I was very disturbed to learn of this most recent development in Beach Boy history (comment follows):FROM THE LOS ANGELES TIMESCapitol says recording quality at its Hollywood building is at risk
By Bob Pool
April 23, 2008
No! No-o-o-o! No-o-o-o-o-o! That plea from Hollywood is reverberating through Los Angeles City Hall as officials try to decide whether a 16-story tower should be built next to the landmark Capitol Records building.
A Marina del Rey developer hopes to construct 93 condominiums, 13,442 square feet of commercial and office space and a 242-space underground parking lot next to the landmark, 13-floor, record-shaped building.
But Capitol executives are trying to stop the multimillion-dollar project because of fears that pile-driving and excavation for the three-level underground garage will damage one-of-a-kind, below-ground echo chambers that are used for high-end recordings.
The developer has denied that the project would harm the reverberation equipment and has pledged to try to limit noise and vibration during construction.
The famed echo chambers were designed by guitarist Les Paul and have been used by recording artists ranging from Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin to Chris Botti, Natalie Cole – who just finished an album there – and Brian Wilson, who used them last week.
EMI Music North America, which operates Capitol Records, has appealed the city’s preliminary approval of the high-rise, which is proposed for the southwest corner of Yucca Street and Argyle Avenue. Until 2005 that was the site of the KFWB-AM (980) radio station.
“As a major employer in the Hollywood area, Capitol Records is extremely concerned about the viability of us being able to continue to run Capitol Studios in the face of the admittedly significant adverse impacts that will be caused by construction,” said Maureen B. Schultz, a senior vice president at the recording company.
In a letter to City Council members, Schultz explained that the echo chambers are on the east side of the record company headquarters at the corner of Vine and Yucca streets. They are buried 18 feet from the proposed excavation site.
“We are not anti-development, and understand and support that Hollywood is changing and new development is part of that change,” she said in the letter.
But “the sound in the studios is one that cannot be replicated anywhere else in the world. The echo chambers are as much a part of the Hollywood history as the Capitol Tower and the Hollywood sign.”
The eight concrete chambers, built 30 feet underground, vary in shape to give different sounds. A speaker pipes music into one end of each chamber and a microphone picks up the reverberation at the other end.
Capitol employees say their three recording studios are booked by artists who know the Vine Street echo effect is something that cannot be duplicated electronically or at any other studio.
Although it is not part of EMI’s appeal, record company workers and others in Hollywood also oppose the 16-floor tower because it would overshadow Capitol’s iconic building by three stories and block views of the landmark from the nearby Hollywood Freeway.
The Capitol tower was designed by architect Welton Becket and finished in 1956. It was the world’s first circular office building. Music fans immediately embraced its look, which resembled a stack of vinyl 45s on a record turntable. Its spire is said to blink out the name “Hollywood” in Morse code at night.
EMI’s appeal of the project is one of two that have been filed. A separate objection has been lodged by Hollywood resident Jim McQuiston, who has lived for 48 years across the street from the tower site. He objects to it on seismic grounds.
“It would affect me when it falls over on me,” McQuiston, a Caltech-trained engineer, said Tuesday. In papers filed with the city, he asserted that “the so-called Yucca strand of the Hollywood Fault poses an extreme hazard” to the condominium tower.
Developer David Jordan could not be reached for comment Tuesday. However, a lawyer representing the project dismissed McQuiston’s concerns.
“That seems, quite frankly, like an implausible scenario,” Dale Goldsmith said of the tower toppling in an earthquake. “His apartment building would collapse before this one would. It would be built in accordance of latest earthquake standards.”
As far as Capitol Records’ echo chambers are concerned, Goldsmith pledged that they will be safe during construction.
“We’re confident there won’t be any long-term damage,” he said. “We’re prepared to indemnify them. They have a right to be concerned, but their concerns are exaggerated.”
Steps will be taken to limit vibration and noise, he said. “There are a series of mitigation measures to be taken during construction. Muffling devices, dewatering techniques, taking noise-generating equipment as far away as possible from Capitol,” Goldsmith said.
An acoustical study done for Jordan by an Oakland firm acknowledged that “without the mitigation … ground-borne noise from construction activities may temporarily impact operation of the echo chambers.”
But it suggested that “digital signal processing and other digital audio recording techniques can simulate almost every echo chamber effect.”
Capitol officials plan to refute that when the City Council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee reviews their appeal May 13. The entire council is expected to take up the issue May 27, committee Chairman Ed Reyes said Tuesday.
Digital reverberation can’t compare with a real echo chamber, Capitol recording experts say. That’s a claim they’ve shot down over and over and over again. END
The sound of Capitol's chambers (especially #3) are all over most Beach Boy recordings. Even if the song was mixed at Brian's House Studio, we would pre-record important reverberation on two tracks of the multi-track by going to Capitol and using their chambers for a reverb session. THEY ARE THAT GOOD! Electronic simulation can't come close. If you live in this area and vote, you should call, write, or email the Los Angeles City Council and demand that the council recognise the significance of these historic rooms. Not much time -- vote scheduled July 8, Tuesday, 2008.LATEST NEWS:Famous studio fears next-door noise
BY SOLVEJ SCHOU • ASSOCIATED PRESS • July 6, 2008
Post a CommentRecommend Print this page E-mail this article
Share this article: Del.icio.us Facebook Digg Reddit Newsvine What’s this?
LOS ANGELES -- Standing in the photo-lined hallway, you can almost hear the history.
One picture shows Frank Sinatra crooning into a sleek, silver microphone, his fedora tipped back. In another, Nat King Cole sits in front of a music stand in a crisp, white V-neck sweater.
Both were taken only a few feet away, a half-century ago, in the wood and glass studios of Capitol Records' famed cylindrical tower in Hollywood -- familiar to tourists from around the globe as resembling a giant stack of vinyl records.
In this age of mp3s, digital home recording and compressed and condensed tunes, Capitol Studios remain a rare gem -- a legendary yet working homage to high-quality sound, from Sinatra to the Beach Boys to Tim McGraw.
"It's not a historical monument to itself, it's a contemporary studio," said engineer Jim Scott, who recently recorded Dido with a 30-piece orchestra at Capitol.
But the large, three-room facility and its fabled subterranean echo chambers -- whose sound, experts say, cannot be re-created -- may soon be picking up some bad vibrations from an adjacent 16-story condominium and office project, part of downtown Hollywood's ambitious revitalization effort.
Sound engineers fear that noise from the construction site, as well as from traffic that would eventually use the project's underground parking garage, will ruin the delicate aural qualities of the echo chambers.
A Los Angeles City Council committee recently denied an appeal by Capitol parent EMI Music North America and recommended approval of the project, contingent on a series of additional measures -- including construction walls and a foam barrier -- to mitigate potential sound issues. Capitol had worked out the measures with developer Second Street Ventures as a backup plan, though it still opposes the project.
"Capitol Records' executives are reluctant to keep open the recording studios and echo chambers if they run the risk of lawsuits from recording artists and their record labels," EMI's attorney John Whitaker said at the hearing.
David Jordon, co-owner of Second Street Ventures, said he felt confident that the measures would protect Capitol Studios' signature sound.
"We have no desire to create any negativity toward Capitol Records," he said. "Our design is to enhance and protect this iconic building and the area around it. From a personal standpoint, we wouldn't want that kind of liability."
Jordon maintains that his company is only looking to do loud excavation and demolition from 7 to 10 a.m. He also says there would be an emphasis on "open and constant communication" with Capitol, including an onsite attendant every day. Discussions continue regarding compensation to Capitol if recording sessions are affected, he said.
The full council is set to vote on the proposal Tuesday in a session that could attract the many music industry insiders who oppose the project -- from engineers to the Recording Academy.
"Those echo chambers at Capitol should not ever be lost. That sound cannot be reproduced," said engineer Geoff Emerick, who recorded the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and "Revolver."
Musician and producer Jon Brion, who has recorded Kanye West and Fiona Apple, said he was upset over the issue.
"There are very few specially built studios left, and the chambers are the thing that make it special," he said.
Sinatra recorded his seminal 1958 album "Only the Lonely" in the studios, using the echo chambers' reverb to enhance his voice. Other famed musicians who have recorded there since the tower's 1956 opening include Dean Martin, Natalie Cole, Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, Diana Krall and James Taylor. Green Day recorded most of its Grammy-winning 2004 album "American Idiot" there.
The Oscar, Emmy and Grammy orchestras also use the studios, which can hold up to 75 musicians, as do the television shows "American Idol" and "Lost."
Today, about 90% of the artists who record there rent the facilities independently and are not connected with Capitol/EMI.
"To steal a quote from (Paul McCartney engineer) Phil Ramone, 'People just play better here,' " said Greg Parkin, Capitol Studios and Mastering's senior director of operations.
Buried more than 25 feet below the Capitol tower's parking lot, the studios' trapezoidal-shaped echo chambers, built out of 10-inch thick concrete walls, were codesigned by famed sound innovator Les Paul, who pioneered the electric guitar and helped develop multitrack recording.
Artists sing or play into microphones in the studios and the sound is piped through wires in the walls down through a corridor and into the chambers. Speakers in the chambers bounce the sound to microphones on the other side, which pick up the music in stereo and then funnel it back to a mixing console in the studios. This provides a smooth delay of sound, or reverb, which can last up to five seconds. Underground isolation is necessary to establish purity of the sound.
"Loud noises are our enemy, that's just the nature of the business," Parkin said. "When you're doing a very delicate string date, any interference can be a problem."
He added that the chambers have never been replicated digitally -- and that's why artists still travel to Capitol from around the world.
"The Capitol Studios are part of Hollywood's history, part of the Beach Boys' history and part of my own history," Brian Wilson said in a letter to the Los Angeles City Council. "I can't emphasize enough how important it is that you do everything in your power to protect that history for generations of recording artists to come."
HERE ARE ADDITIONAL ARTICLES: ~swd
Capital Records Echo chamber >>> [
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=Capital+Records+Echo+chamber&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=X&oi=news_result&resnum=4&ct=title ]