The San Francisco section of the Audio Engineering Society (AES) offered an opportunity to tour some of the top audio facilities in Oakland and Berkeley, California. It was impossible to visit all 14 studios on the tour in the allotted time. The ones I did have the chance to view, big and small, had their own unique characteristics, making them perfect studios for all different types of recordings.
The first stop on my recording studio adventure was Jingletown Recording, located on 27th Ave Oakland CA. Some of their past clients include Green Day, Smash Mouth, Iggy Pop, and Stickup Kid.
Studio A, with its gorgeous hardwood floors and variety of acoustic treatment, has its own Yamaha C7 piano and a Rhodes Eighty Eight Organ, as seen in the photo above. Control room A includes a Neve 8068, Yamaha NS-10’s, Barefoot MicroMain 27’s, and a pair of Genelec 1038A’s.
The photo below shows Studio B Control Room, home to a SSL 9064J console, and the same monitor set-up as Studio A (Yamaha NS-10’s, Barefoot MicroMain 27’s, and a pair of Genelec 1038A’s).
I didn’t snap any photos during stop two on the studio tour, Sharkbite Studios. A uniquely designed, DIY styled space. The current owner even designed his own wood polycylindrical diffusers for the main live room!
Stop three on the studio tour: 25th Street Recording. Although the youngest recording studio on the tour, 25th Street’s control room is the home to a long list of interesting gear, including a 64 Input API Vision All Discrete Surround Mixing and Recording Console. As if the API Vision Console wasn’t enough, the main control room was designed with a full 5.1 ATC monitoring system, custom installed and calibrated for the room.
I was looking forward to the final stop on my studio tour all day, Fantasy Studios. Built as a private recording studio in 1971 for Fantasy Records but now open to the public, Fantasy Studios is one of the top studios on the west coast. Each one of the three studios at Fantasy were designed and built for a specific purpose.
Studio A is large enough to accommodate more than 50 people and still sound gorgeous. It is also equipped with a projection booth and screen, where Academy Award movies such as “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and “Apocalypse Now” were mixed.
The smallest Studio at Fantasy, Studio B, is perfect for an overdub session or single musician recordings. It’s also known as the studio where Green Day’s hit album “Dookie” was recorded.
Thanks to the success of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” recorded in Studio B, the addition known as Studio D was created. One of the largest studios in the San Francisco Bay area, Studio D can house 50 musicians or up to a 125-person audience during a private party performance.
The opening of Studio D marks the historic moment when all studios at Fantasy became open for public recording. The original control room housed a Neve 8108, but is now home to an SSL 4000E and the choice of Dynaudio BM 6A Mk II or Meyer HD-1 monitors. The first album recorded and mixed in its entirety within Studio D was Journey’s “Escape” which reached #1 on Billboards 200 chart!
A big thank you to all the studios who participated and the SF section of AES for putting on such an awesome event. I look forward to another opportunity to visit some of those that I missed during this event.
A complete list of the studios who participated in SF Open Studios Event:
25th Street Recording
Bayview/Airship Laboratories
Bird and Egg Recording Studio
El Cerrito Studios
Fantasy Studios
Infinite Studios
Jingletown Recording Studios
Megasonic Sound
New and Improved
Santo Studio
Sharkbite Studios
Skyline Studios
Sonic Zen
Soundwave Studios
