A&M RECORDS STUDIO B

A&M RECORDS STUDIO B HISTORY

With 20,000 cubic feet, Studio B had tracking and overdub facilities, this is the studio Herb Alpert patterned after Gold Star. Studio B was accessed through an 18' by 19' control room. It had two small ISO booths, one on each side of the control room. The main recording room was 20' by 30'.

Among the notable recordings made in Studio B:


* Carpenters preferred studio 1969-1974
* Carole King's Tapestry and Music
* Bruce Springsteen mixed Unplugged 
* Melissa Etheridge's self-titled album
* Karen and Richard Carpenter filmed their video of "Hurting Each Other"
* Tony Peluso guitar solo on Carpenters "Goodbye to Love"
* Barbra Streisand vocals for Butterfly

 

A private lounge and a very large crystal Herb Alpert found completed the studio.

In 1975 A&M Studios acquired an API Model 3324 Recording Console. It was later moved into Herb Alpert's private studio at A&M and remained in service until 1994 when Alpert stored it at the Herb Alpert Foundation.

Custom powder coated in blue and screen printed for A&M, it features:
32 input channels
24 monitor channels
  4 mono echo return modules
  4 monitor busses
16 submasters
Quad panning on all channels

26 - 550A EQ modules
  6 - 550 EQ modules
28 - 912B Mic Pre Amps
  4 - 912C Mic Pre Amps
  4 - 525 Compressors
  1 - 575 Oscillator Unit

Studio B was updated in 1986 by Continental Studio Builders (CSB).

Alpert sold the mixing console in 2007. The pictures in the gallery below show the console with modifications made by its new owner.

 

STUDIO B EQUIPMENT

CONSOLE:

56-channel, 112-input SSL SL 6056E
with Total Recall and G-Series Automation

TAPE MACHINES:

Studer A800 Multitracks
Studer A820
Ampex ATR-102 two-tracks
Two TimeLine Lynx synchronizers

MIXDOWN/REFERENCE:

A&M proprietary A-to-D and D-to-A
converters
Sony PCM-7010 Timecode DAT
Panasonic SV-3700 DAT
Phillips CD player
Tascom Model 122 Mk III cassettes

MAIN MONITORS:

Custom A&M/Van Haaff systems with
Pioneer/TAD components

NEAR FIELD MONITORING:

Yamaha NS-10Ms

OUTBOARD EQUIPMENT:

Compressor/Limiter:

Fairchild 670
UREI LA-2a, LA-3 and 1176
dbx Model 160 and Model 160x
Neve 32264a

Mic Pre-amps/EQ:

Neve Model 1073 Modules
Pultec EQP-1A3, EQP-1A and EQH-2
GML Model 8200

Reverb/Effects:

Eventide H-3500
Lexicon 480L, PCM-80 and PCM-70
AMS RMX-16
Yamaha 990, Rev 5, Rev 7 and SPX-90

Delays/Effects:

AMS DMX
Lexicon PCM-42
Roland SDE-3000
TC Electronics 2290
Eventide 949

Gates/Proc:

Drawmer DS-201 gates
dbx Model 902 de-esser