their studio rooms, echo chambers, and reverb plates (large metal plates used to produce
synthetic reverb by sending the recorded music to the plate by a transducer and recorded by a
microphone) to be sold online
70
Sampling is the process of recording small clips of sounds in
these specific spaces to create the plugins to then be sold in a digital format. Universal Audio is
one of the largest companies that sells digital plugins and their audio plugin packages can run
anywhere from $100 to $3,000.
71
There is a large market for musicians looking to make their
music sound like they were recorded in these studios, which solidifies just how important the
sound created in these spaces is. The loss of these historic spaces would only leave us with
digital mimics and no baseline for the original rooms and sounds.

Digital recording technology has limitations when compared to analog and physical recording
studios have become too expensive to record in. As stated above, the cost for the upkeep of
physical equipment, personnel, and space has increased as simulations of the spaces and home
recording studios have become more popular and cost effective. The acoustic heritage and
quality that is generated by the physical materials of the rooms and the accuracy that is captured
in an analog form is being lost as we move towards a strictly digital world. Programs are being
created to mimic the physical spaces that we have not yet lost but will lose if steps are not taken
to understand and protect their importance and heritage.

69
Mick Higgins (Chief Technical Engineer at Sunset Sound Studioss) in discussion with the author on March 13,
2019.
70
Ibid. An Italian music software company, IK Multimedia, began taking samples over the first quarter of 2019 and
they will be on the market soon for digital download.
71
“Universal Audio,” Universal Audio, accessed March 2019 https://www.uaudio.com/.

21
Chapter 3: Case Studies: History and Character-Defining Features

There are countless features of recording studios that play a part in the way music sounds. The
construction, design, and equipment used are all major factors that contribute to the end product
we hear. Live rooms, echo chambers, and analog gear are three are the most prominent character-
defining features of recording studios that have the biggest impact of the acoustic signature of a
space. Below, I analyze three recording studios through the lens of these features to determine
their impact on the acoustic signature.

Sunset Sound, Los Angeles CA

History
Sunset Sound recording studio sits in the heart of Hollywood, California at 6650 Sunset
Boulevard, and is one of the last remaining privately owned studios in Los Angeles. Salvatore
“Tutti” Camarata was a sound engineer and orchestra conductor in New Jersey when he moved
to Los Angeles to start and run Disneyland Records Label for Walt Disney in the 1950s.
72
The
building had originally been an auto repair shop when built in 1917 and was converted into a
photography studio at some point in the 1930s.
73
Camarata began leasing the building in 1958
and the first recordings began in 1961 and were solely orchestra soundtracks for Disney movies
like Bambi, Mary Poppins and 101 Dalmations. Sunset Sound was a private-use studio for
Camarata's work with Disneyland Records for the first few years, until it was opened to the
public for use in 1964 with the Righteous Brothers and Jackie Wilson among the first to record
there.
74

Sunset Sound is composed of two buildings and has three studio recording rooms. A long
rectangular building on the west side of the parcel houses studio 1 in the rear of the complex and
studio 2 is housed in the front.
75
Studio 1 was the first studio to be built in 1958 and studio 2, the
largest of the three studio recording rooms, was built and online by 1967. A square building sits

72
Bud Scoppa, “Sunset Sound Studios: 50 Years of Studio Magic,” Mix Online, November 2012,
http://www.sunsetsound.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Sunset-Sound.pdf.
73
Mick Higgins (Chief Technical Engineer at Sunset Sound) in discussion with the author on March 13, 2019.
74
Paul Camarata (owner of Sunset Sound) in discussion with the author March 25, 2019.
75
Ibid.

22
on the corner of Cherokee Ave and Sunset Blvd. that houses studio 3, the newest of the studios,
which was designed by George Augspurger in 1977.
76
Studio 3 was originally a liquor store until
Sunset Sound took over the entire parcel in 1968.
77

George Augspurger is credited with establishing the sound character for which Sunset Studio’s
rooms are known. Augspurger is a sound engineer who started his own acoustic company in
1976 called Perception Inc. Sunset Studio was his first client and he worked to improve the
passive acoustics of the space by “expanding the control room in studio 1, tweaking the acoustics
in studio 2 and designing studio 3.”
78
Though the rooms were not built from the ground up to be
used as recording studios, the acoustic signatures of the spaces, resulting from materials already
present and the work by George Augspurger, allowed Sunset Sound to gain its reputation as a
place of unmatched acoustic quality.

A long list of acts and artists have passed through each of Sunset Sound studio rooms. Studio 1
was used to record The Doors self-titled debut album in 1966, Joni Mitchell’s debut album Song
to a Seagull in 1968, and Janis Joplin’s last album Pearl in 1971. Studio 3 is where Prince spent
most of his time writing and recording throughout the 1980s before he built his personal studio,
Paisley Park Studios in Minnesota in 1988, to mimic the acoustic qualities of Sunset Sound.
79

Studio 2, the largest of the three studios, was favored by acts like Michael Jackson, Led
Zeppelin, and is where Ringo Starr recorded his self-titled album in 1973, to which John Lennon
and George Harrison both contributed. Each studio room has its own acoustic signature
depending on its size and materials. Though the rooms could be deemed significant for the talent
that has worked here, the character-defining features and the acoustic signatures of each room
are also significant.

Character-Defining Features
80

76
Ibid.
77
Paul Camarata (owner of Sunset Sound) in discussion with the author March 25, 2019.
78
Ibid.
79
Mick Higgins (Chief Technical Engineer at Sunset Sound) in discussion with the author on March 13, 2019.
80
Most information in this section was gathered while visiting Sunset Sound on March 13, 2019.

23
Echo Chambers
The echo chamber at Sunset Sound is housed in the control room of studio 1. This echo chamber
is made of plywood with a latex paint. The walls are not parallel and the ceiling slopes in
multiple directions to add better reflection to the chamber’s acoustic signature. Before the use of
artificial reverb, echo chambers were one of the only ways to add depth and fullness to a
recorded track. The acoustic signature of music recorded with reverb found on countless tracks
during the 1950s-1970s could only have been made possible at that time with the use of echo
chambers. The echo chamber at Sunset Sound was one of the first in use in Los Angeles in 1961
and is very much intact and still in use today, even with the growth of digital reverb.

Figure 3.1: Echo Chamber at Sunset Sound. Photo courtesy of the author.

Live Rooms
Inside the live room of studio 1, the ceiling and floors slope towards the control room, an
original feature from the auto-repair shop, which adds more reflection to the room. The floors are
made of vinyl and the ceiling is lined with an acoustical tile. The added reflectivity from the

24
floor with the absorption of the tiles on the ceiling add a balance to the room when sound waves
are generated. The walls on the west side of the live room are made from plywood strips of
differing width on the top half and carpet on the bottom half. These strips are set slightly off the
wall which allow sound waves to enter behind them, bounce around, and reflect back into the
room. On the east wall, the original brick structure is visible with sliding acoustic panels added
over them. The panels, made of fiberglass and soft material, are moveable and are able to slide
over and cover the original brick structure to change the absorptivity or reflectivity of the room.
The acoustics of the room add balance to the music recorded. With the mix of materials, there is
an ability to capture a “natural” sounding recording without the need to add artificial digital
changes to the music afterwards such as added reverb or reflections. In an article in Sound on
Sound, the Grammy-winning producer, mixer, and engineer Joe Chiccarelli speaks about studio
1’s live room and states, "They have a natural '70s kind of tone. They're not too wet and splashy
[too many reflections] but they still have a nice reverb time and ambience around instruments.
They sound honest.”
81
The importance that the physical space adds to the music created there
gives us an intangible acoustic heritage that is experienced on countless records produced there
and should be preserved.

Figure 3.2: Sunset Sound studio 1 live room. Photo courtesy author.

81
Hannes Bieger, “Sunset Sound Studios, Los Angeles,” Sound on Sound, June 2013, accessed March 2019,
https://www.soundonsound.com/music-business/sunset-sound-los-angeles.

25

Figure 3.3: Sunset Sound Studio 1 live room. Photo courtesy of author.

Studio 2 at Sunset Sound is the most well-known out of the three studios. As stated above, many
famous acts have worked in this space, but the size of the room and materials add to the acoustic
signature and are what make it the “Carnegie Hall” of recording studios.
82
Studio 2 is one of the
largest live rooms in Los Angeles at 31x24x15 feet.
83
The floors are original vinyl tiles, the
ceiling is made of acoustic tiles that are installed 2ft. down the wall, and the bottom of the walls
are lined with 3ft. high wood pegboard. The majority of the remaining center wall is drywall
with a geometric vocal booth on the East wall and triangular boxes on the West wall that can be
flipped to a wood or carpet surface to add reflections or absorption to the room. Mick Higgins,
the Chief Technical Engineer, and George Augspurger, the audio engineer who worked at Sunset
Sound in the 1970s and continues to maintain the rooms, believe that the materials in the room
truly add to the quality of the music recorded. Any maintenance or changes to the room are
meticulously planned and reviewed with close attention paid to the acoustic changes that may
occur with the replacement, change, or upgrade to any part of studio 2’s live room. The floor

82
Don McRitchie, “Sunset Sound Studios Recorders,” Lansing Heritage, 2003, accessed March 2019
http://www.audioheritage.org/html/perspectives/lht-2003/sunset.htm.
83
Alejandro Corpus (Designed by), “Sunset Sound Studios,” Sunset Sound Studios, 2018, accessed March 2019
http://www.sunsetsound.com/studios/.

26
tiles in the room are no longer manufactured, so the team at Sunset Sound works very diligently
in their maintenance and repair to ensure the longevity of them to protect the acoustic
signature.
84
The ability of the room to create an exceptional acoustic environment without the
need for artificial intervention creates an important space to preserve and protect. Higgins stated,
“Artists have told me they would not come back if we took out this tile, they love the sound of
the room.”
85

Figure 3.4: Sunset Sound studio 2 live room. Photo courtesy of author.

84
Mick Higgins (Chief Technical Engineer at Sunset Sound) in discussion with the author on March 13, 2019.
85
Ibid.

27

Figure 3.5: Sunset Sound studio 2 live room. Photo courtesy of author.

Studio 3, built in 1977, is the smallest of the three studios’ at 38x18x12 ft. and has the driest
sounding live room. Being a smaller room, there is minimal reverb created and the abundance of
dense materials, like the plywood strips that line the live room, create more sound absorption and
a crisper sounding recording.

28

Figure 3.6: Sunset Sound studio 3 live room. Photo courtesy of author.

Analog Gear
Sunset Sound is known widely for its extensive amount of analog gear. Studio 1’s control room
is equipped with a custom analog console and studio 2’s control room houses the Neve 8088
Analog Console. Neve consoles are known worldwide for their quality and performance. The
consoles are hand-wired analog recording devices and the “80s” family, which were the models
built in the 1970s, only have a few units still in use today. The console in the control room of
studio 2 at Sunset Sound is one of two consoles commissioned in 1979 for an audio recording
school in Vancouver and made its way to Sunset Sound in 1993.
86
The list of meticulously
maintained analog gear and microphones is extensive and is a huge draw to the studio as well.
Craig Hubler, Sunset Sound’s General Manager, stated in an interview, “The most common
remark I get from our clients is, ‘God, it’s nice to come into a place where everything works.’”
87

86
David Weiss, “A Classic Console Crosses the River: Water Music’s Neve 8088 Comes to The Bunker Studio,”
Sonicscoop, March 12, 2018, accessed March 2019 https://sonicscoop.com/2018/03/12/a-classic-console-crosses-
the-river-water-musics-neve-8088-comes-to-the-bunker-studio/.
87
Bud Scoppa, “Sunset Sound Studios: 50 Years of Studio Magic,” Mix Online, November 2012,
http://www.sunsetsound.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Sunset-Sound.pdf.

29

Figure 3.7: Gear room at Sunset Sound. Photo courtesy of author.

Figure 3.8: Neve 8088 Analog Console in Sunset Sound Studio 2 control room. Photo courtesy of author.

Sunset Sound is made of spaces important to the history of the music industry. Yet, the
importance of those spaces moves past the visual and tangible and reaches the intangible. The
studio spaces would not be the same if the acoustic signature was changed by altering the
character-defining features of the space.

30

EastWest Studios, Los Angeles CA

History
EastWest Studios is located at 6000 Sunset Boulevard Los Angeles, California. The building was
originally constructed in 1933 as the Cash is King grocery store. Throughout the 1950s, the
building was a radio broadcast recording studio named Western Records until the owner sold the
building and studio in 1961 to Bill Putnam, one of the most well-known recording engineers in
the music industry and Frank Sinatra’s personal engineer. Putnam had owned and operated
United Recording Studios in the building next door at 6050 Sunset Boulevard since the late
1950s and merged the two into one complex under the name United Western Studios. Putnam
converted the soundstage of the radio broadcast station into what is now Studio 1, using the
space to record and produce Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” and “The Summer Wind.” The studio
complex was sold by Putnam in the 1980s to Allen Sides who operated it under the name
Oceanway Recording until 1999. The Western Recordings side of the complex was purchased by
Rick Adams and named EastWest Studios in 2009.
88
The United Recording side of the complex
was reopened under its original name in 2014 by Hudson Pacific Properties Inc. and functions as
a separate studio from EastWest Studios.
89

EastWest Studios is a large square building constructed of cement and wood located on the
corner of Sunset Blvd. and Gordon Street. Studio 1 makes up the majority of the original
structure at the center and an “L” shaped addition was added to the building on the west and
south sides in the early 1960s which houses Studios 2, 3, and 5.
90

Character-Defining Features

Echo Chambers

88
EastWest Studios, “Our History,” EastWest Studios, 2019, accessed March 2019
http://www.eastweststudios.com/history/.
89
“Hudson Pacific Properties Relaunches United Recordings in Hollywood,” Mixonline, October 13, 2014, accessed
June 29, 2019 https://www.mixonline.com/technology/hudson-pacific-properties-relaunches-united-recording-
hollywood-380326.
90
Studio 4 has historically, and is currently, been leased long term to a private client and was not accessible at the
time of my visit of March 28, 2019.

31
Bill Putnam, who owned and operated the studio for decades, is credited as being “the father of
modern recording” and was the most sought-after recording engineer in the 1950s and 1960s. He
has also been named a pioneer in echo chambers, building many in his studio at EastWest
Studios.
91
There are four echo chambers at EastWest Studios all built and designed by Bill
Putnam. Two of the chambers are situated inside the studio building and the other two echo
chambers are inside a brick structure added to the exterior south side of the building stacked one
on top of each other with a small cut out at ground level to enter the bottom chamber. The
second-floor chamber is only accessible by ladder to the roof and the ground level chamber is no
longer in use. All of the chambers are made of concrete or plaster with varying walls/ceiling
slants. Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys used the reverb of the echo chambers at EastWest
Studios as one of the only “effects” used on the record Pet Sounds. According to Mark Linett,
who was the producer on the record, the live recording of the reverb by using the echo chambers
made a significantly different sound on the album because the live reverb was printed directly
onto the tape with the track instead of added digitally on top of the track afterwards.
92

Figure 3.9: EastWest Studios second level echo chamber. Photo courtesy of Audio Ease
https://www.audioease.com/IR/VenuePages/putnamrooms.html.

91
William Weir, “How Humans Conquered Echo,” The Atlantic, June 21, 2012, accessed March 2019
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/06/how-humans-conquered-echo/258557/.
92
Mark Smotroff, “Pet Projects,” Wayback Machine, June 1996, accessed March 2019
https://web.archive.org/web/20141203195535/http://lukpac.org:8080/~lukpac/public/EQ%20decrypted.pdf.

32

Figure 3.10: Exterior structure housing two of the echo chamber at EastWest Studios (view facing north).
Photo courtesy of author.

Live Rooms
The live rooms of studios 1, 2, and 3 at EastWest Studios are of acoustic significance and
importance as character-defining features of the space. Studio 5 is the newest studio built in
2013, and though sonically spectacular, it relies heavily on digital intervention and does not have
a live room comparable to the other three.
93

Studio 1 has the largest live room of any recording studio in Los Angeles at 58’ x 42’ and was
originally the sound stage for Western Records in the 1950s. The walls are lined with acoustic
tiles that extend from floor to ceiling in rows of vertical triangular patterns with wood pegboard
between each row. The floor is made of vinyl composition tile, similar to that found in the live
rooms of Sunset Sound. There is an isolation booth, used for string instruments mostly, on the
south side of the room. The importance that the materials play in the creation of the sound in this

93
Ibid.

33
space is clear to Lawrence Malchose, Chief Technical Engineer. Malchose stated that the
pegboard that lines the walls is not manufactured in the same size any longer. If a section needs
to be replaced, a blank piece is purchased, and the holes are manually added to match the
original pegboard.
94
The sheer size of the room and acoustic features create a “vibrant” acoustic
signature that is unmatched by any other studio. With so much space for sound waves to travel
and create reverb/echoes, music recordings are created that sound full and large, like the sounds
on Frank Sinatra’s “My Way.”

Figure 3.11: EastWest Studios studio 1 live room. Photo courtesy of author.

Studios 2 and 3 are the studios built by Bill Putnam after he purchased the building, and both
came online in 1962. Studio 2’s live room is 30’ x 24’ and the size helps creates a tight sound
with little reverb or echoes.
95
The floors are made of vinyl composition tiles and the walls are
made of carpet roughly 2ft. up and the remainder of the walls are made of differing width
plywood strips. The walls are not flat but jut out in the middle towards the center of the room.
96

The ceiling is lined with acoustic tiles. This combination allows for greater absorption of low

94
Lawrence Malchose (Chief Technical engineer at EastWest Studios) in discussion with the author March 28, 2019.
95
EastWest Studios, “Studio 2,” EastWest Studios, 2019, accessed March 2019
http://www.eastweststudios.com/studio2/.
96
Visit to EastWest Studios in March 2019.

34
frequencies and less absorption of high frequencies. This gives the room a brighter and punchier
sound than that of a room with more space and differing materials would.

Figure 3.12: EastWest Studios studio 2 live room. Photo courtesy of EastWest Studios
https://www.eastweststudios.com/.

Studio 3’s live room is the smallest of the live rooms at 15’ x 31’ and has sloping ceiling and
walls.
97
This room is composed of a number of materials which gives it a very rich and warm
sound distinguishable from the other rooms. Carpet, solid wood panels, plywood strips, and
acoustic panels line the walls, the floors are vinyl tiles, and the ceiling is composed of acoustic
tiles. Studio 3 is where The Beach Boys recorded most of their groundbreaking album Pet
Sounds and the small size of the live room is credited with helping actualize the sound Brian
Wilson was trying to achieve. In an article written in 1996 by Mark Smotroff, a prominent music
writer, for the 30th anniversary release of Pet Sounds, he states, “The leakage (bleeding of
different instruments into different microphones) contributed to Brian’s sound. The uniqueness
of the blend into various mics had a lot to do with getting the tonal quality that is Pet Sounds.
98

The small size which limits the reverb and allows blending of direct sound into multiple
microphones, coupled with the varying combination of reflective and absorptive materials,
creates an acoustic signature in the room that is sought after by artists and producers.

97
EastWest Studios, “Studio 3,” EastWest Studios, 2019, accessed March 2019
http://www.eastweststudios.com/studio3/.
98
Mark Smotroff, “Pet Projects,” Wayback Machine, June 1996, accessed March 2019
https://web.archive.org/web/20141203195535/http://lukpac.org:8080/~lukpac/public/EQ%20decrypted.pdf.

35

3.13: EastWest Studios studio 3 live room. Photo courtesy of EastWest Studios
https://www.eastweststudios.com/.

Studio 3’s design has been replicated multiple times throughout the world, but the acoustic
signature of the room is never quite matched.
99
In a nostalgic feel for music, it can be said that
there is something about past musicians’ sounds that have permeated the walls adding to the
space that make it impossible to replicate exactly.

Analog Gear
Like the other studios covered, EastWest Studios utilizes a range of analog gear in its control
rooms. Studio 1 is home to a custom-made Neve 80 channel 8078 console which was
commissioned for the recording of Michael Jackson’s album Thriller.
100
This console and its
capability in recording is rare since this series of Neve consoles was discontinued after this
commission.
101
The console in studio 2 is also a Neve 8028 series, which is one of only two in
the series manufactured and studio 3 is home to a Trident “A” Range analog console. Trident
consoles began manufacturing in London in the 1960s and are thought to have made an
“undeniable impact on the sound of recording making that is almost impossible to gauge.”
102
The
“A” Range models were manufactured in the 1970s and became one the most sought after multi-

99
Lawrence Malchose (Chief Technical engineer at EastWest Studios) in discussion with the author March 28, 2019.
100
Ibid.
101
AMS Neve Ltd., “The History of AMS Neve,” AMS Neve, 2018, accessed March 2019 https://ams-
neve.com/history/.
102
Will Shanks, “The Trident A-Range Desk,” Universal Audio, accessed March 2019
https://www.uaudio.com/blog/trident-a-range-desk/.

36
track analog recording consoles on the market for their accuracy and tracking capabilities.
103

Only thirteen “A” Range consoles were manufactured by Trident and only six are still in use
around the world, with studio 3 at EastWest Studios housing one.
104
The consoles at EastWest
Studios are undeniably rare analog consoles, making them unique character-defining features of
the space.

Figure 3.14: Neve 8028 Analog Console in EastWest Studios Studio 2 control room. Photo courtesy of
EastWest Studios https://www.eastweststudios.com/.

EastWest Studios continues to be a high-volume recording studio that offers its clients a wealth
of history and technology. The work done by Bill Putnam to create acoustically significant
spaces and the work by Lawrence Malchose to preserve those acoustic signatures, combined with
the state of the art facility, make EastWest Studios an important site to preserve.

Capitol Records, Los Angeles California

History
Capitol Records is one of the most well-known studio names in the music industry and one of the
most well-known architectural sites on the Los Angeles skyline. Built in 1956 as one of the first
new construction, purpose-built recording studios, it was named a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural
Monument in 2006. Capitol Records decided in the 1950s that they needed to take advantage of

103
Ibid.
104
EastWest Studios, “Studio 3,” EastWest Studios, 2019, accessed March 2019
http://www.eastweststudios.com/studio3/.

37
the opportunity to build a state of the art, acoustically precise recording studio with the focus in
the music industry towards the use of passive acoustics. In a 1956 interview with then Vice
President of Capitol Records James W. Bayless for the Audio Engineering Society Eighth
Annual Conference, he stated:

We employed advances in acoustical materials and constructions to
achieve a new concept in studio design: minimized reverberation, but a
nearly flat characteristic. We designed compatible reverberation chambers
to provide optimal acoustical properties. The result has been a modern,
diversified plant, physically attractive, acoustically controllable and
electromechanically flexible.
105

Capitol Records design concept was to have “dry” live rooms and reverberation chambers
underground. After the launch of the studio, engineers spent time tweaking the dynamics,
construction, and materials of the studio to the acoustic signature we know of today.

Capitol Records sits at 1740 N. Vine Street and is a circular mid-century thirteen-story building
designed by Welton Becket Associates. It has two studio rooms, A and B, and eight below-
ground echo chambers designed by Les Paul. Les Paul was commissioned by Capitol Records to
create the acoustic qualities associated with the studio today. He designed the eight trapezoidal
echo chambers to create reverb and contributed to the passive acoustic designs of the live rooms.

Character-Defining Features

Live Rooms
Capitol Records is comprised of three studios, A, B, and C. Studio C came online in 2017 and
was not part of the original construction in 1956. The studios are on the ground floor of the
building and studio A and B can be separated or combined by a retractable wall. Studio A’s live
room is 1500 square feet and has hundreds of adjustable louvered wood panels lining the walls.
This adds or removes reflection time to the music being recorded in the room. The ceilings are
vaulted and made of acoustic tiles with tiled floors. The non-parallel surfaces, sheer size of the

105
Susan Schmidt Horning, “Chasing Sound: The Culture and Technology of Recording Studios in Postwar
America,” International Committee for the History of Technology, vol. 6 (2000): pages 100-118, accessed March
2019 https://www-jstor-
org.libproxy2.usc.edu/stable/pdf/23790460.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A576d033ff865ba380dd4729ff8c636ad.

38
room, and adjustable decay times gives the room a large and lush sound, ideal for orchestral
work.
106
Studio A is where Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra recorded numerous songs and the
ability for the room to accent these icons at a time where digital manipulation of the track was
not possible, is a testament to the dynamics of the room.
107

Figure 3.15: Capitol Records studio A live room. Photo courtesy of Capitol Records
https://www.capitolrecords.com/.

Studio B’s live room is a smaller space at 1023 square feet and has similar features to studio
A.
108
Studio B still retains its original materials from construction in 1956, with studio A having
minor updates made in the 1990s.
109
Studio B is known for being the “Rock’n’Roll room”
because it is brighter and punchier than studio A. Yet, studio B has also been made famous by
Frank Sinatra, who made the first recording there, Frank Sinatra Conducts Tone Poems of Color,
in 1956.

106
Capitol Records, “The Studio that Defined Sound,” Capitol Records, 2018, accessed March 2019
https://www.capitolstudios.com/studios/.
107
Sonari Glinton, “Nat King Cole: An Incandescent Voice,” All Things Considered, April 19, 2010, accessed
March 2019 https://www.npr.org/2010/04/19/126110985/nat-king-cole-an-incandescent-voice.
108
Capitol Records, “The Studio that Defined Sound,” Capitol Records, 2018, accessed March 2019
https://www.capitolstudios.com/studios/.
109
Dan Gluszak, “Capitol Studios of L.A.: An Iconic Recording Studio Still Going Strong in its 60th Year,”
Sonicscoop, July 20, 2016, accessed March 2019
https://sonicscoop.com/2016/07/20/capitol-studios-l-iconic-recording-studio-still-going-strong-60th-year/.

39
Capitol Records’ studio rooms are significant in multiple ways. The acoustic signatures of the
spaces are undeniable and are still sought after by artists today. As the first new construction,
purposefully-built recording studio in Los Angeles, the history of utilizing acoustic science and
passive acoustics for the manipulation and enhancement of recorded music is tangible in the
construction of these rooms. With its protection as a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument,
the preservation of the Capitol Records building is ensured, but there are many more layers to
add to its significance.

Echo Chambers
The eight subterranean echo chambers designed by Les Paul for Capitol Records are world
famous. Each chamber is constructed of concrete, but with slightly differing shapes to create a
different sounding reverb in each. Up to a 5-second delay is able to be added to tracks being
recorded using these echo chambers and in 1956, these were some of the first purposefully built
artificial reverb chambers. As stated earlier, they played a crucial role in amplifying the double
harmonies on The Beach Boys album Surfin’ USA and the sounds we have come to know from
artists like Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra.
110
Many producers and musicians find the acoustic
signature of the echo chambers created at Capitol Records is unmatched and something that
cannot be duplicated.

110
Donte Fumo, “6 Echo Chambers that Shaped the Sound of Pop Music.” Reverb, February 2019. Accessed
February 2019.

40

Figure 3.16: Subterranean echo chamber below Capitol Records. Photo courtesy Reverb
https://reverb.com/news/6-echo-chambers-that-shaped-the-sound-of-popular-music.

Analog Gear
The studio rooms at Capitol Records use Neve consoles for recording purposes in their control
rooms. Studio A uses a Neve 88RS, which is one of the newest analog consol models in the Neve
line, and studio B employs a Neve 8068.
111
The Neve 8068 is said to be the world’s most sought
after Neve console with unmatched sound quality due to the design and construction of the
piece.
112
Alongside these notable analog recording consoles, Capitol Records houses an analog
660 Fairchild outboard compressor, a rare piece of outboard gear found in very few studios
anywhere in the world. An outboard compressor is a piece of equipment that the analog signal is
processed through, after recording, to lessen the dynamics of the material; or the difference
between the loudest and softest parts of the track. The Fairchild compressor series was built in
the 1950s by American engineer Rein Narma. This type of compressor was used on almost all of
The Beatles’ work at Abbey Road Studio in London, especially “Tomorrow Never Knows” from

111
Capitol Records, “The Studio that Defined Sound,” Capitol Records, 2018, accessed March 2019
https://www.capitolstudios.com/studios/#studio-b.
112
Pro Audio Design Inc., “Vintage Neve 8068 Recording Mixing Console,” Pro Audio Design Inc., 2018, accessed
March 2019 https://www.proaudiodesign.com/products/vintage-neve-8068-recording-mixing-console.

41
their album Revolver and is greatly credited with shaping the sound of the drums and guitars on
most of their records. Plugins of a Fairchild are often standard on all digital recording platforms
today, but a physical analog version is very rare. Capitol Records has owned one since its
opening in 1956 and countless artists have utilized it to create signature sounds on their records.
Pete Townshend, best known as the lead guitarist for The Who, said in an interview about the
Fairchild, “they were rolled out like secret weapons to bring an electric guitar to life or to add
punch to a snare drum or bass drum, or to squash an entire mix.”
113
The rarity and sound quality
of a Fairchild 660 makes this piece of gear an irreplaceable character-defining feature of Capitol
Records.

Figure 3.17: 660 Fairchild outboard compressor. Photo courtesy of Musictech.net.

With the ability of digital technology today, there are ways to emulate and alter recorded music,
no matter what the source material sounds like, to a desired quality and effect. Yet, recognizable
acoustic sound is produced with in spaces like these, which requires little to no artificial
enhancement, but rather, is shaped by the acoustic signature of the space itself. Preserving that

113
“The Fabled Fairchild Tube Compressor,” Vintage King, accessed March 2019. https://vintageking.com/fairchild-
660-670-compressor-limiter.

42
acoustic signature is only capable by preserving culturally important studios like Sunset Sound,
EastWest Studios, and Capitol Records.

43
Chapter 4: Criteria and Recommendations for Treatment

Physical features of a recording studio significantly impact the acoustic quality of music
recorded. The acoustic signature created by the environment music is played and recorded in can
be profoundly altered by the design of the space, and subsequently alter its impact on the listener.
Music recorded in studios with differing materials, shape, size, and analog equipment would
have different finished acoustic qualities and ultimately have different impacts on listeners. In
larger context, the quality and acoustic signature of the music recorded, which is directly
correlated to the space it is recorded in, profoundly impacts cultural musical trends. Thus, these
spaces are significant for their impact on broader trends of culturally popular music and
significant under Criterion A of the National Register of Historic Places. When analyzing
recording studios, it may also be possible to find significance for their association with people
important to our history or their architecture. EastWest Studio’s association with Bill Putnam and
Frank Sinatra could deem it significant under criterion B and Capitol Records was deemed
significant for its architecture under criterion C. Yet, this only preserves the tangible studio and
the aesthetics themselves. To deem a studio significant for its intangible acoustic signature and
the signature’s part in broader musical trends, the character-defining features of the interior
studio spaces that contribute to the acoustics replace aesthetic considerations and create a
preservation challenge.

RCA Victor Studios in Nashville was nominated to the National Register of Historic Places in
2015 under criterion A for “its exceptional significance in the city’s history of recorded music,
music industry administration and popular culture.”
114
The impact the studio played in the
“Nashville Sound” from 1965-1972 and the “Outlaw” sound from 1972-1977 makes it a
historically significant place for influencing pop-culture music of the time. The nomination
explains in a small paragraph that the acoustic design, construction, and choice of materials for
the studio played a major role shaping the music being recorded there.
115
Purposeful choices
were made in the features and design of this space that impacted the sound of the recorded music
and the trends of the time. Though the nomination makes mention of the conscious choice of

114
Caroll Van West, “National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form: RCA Victor Studios Building,” United
States Department of the Interior National Park Service, January 2, 2015 http://www.mtsuhistpres.org/wp-
content/uploads/2016/02/RCA-Victor-Studios-Building-Final-5-15-1.pdf.
115
Ibid.

44
design and materials, it wholly underplays how important those choices were to the musical
trends of the time. The acoustic signature of the space helped shape the “Nashville” and
“Outlaw” sound and a huge piece of the acoustic heritage resides within the physical character-
defining features of the space. By elaborating and further understanding this aspect of the
studio’s history, acoustic design, and significance, these features could be given a layer of
protection under the nomination when changes/upgrades are being made to the building. If left
out, the acoustic importance of the space may be overlooked and the preservation of the features
that make it significant may not take place.

My recommendation under criterion A would be to ensure all music recording studios being
evaluated for historical significance must also do an acoustic evaluation of the design, materials,
and construction of the space. Included would be an evaluation of the acoustic characteristics of
the materials in relation to absorption and reflectivity, measurements of the size of live rooms
and control rooms, documentation of isolation booths or echo chambers, and documentation of
analog equipment. This evaluation would determine if these character-defining features play a
large enough role in impacting the acoustic quality of the music, and if an acoustic signature of
the space has been created that adds its significance. If a recording studio is being evaluated for
significance under criterion A of the National Register of Historic Places for its contribution to
musical trends, the acoustic signature of the space and the impact it has on the recorded music
becomes an undeniable feature that must be explored, evaluated, and preserved.

A recording studio building is a building type. Most of the buildings that house these significant
studios are windowless, simple structures with no elaborate exterior features or grand styles.
Deeming these building significant under criterion C for their distinctive characteristics of a type
could allow for a historically significant understanding and protection of the features. Yet, how
far would this designation extend to the interior features where the real importance lies? A
nomination under criterion A for interior character-defining features and their contribution to the
acoustic signature of the space is the best means of preservation.

Once deemed significant under National Register Criteria, each treatment application offers a
unique set of pros and cons. Preservation of these character-defining features, without change or
replacement, is the best possible treatment recommendation. Preservation is defined as “the act

45
or process of applying measures necessary to sustain the existing form, integrity, and materials of
an historic property.”
116
The acoustic signature created by these spaces is directly linked to the
materials and construction of the space, their location, and how they function. Music created is
transformed by the environment that surrounds it, and ultimately impacts the way we perceive it.
Any change to an amount of material or its density, porosity, or position will greatly impact the
perceived sound. With some of these studios dating back decades, there are original materials
that impact the acoustics of the space that cannot be replaced. Thus, the maintenance and
preservation of these materials becomes the only option for treatment. Yet, a studio needs to be
able to continue to grow with the times, trends, and technology. There is merit to new features of
a studio, equipment or additions, gaining significance in their own right. Preserving an iconic
acoustic signature means a studio must maintain the same construction and design is a specific
location, but upgrading other spaces of the studio that do not directly impact the character-
defining features would not have adverse effects to the historical significance of the studio.

Rehabilitation of a property “acknowledges the need to alter or add to a historic property to meet
continuing or changing uses while retaining the property's historic character.”
117
There are times
where rehabilitation of a historic property is acceptable and needed; when a property can no
longer function while meeting current living standards there are techniques to alter its use
without damaging the aesthetic look too far beyond the original, while still making it usable. Yet,
when the acoustics of a space is one of the most important historical aspects, altering the
materials or design can greatly damage its sonic quality. Recording studios are sought out by
artists and producers for their acoustic signature and the sound quality found in the music
recorded there. The main focus in maintaining a recording studios significance is preserving the
acoustic signature of the space by being acutely conscious of how any change in materials will
alter that. Yet, the rehabilitation of spaces that do not impact the historic acoustic signature is
acceptable. EastWest Studio completed a major renovation of the artists lounges and non-
recording spaces recently. They also recently added in a fifth studio room to the complex with

116
National Park Service, U.S. Department of Interior, “Standards for Preservation,” Accessed June 2019
https://www.nps.gov/tps/standards/four-treatments/treatment-preservation.htm.
117
National Park Service, U.S. Department of Interior, “Four Approaches to the Treatment of Historic Properties,”
Accessed July 2019, https://www.nps.gov/tps/standards/four-treatments.htm.

46
the latest equipment and technology. These changes did not alter the studio’s historic recording
spaces or alter the signature sound.
118

Restoration to a specific period of significance as a treatment for historical recording studios can
be a positive approach for a studio if done correctly. When a studio is deemed significant for its
acoustic signature the period of significance becomes the year it was built. Yet, the aesthetics of
the studio are not the most important aspect. The intangible sound that the design and materials
make it the most important feature of the space. As long as the acoustics of the space have not
been altered and the original character-defining features remain, the studio can grow and change
around it.

An example of this treatment approach can be seen at Sun Records in Memphis Tennessee. Sun
Records is a National Historic Landmark under criterion A and B for its contribution to
“recorded music in the 1950s that is one of the true touchstones of American culture" and its
association with Sam C. Phillips, who owned the Sun Records Label which is credited as “the
first great rock 'n' roll record label.”
119
Sun Records is known for being the birthplace of
rock’n’roll and for Sam Phillips’ approach in supporting great artists, like Elvis Presley, in
creating some of the most iconic music of the 1950s. In Sun Records’ nomination the period of
significance is defined as 1949-1960, the period during which it was a functioning recording
studio owned by Sam Phillips, and the building now runs as a museum preserving the space to
look like the recording studio from this time. Tickets for tours can be purchased and you can
“follow in the footsteps of the king [Elvis Presley]” and record music there just like in its
prime.
120
The studio generates money by functioning as a monument to recorded music of
decades past and markets itself as a tourist attraction to visit while in Memphis and record as is if
you were Elvis Presley, but not as a state of the art, functioning commercial recording studio.
Restoration can be a suitable treatment approach when the story being told is as specific as that
of Sun Records, yet not all studios can be frozen in time and billed as an interesting/nostalgic

118
Lawrence Malchose (Chief Technical engineer at EastWest Studios) in discussion with the author March 28,
2019.
119
Jody Cook, “National Register of Historic Places Nomination: RCA Victor Studios Building,” United States
Department of the Interior National Park Service, April 2, 2002
https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/6cd45888-e402-45d7-9746-e1d586cc58b9.
120
“The Legendary Sun Studios,” Sun Studios, accessed June 2019, https://www.sunstudio.com/.

47
location to record and feel like artists of the past. This approach is not always a financially
sustainable option for commercial studios still functioning as working recording spaces.

As explored in Chapter 2, recording studios financially have a hard time keeping their doors
open. The cost to upkeep the physical equipment needed to record music, the cost of employees
to run the studio, and the cost of the studio land itself has become too much of a burden for many
studios, as more and more artists have chosen to record in home studios with the assistance of
plugin simulations and digital technology. When Los Angeles was home to the recording music
scene for decades starting in the 1960s, dozens of important and significant studios popped up
that no longer stand.
121
Gold Star operated from 1954-1980 and was known for its studio design
and echo chambers, but closed due to financial hardship and was replaced by a mini-mall.
122
The
building that housed Grandmaster Recording Studios still stands at 1580 Cahuenga Boulevard
and was the location of recordings such as Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life, Red Hot
Chili Peppers' One Hot Minute, and the Black Crowes' debut studio album, Shake Your Money
Maker.
123
Grandmaster closed its doors in 2016 when the original owner Alan Dickson died and
the studio was sold to a developer who plans to build restaurants and lounges on the site.
124

There are dozens more examples of studios in Los Angeles alone that helped shape significant
trends in music history, in part due to their acoustic signature, that no longer operate or stand.
With no preservation importance placed on the way the studio sounds or its acoustic qualities, its
acoustic signature and historically significant contributions are lost if the building shutters.
Without recognition from the preservation and music industry of the importance of
understanding the role that the physical spaces play in contributing to the music itself, the
buildings and studios will continue to be lost without documentati”on of their character-defining
features and acoustic signatures.

121
Kent Hartman, “When L.A.’s Recording Studios Ruled the Music Scene,” What it Means to be American, March
1, 2018, accessed March June 2019 https://www.whatitmeanstobeamerican.org/places/when-l-a-s-recording-studios-
ruled-the-music-scene/.
122
David N. Howard, Sonic Alchemy: Visionary Music Producers and Their Maverick Recordings (Milwaukee: Hal
Leonard Creative Services, 2004).
123
Roger Vincent, “Famous Hollywood Recording Studio Grandmaster Records Sold for Redevelopment,” The Los
Angeles Times, May 12, 2017, accessed June 2019 https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-grandmaster-recorders-
sale-20170512-story.html.
124
Ibid.

48
With this understanding, there should be mitigation measures taken in the documentation of an
acoustic signature of a historically significant space. When a historic resource is in danger of
being lost, usually measured drawings are taken, an inventory of the materials is collected, and
photographs are taken of the property and its character-defining features to archive the
importance of the space and imprint it into history. These items are also useful in case the
treatment of reconstruction is deemed appropriate in the future for the resource. This must be the
same practice for these important recording studios that are shutting their doors and being torn
down. Apart from being an existential threat to recording studios, computer plugins have become
digital representations of the acoustic signatures of historic recording studios that can be used
from any home computer, inadvertently becoming a digital acoustic archive of the important
acoustic signatures. These plugins serve as a form of acoustic measurements of the space that can
later be replicated if needed.The combination of measured drawing, documentation of materials,
and recorded samples of the acoustic signature of the spaces will help preserve the acoustic
heritage if the physical spaces are lost.

In February of 2019, a team lead by Dr. Doyuen Ko, associate professor of audio engineering at
Belmont University, Dr. Sungyoung Kim from the Rochester Institute of Technology, and aural
heritage consultant Dr. Miriam Kolaris, were awarded a three-year grant from the National
Endowment for the Humanities for their work on how to map and preserve the aural heritage of
sites like recording studios. The team is working to digitally map the acoustics of historic
structures to ensure the preservation of the aural heritage of a significant site.
125
Though the list
of important sites does include studios on Nashville’s “Music Row,” acoustic signatures are not
just specific to recording studios. There are multiple types of buildings that produce specific
acoustic signatures and with that signature an acoustic heritage worthy of preservation. Concert
halls, amphitheaters, and churches/cathedrals are all designed with the importance of how they
sound in mind. In the grant application, the team wrote, “For centuries, across music history,
composers and performers have viewed performance rooms as musical instruments, with distinct
tonal, spatial and dynamic character.”
126
Mapping the acoustic signatures creates an invaluable

125
April Hefner, “Belmont Faculty to Research Digital Preservation of Music Row Studios’ Aural Heritage,”
Belmont University, February 26, 2019, accessed July 2019, https://news.belmont.edu/belmont-faculty-to-research-
digital-preservation-of-music-row-studios-aural-heritage/.

126
Ibid.

49
data base of important acoustics from culturally significant sites that can be used in a virtual
reconstruction for accessibility around the globe or reconstruction of lost sites. The recent fire at
the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France has raised many questions whether the cathedral will
ever sound the same. In 2013, Brian FG Katz, a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America and
CNRS research director at Sorbonne Université, obtained detailed acoustic measurements of the
main space of Notre Dame making it possible in its reconstruction to match the historically
significant acoustic sound the cathedral in known for.
127

For preservationists, saving and maintaining any historic resource in perpetuity is the ideal
outcome. The removal from the landscape of any resource, big or small, beautiful or vernacular,
that tells the story of where we come from or interesting facts from our past is a sad reality. The
significance of music on our past, present, and future is easily recognizable. We also understand
that there are significant places where this culturally important music is created. The emphasis in
understanding the acoustic signature and quality of a space, while researching its significance as
a historic resource, is an aspect of research that is lightly touched on, if not overlooked all
together, in a majority of historically recognized recording studios. Understanding the acoustic
signature of a space and the acoustic heritage generated by that signature is another piece of the
puzzle that cannot be overlooked, or it will regrettably be lost.

127
American Institute for Physics, “Reconstructing the Acoustics of Notre Dame,” Physics.org, May 6, 2019,
accessed July 2019, https://phys.org/news/2019-05-reconstructing-acoustics-notre-dame.html.

50
Conclusion

This thesis set out to determine if a recording studio, based on its construction and materials,
contained a specific acoustic signature that contributed to the overall sound of the recorded
music enough to deem the character-defining features of the space historically significant in their
own respect. By analyzing and exploring three studios in Los Angeles and comparing their
character-defining features, it can be concluded that material, construction, and design does
significantly alter the perception of sound generated in the space and thus creates a specific
acoustic signature. That acoustic signature plays a major role in shaping the sound of culturally
significant trends in popular music. This contribution to the quality of recorded music is a large
piece of significance that would fall under criterion A of the National Register of Historic Places
for its part in shaping broader musical patterns.

The focus of this topic was placed on the built space itself and understanding how construction
and materials affect sound quality. Though this thesis presented evidence that the built
environment undeniably creates an acoustic signature of a space, a further exploration into
acoustic science and music can and should be undertaken. I do believe a larger case study of
studios and character-defining features would be helpful in solidifying the creation and
contribution of acoustic signatures in recorded music. The three studios examined in this thesis,
Sunset Sound Studios, EastWest Studios, and Capitol Records, are all recording studios of note
and significant for other trends in musical history. A further research topic would be to apply the
theory of acoustic signature to smaller studios and explore how the construction and materials of
those spaces alter the sound quality and/or generate a unique acoustic signature.

A further look into what deems an acoustic signature historically significant is worthy of further
research. Establishing criteria for significance of the sound based on the design of the studio, the
acoustic signature of the space, and how impactful that acoustic signature actually was to
culturally popular music is important in understanding which studios would be considered
significant under criterion A. There are multiple factors that can change the way the acoustic
signature on a finished musical project can sound such as the artist themselves, what kind of
instruments were used, the amount of people in the room, and much more. A criterion to separate

51
historically significant acoustic signatures from average studio sounds would be important in the
understanding of significance.

With the introduction of the National Recording Preservation Act in 2000, more emphasis has
been placed on the importance of preserving recorded music media. Saving first generation
recordings in their original format is key in preserving historical musical trends. Studies have
been done to understand how much data and media exists and solutions in preservation are the
first steps in music preservation. Artists and music fans have recently been outraged when
learning that the 2008 Hollywood California fire on the Universal Backlots Stage destroyed up to
500,000 original master recordings from historically significant artists like Chuck Berry, Muddy
Waters, Aretha Franklin, and Elton John.
128
Storing and preserving master-recordings is an
“irreplaceable primary source of a piece of recorded music.”
129
The studies into the quantity and
quality of recorded media data is important, but the research contained within this thesis asks
music preservation studies to take one step further in understanding the significance of the place
of the original recording. The environment in which a historically significant piece of music was
recorded in plays a part in the way in which it sounds. The character-defining features and the
acoustic signature of that place of recording must also be evaluated for significance. A holistic
and complete approach to music preservation encompasses the tangible music recording media
and the intangible acoustic heritage of the recording space.

There are a number of music recording studios that have been nominated to the National Register
of Historic Places for multiple reasons. Capitol Records in Los Angeles is nominated for its
architecture and design and RCA Victor Studios in Nashville was nominated for its contribution
to patterns in music history throughout different time periods. There is no lack of understanding
in the importance that recording studios have in the context of musical history. There is however
a lack of research and understanding in examining the importance of the acoustic design of these
studios and ensuring that a thorough evaluation of the acoustic signature is included in a
recording studios historic nomination. The intangible heritage of sound and acoustics created by

128
Steve Knopper, “Universal Music Group Archivist: Vault Fire Damage 'Surprisingly Overstated,' But Any Loss
Is 'Painful for Us,'” Billboard, June 17, 2019, accessed July 2019,
https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/8516256/umg-archivist-interview-universal-fire-masters-tapes-
litigation.
129
Jody Rosen, “The Day the Music Burned,” The New York Times Magazine, June 11, 2019, accessed July 2019,
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/11/magazine/universal-fire-master-recordings.html.

52
the way a studio is designed can be difficult to define in the context of contribution to historical
significance. The mapping of a studio’s character-defining features, an understanding in how
those features affect perceived sound, and how that effect contributes to the recorded music is a
process that would help further the understanding of significance and include the intangibility of
acoustic heritage in a recording studio historic nomination.

The work that Dr. Ko and his team is doing, as discussed in chapter four, in their research of
aural heritage and their mapping of acoustic signatures in culturally significant sites will help in
the ability to understand just how important these signatures are. With the research and acoustic
mapping of these differing types of culturally significant buildings, further research can be
undertaken into the acoustic signatures and their historical relevance to recorded music in these
settings.

Acoustic heritage is a major factor in the preservation of music, and the preservation of
character-defining features that contribute to the overall music quality and sound is an important
aspect to preserve. By failing to include the intangible acoustic signature and ultimately that
signature’s heritage and influence on recorded music, we risk losing what a major part of our
musical and architectural history.

53
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Asset Metadata

Creator Viso, Kasey M. (author)

Core Title Acoustic heritage of recording studios: physical characteristics and signature sound

School School of Architecture

Degree Master of Heritage Conservation

Degree Program Heritage Conservation

Publication Date 12/09/2019

Defense Date 12/07/2019

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag acoustic science,acoustic signature,acoustic sound,aesthetically significant,architectural type,auditory qualities,aural heritage,Capitol Records,conservation,Construction,design,EastWest Studios,Los Angeles,Music,musical heritage,musical trends,OAI-PMH Harvest,preservation,recording studio,recording technology,sound recording,Sunset Sound,type

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Sandmeier, Trudi (committee chair), Hall, Peyton (committee member), Platt, Jay (committee member)

Creator Email kaseyviso@yahoo.com,viso@usc.edu

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c89-249713

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