North Hollywood, CA (January 2016) — For nearly 28 years, Clear Lake Recording Studios has taken pride upon being a world-class studio built to meet the needs of major label projects, while still remaining accessible to local producers, engineers and independent artists. Acoustician George Augspurger designed Clear Lake’s Studio A to include an exceptionally well-tuned control room, a vast live room and two isolation booths. Complementing this acoustically accurate space is top of the line equipment — the best musical instruments, an impressive collection of vintage gear, the latest in digital technology, and the best outboard gear, microphones and monitors – including S3X-H monitors from ADAM Audio.
“There are a number of reasons our clients like working at Clear Lake. We provide a really creative environment and we make sure everyone is comfortable and taken care of. It’s a lot of small things that make a session run smoothly, and we do our best to address all of them,” says Eric Milos, chief engineer and owner of Clear Lake Recording Studios. “We have a really well designed control room and live room, and our clients know what they hear in our control room will translate into the real world. This accurate sound is enhanced by the ADAM S3X-H monitors in Studio A.”
Over the few decades, Clear Lake Recording has been the studio of choice for a variety of different genres of music, from metal bands to groundbreaking hip-hop artists to alternative rock bands. The list of clients who have recorded at Clear Lake is eclectic and includes artists and musicians like No Doubt, Jimmy Eat World, Anthrax, Steel Panther, Quiet Riot, Talking Heads, Ice-T, Melissa Etheridge, Rita Coolidge, Intronaut, Dishwalla, Backstreet Boys, Chaka Khan, and many more.
Asked about how Clear Lake made their choice of monitors for Studio A, Milos explains:
“In a commercial studio, a monitor needs to do it all – be honest, revealing, loud and soft, and still sound good. That’s a tall order and there are monitors out there that do a few of those things really well, but not many that do them all. The S3X’s were the first pair of midfields that did all of that. If your mix isn’t right, you’ll hear it on these speakers; the level of detail is astounding,” he says. “I was honestly skeptical the first time I heard the ADAM’s because I thought they sounded too good! When I started mixing, on them, I realized that my ears did not get fatigued, I could zero in on very minute details with ease, and when I got my mix in place, it translated very well. In a professional studio, you need to have everything because when a client is sitting in the room with you, you don’t have the luxury of waiting until mix down to have an excellent sounding recording.”
Clearlake sometimes has sessions in which a bunch of songwriters sit and collaborate together, with each of them creating tracks on their individual laptops. Then, when someone has something for the group to listen to, they plug the laptop into the system, and hear their creation for the first time in the open air, rather than alone on headphones. It is then, according to Milos, that the important role of a great monitoring system is evident.
“When a client hears something back and it sounds right, and we move on to the next thing I think some credit is definitely due to the speakers, which can help facilitate a session moving forward. Whether it is a freelance engineer working out of our studio, or a musician that knows nothing about speakers, it is very common for people to comment on how impressed they are with our monitoring system,” he adds. “When our clients understand the level of accuracy our monitoring system provides it plays a huge part in them leaving the studio confident that they have a finished product that will continue to sound good.”
About Clear Lake Recording Studios
Clear Lake Recording Studios has been providing Los Angeles area artists, engineers and producers with a practical alternative to big budget studios since 1987. The world-class facility features a talented staff of engineering and production professionals for projects of any scale, an exceptionally well-tuned live and control room, great gear, including an impressive array of high-tech and vintage gear, and the best musical instruments. Clear Lake’s goal is to offer their clients a creative environment, the best equipment and a skilled and accommodating staff – to get the kind of recording expected at a world-class recording studio.
About ADAM Audio
ADAM Audio monitors have had a reputation for sonic excellence and unrivaled quality ever since the company was founded in 1999. With the development of the X-ART tweeter, which is characterized by an extended frequency range up to 50 kHz and a higher efficiency compared to dome tweeters, this unique tweeter design has become the embodiment of a transparent, highly defined and authentic sound that is the most defining development of ADAM’s proprietary designs today. Being made and tested painstakingly by hand in the Berlin factory, ADAM’s high frequency driver is a rare exception in these days of automated mass production.
The widely varied product lineup of ADAM Audio spans from professional studio monitors (SX, AX, and F series), to Multimedia and Home Theater/Installation loudspeakers (ARTist and GTC range) to the high-end home entertainment models (Classic series). ADAM Audio has 50 employees at the Berlin factory and is represented worldwide through a network of distributers and dealers in more than 75 countries. ADAM also has offices in Nashville, London and Beijing.
