Westlake Recording Studios

Westlake Recording Studios is a well-known music recording studio in West Hollywood, CA.

History

The studio was founded as Westlake Audio in the early 1970s by Tom Hidley, and is credited as "one of the first big commercial efforts to produce acoustically standardised 'interchangeable' rooms". Their rooms aimed for an acoustic design that could give a fairly flat frequency response at the recording position, with the ability to control reverberation delay. They were popular, and "Westlake-style" rooms spread to a number of other studios by the late 1970s.

A number of well-known artists have recorded at the studio, including: Michael Jackson, Men at Work, Josh Groban, Quincy Jones, Alanis Morissette, Dave Matthews, Madonna, Rihanna, Aaliyah, Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Nine Inch Nails and Justin Bieber. A number of films and television shows have also recorded their audio at Westlake.

Recording Studios

Westlake has a total of seven recording studios, including four with full size live rooms, two production rooms and a mixing suite. Studios A and B are located on Beverly Blvd in Los Angeles, CA and Studios C, D, E, Production Room 1 and Production Room 2 are located on Santa Monica Blvd, CA in West Hollywood, CA.

Studio A

Studio A is one of the most historic rooms at Westlake. This room was where Michael Jackson's "Thriller" was recorded, the #1 selling album of all time. The control room of Studio A features a 60 channel Neve V3 console and a 1,200-square-foot (110 m²) tracking room, including a large piano isolation room.

Studio B

Studio B is a full size studio that features a 72 channel Solid State Logic 4072 G series console and a large selection of outboard gear. It has a 500-square-foot (46 m²) tracking room and a 65-square-foot (6.0 m²) isolation room.

Studio C

Studio C is a full size studio that features a 72 channel Solid State Logic 9072 J series console and a large selection of outboard gear. It has a 1,000-square-foot (93 m²) tracking room and a large private lounge.

Studio D

Studio D is Westlake's largest room. It features a 72 Channel Neve VR console and a large selection of outboard gear. The main tracking area is 1,120 square feet (104 m²) and there is a 200-square-foot (19 m²) piano isolation room and a 176-foot (54 m) isolation room. Studio D has a private entrance and features 3 lounge areas including a loft that overlooks the tracking room.

Studio E

Studio E is a mixing suite that features a Solid State Logic 9072 J Series console. Out of all the studios at Westlake, Studio E has the largest selection of outboard gear. Studio E has a 52-square-foot (4.8 m²) vocal booth and a private lounge.

Production Rooms 1 & 2

In addition to the five studios, Westlake has two smaller production rooms designed for overdubs, writing and mixing. Both of these rooms contain Solid State Logic AWS 900+'s, 24 channel digitally controlled analog consoles. Both rooms contain small tracking rooms fit to record vocals, guitar, bass and many other smaller instruments.