Sunset Sound represents the apotheosis of the recording industry’s heyday. It is also a sentimental favorite because it is among the last family-owned old-school studios in a city once awash in them. The state-of-the-art, three-room studio was founded by composer Salvador “Tutti” Camarata, who played trumpet for Jimmy Dorsey and Benny Goodman. In 1956 Walt Disney hired Camarata to form Disneyland Records. Tutti built Sunset Sound for that purpose and eventually recorded audio there for a number of Disney classics, including “101 Dalmatians” and “Mary Poppins.”
The ’60s and ’70s ushered in a golden era of recording in Los Angeles, with dozens of state-of-the-art studios dotting the landscape from Hollywood to the San Fernando Valley. Sunset Sound rose to the top in tandem with bands and artists that recorded there, including Led Zeppelin, the Doors, Janis Joplin, Van Halen and Prince, and later hosted sessions with the likes of Kings of Leon, Paramore, Morrissey and Smashing Pumpkins. The studio now is owned by Camarata’s son, Paul, and boasts more than 300 gold records....
...Many would disagree but I don’t believe a plug-in that mimics the reverb inside Abbey Road Studios will ever be the same as the hallowed vibrations of that historic space. And, as a dear friend and music fan recently pointed out, when we no longer have legendary spaces on which to model such sounds, what will we have left? What will be real? A plug-in that re-creates the sound in some famous singer’s bedroom?
If the city can’t rally to protect its own musical legacy, by the time we realize what we’ve lost it will be too late. Los Angeles remains the entertainment capital of the world and it is in our best interest to ensure Sunset Sound’s survival. It also wouldn’t hurt if some of the wealthy celebrity musicians who know its value better than most were to lend a hand. The plight of the unhoused — and those who live, work and make art among them — is everyone’s business.
www.latimes.com
