What do you do when you locate to Los Angeles and build a successful studio business from scratch and after 12 years it is destroyed by a fire? Well if it’s our good friend Clay Blair then you roll up your sleeves and rebuild it!
Boulevard Recording is a recording studio located in Hollywood, California that was opened in 2010 under the ownership of producer, engineer, multi instrumentalist and mixer Clay Blair.
The studio was previously home to the famed Producer’s Workshop where Pink Floyd spent two months after they tracking The Wall in France in 1978 doing overdubs, mixing and mastering the record.
A lot of Steely Dan’s Aja was tracked at the studio, with the great engineer Bill Schnee behind the desk. Next door (in the same complex) to the original Producer’s Workshop was the legendary Mastering Engineer Doug Sax’s ‘Mastering Lab’ studios and more often than not albums recorded and mixed at the studio were mastered by Doug. Needless to say, the studio’s legacy is incredible!
After the devastating fire at the studio one Sunday in November 2021, the walls were stripped back to their studs before Josh Nyback and his Nyback Builds team arrived. Clay had previously restored the studio to its former late ‘60s glory under the guidance of Bill Schnee and legendary Elvis engineer Rick Ruggieri, so between his own extensive knowledge and with the help of photos from that period, Josh Nyback and his team were able to painstakingly restore the studio to it’s former glory. I can attest to this, they have done an incredible job!
The centrepiece of Clay’s rebuilt control room at Boulevard Recording is a brand new Sound Techniques ZR36 console, featuring 24 in-line plus a dozen System 12 input channels, with 56 channels on mixdown. The original brand, established in 1964, was a British audio equipment manufacturer that gained prominence in the 1960s and 1970s for its high-quality recording consoles. The company was founded by Geoff Frost and John Wood in 1964. Sound Techniques consoles were known for their exceptional sound quality and were used by many influential artists and recording studios during that era. One of the most famous Sound Techniques consoles was used at Trident Studios in London, where iconic albums by artists like The Beatles, Elton John, and David Bowie were recorded. Sound Techniques went out of business years ago but was resurrected by Danny White and his team a few years ago. Blair’s ZR is the first new Sound Techniques console to be delivered to a Hollywood studio since Jac Holzman put one into Elektra Sound Recorders in 1968, shortly after Sunset Sound installed theirs.
Join us in the video with Clay as we tour Boulevard Recording!
Many thanks
Warren Huart