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CBS Records' 30th Street Studio Presentation

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Dan Mortensen:
Hello,

My apologies for taking so long to realize that I should post this here.

For the last nine years I've been looking into the history of this New York City studio, and fairly intensely for the last four years or so.

This interest was triggered by getting to know famous recording engineer Frank Laico after he moved to Seattle and started coming to our Section's AES meetings. He was Tony Bennett's engineer for 40 years, did Barbra Streisand's first 16 albums, several albums with Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk, and a ton of other recordings during his nearly 34 year career with Columbia Records and CBS. Many of those were done at the 30th St. Studio, and other people also engineered really fantastic sounding records there, too. As most of you undoubtedly already know.

It was sold in 1981 and torn down in 1982, and its legend grew as its particulars faded from memories. There are more than a few people who think it was the best sounding studio ever, but I'm not qualified to judge that.

I did post in this forum back in 2008 when we were putting together our first Section meetings looking specifically at Frank's career (and got some good info from regular Dominic, who I've gotten to meet and know), and again, I think, when Frank died in 2013. Since live sound is my career, I've since spent most of my time in the Live portion of this website, and not here.

Despite that, as time went on I looked around for more information about the studio than Frank could tell us, and I've only been getting more and more into it as found answers generated more questions that also needed answers. My research has stepped up over the years, and got knowledgeable people involved from another forum (not sure of the decorum of naming it and them here; please advise).

At the next AES Convention in New York, I'll be giving a talk on Saturday Oct. 21 from 10:45am-12:15pm in the papers area, so behind the paywall, in the Archiving and Restoration track (because it involves things that happened long ago?), about the overall history of the studio, which went from 1875-~1946 as a church (hence its nickname "The Church"), through its time as a studio and ending with its demolition.

Crikey, they listed it as a featured presentation. That's new since I last looked.

There's so much to talk about during its studio days that I fear its place in New York City history (and one of its pastors was a very significant figure in New York if not American history and culture) will need to be shortchanged in order to spend enough time on the details of its studio life. My Section let me do a dry run of it last week and there were a lot of questions and comments so I need to trim it down to fit into the allowed time. (That last link should be valid for another week or so until we post our next meeting announcement.)

We've gathered a ton of information about the studio, who was there and what they did, and its fascinating and surprisingly central place in the culture of the city, country, and the world during its existence, beginning after Europe and Asia were pretty beat up in WWII and the musical and artistic intelligencia of the world flocked to America and New York.

That said, I'm going to be concentrating on its evolution as a studio architecturally, acoustically, and electronically as recording technology underwent radical changes and refinements.

A pre-presentation (walk-in) video will name as many of the engineers, studio staff, producers, A&R people, studio attendants, artists, actors, etc. as I have been able to find out, and we will see a relative few of the people who recorded and worked there in the presentation. There were a lot, though, and many if not most of the artists at least will certainly be left out. I did fit in over a thousand total, though, which is why it has to be part of the walk-in and not the presentation, with most of their names seen but not heard.

Please consider stopping in if you are coming to the Convention and have a way to get in to the papers.

I would also like to present it to people who are not going to be at the Convention but are in or near New York City, so if anyone has any connections with someplace in Manhattan that could hold 20 or 30 people and has a screen or white wall for projections (I can bring a video projector if need be), please say so. I'll be in NYC before and a little after the Convention and would love to share this subject that is near and dear to me. There are a few people who worked in the studio who would like to see it, too, but won't be able to get in, so I'd invite them, too.

Thanks!

Fletcher:
This sounds wonderfully cool!!  ...a bit before my time [not by much], but certainly fascinating. 

I don't know of a place in Manhattan, but if its any assistance, I have a place about 45 minutes north of Manhattan with a screen and seating [as well as full bar / restaurant].  If you think this may be of some interest to you, please feel free to PM me.

Peace

Dan Mortensen:
Hi Fletcher,

That's super generous and I wish I could take advantage of it. Are you on a train line or some other public transportation? I know Manhattan pretty well but am a fail about the rest of the region and what's involved in getting around. I'll be staying near Penn Station so that part is doable. Maybe.

It would be nice to not lug a projector (do you have that part, too?) across the country again.

Thanks!

Fletcher:
We have a screen [75" - if there is an audio component it can be played in the bar / restaurant without a struggle], we're on public transport -- NY Metro North and Jersey Transit both stop at "Suffern" [on the Port Jervis line]... there is also a "Coach USA" bus from Port Authority, which stops about 75-100 yards down the street from the pub.

Dan Mortensen:
This sounds pretty good and I am seriously considering it.

I think I know who the audience would be in Manhattan, not sure about in Suffern. Can you get some audio people together there? I don't need a lot...

It looks like there's NJT trains there regularly from Penn Station, transferring in Secaucus.

I think I'd prefer either Sunday, the 15th or the 22nd, in the early afternoon so I could get back to town before it was too late.

There's one other remote possibility for a Manhattan space that would be best close to the convention if not during, but I'm not holding out too much hope for it.

Let's keep talking, and see if anyone from this forum wants to be there. If this works out, I'll bring it up on the other forum (what's the etiquette for talking here about competing forums?) and see if anyone there could come to Suffern.

Thanks!

What do you think?

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