EastWest Studios

EastWest Studios (formerly known as Western Studio, a component of United Western Recorders and later Ocean Way Recording) is a recording studio complex located at 6000 West Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Originally constructed by Bill Putnam in the 1960s, the studios are currently owned by sound developer Doug Rogers and managed by Candace Stewart.

Background
EastWest Studios was first known as Western Studio, one half of the United Western Recorders studio complex located on 6000 and 6050 West Sunset Boulevard. In 1984, United Western Recorders was sold and renamed to Ocean Way Recording. In 1998, the former Western Studio half at 6000 Sunset was divided from Ocean Way Recording, sold, and renamed to Cello Studios. In 2002, Cello Studios ceased operation.

On January 17, 2006, Doug Rogers acquired ownership of 6000 Sunset. Rogers commissioned designer Philippe Starck (SLS Hotel Los Angeles, St. Martins Lane hotel, London) to refurbish and redesign the artist lounges, kitchen, and reception areas, which had previously suffered water damage. Careful to preserve the integrity of the original recording facilities, Starck and Rogers implemented a brand new design to create “a place where artists can meet, mingle, and be inspired.”  The studio complex became Starck’s first and only recording studio design.

In March 2009, the renovated studios, renamed EastWest Studios, opened to the public. Since then, it has offered services to many clients.

Live rooms and consoles
EastWest Studios consists of three main studios. Studio 1 features a live room which is 58' x 42', an isolation booth measuring 20' x 23', 9' Bechstein piano, concert lighting system and one of a limited number of classic Neve 8078 consoles remaining in the world today. Studio 2's live room measures 35' x 24', with a 10' x 14' isolation booth and 8' x 6' vocal booth and a classic RCA custom Neve 8028 console. The smallest of the rooms, Studio 3, is 31' x 15' with a Steinway piano and a Classic Trident A Range Console. All three rooms are fitted with Flying Fader Automation and ATC main monitors.

Virtual Instruments
EastWest Sounds Virtual (software) Instruments are recorded in EastWest Studios.

One of the company's endeavors was their Hollywood Brass, Strings, and Orchestral Woodwinds libraries, recorded at Studio 1 with some of Hollywood's film score orchestral session players. The Hollywood Orchestral Library series is, according to EastWest's webpage for the libraries, one of the most detailed orchestral sample libraries in the world. One of the company's most known libraries is their Symphonic Orchestra library, a 24-bit orchestral sample library. The library was conceived by American producers Doug Rogers (head of the East West sample library company) and Nick Phoenix (head of Quantum Leap, and cofounder of Two Steps From Hell) and later brought to Grammy-winning recording engineer Professor Keith O Johnson. Recording took place in a 2500-seater concert hall, starting in August 2002. The resulting multi-channel recordings would later be edited for nearly another year. 4 editions of the library have been released: Silver, Gold, Platinum and Platinum Plus. Complementary to their symphonic virtual instruments, they released various, orchestral solo instruments (such as Solo Violin or Solo Harp) and the choir library "Symphonic Choirs".

Apart from their symphonic virtual instruments, they also released numerous other libraries, each of them normally specialized in a certain topic field, including: Cinematic Percussion (EWQL Stormdrum Series), Ethnic Instruments (EWQL Silk, EWQL RA), Rock/Metal/Pop (EWQL Ministry of Rock Series, EWQL Fab Four)., or Folk/Traditional (EWQL Gypsy)