Studio Sweet Spot: All Welcome Records – Inglewood, CA
R E S P E C T — find out what it means to sound.
That sense of respect is something you’ll find in spades at All Welcome Records. You can sense it between partners, for the principles of audio, and for the timeless music that comes as a result.
It all springs from the space they’re working in, a former ballet school in Inglewood, CA that left some magic mojo in its wake. Today it hosts recording sessions with an emphasis on the live experience, a Stax-style attitude where mixing means moving the musicians or directing them to play louder or softer.
The studio’s partners, Felipe Navarro Delgadillo & Chris Schlarb, stay true to their mission by connecting with everything at their disposal: the energized live room, true hall reverb, and an 8-channel Roots console in the control room.
It’s an auspicious asset to the LA recording scene — and everyone who respects the way sound is supposed to be.
Recordin’ it old skool: Music for Airports in the live room of All Welcome Records. (all photos by Olivia Hemaratanatorn)
Facility Name: All Welcome Records
Website: http://www.allwelcomerecords.com
Location: City of Champions, Inglewood, California
Neighborhood Advantages:
Felipe: Randy’s Donuts is right up the street! We’re like 15 minutes away from the beach, LAX Airport and The Forum. Inglewood is really starting to see a lot more businesses popping up lately.
Chris: Yeah, there’s a great vegan soul food place down the street called Stuff I Eat. Woody’s BBQ is pretty good too. Being close to LAX helps a lot. We’ve had two sessions in the last month where someone flew in and came straight to the studio.
Date of Birth:
Felipe: We opened on September 1st, 2013.
Chris: I found All Welcome by way of Tree Audio. When the studio opened, I started following their activity and really dug the design of the space and the Roots Console as their centerpiece.
I was producing a record for a client who flew into town from the Midwest and we spent the day tracking drums and guitar at All Welcome. The room and the tracks sounded incredible. I talked with Felipe a few days later and we became partners not long afterward.
Facility Focus:
Felipe: Mostly tracking live ensembles.
Mission Statement:
Felipe: I think that our mission here, more than anything, is to be facilitators in the recording process working with artists and producers wanting to cut a record.
Chris: I spent some time recording with Spooner Oldham and David Hood at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama last year. When I came here, I could tell that Felipe knew all about FAME, Gold Star, Stax and Ardent. All those great studios where musicians got together and made history. He created a space for great music to be made.
Clients/Credits:
Natural wood adds to the equally natural sound.
Felipe (as Engineer, Mixer, Producer): Damedas – Monotony, Flamenco Futuro, Free Mind Era; Teals – Hometown News; Poliskitzo – Armado Con Palabras (as Producer); Street Joy – Telephone (as Engineer); Solar Sons – To be released (as Co-Producer)
Chris (as Engineer, Mixer, Producer): Dropsy Original Video Game Soundtrack (Joyful Noise Recordings) Psychic Temple II featuring Sufjan Stevens & Ikey Owens (Asthmatic Kitty); Invisible Astro Healing Rhythm Quartet – IAHRQ2 LP (Trouble In Mind); Widow Babies – Jetpacks LP (olFactory Records); I Heart Lung – Interoceans featuring Nels Cline & Kris Tiner (Asthmatic Kitty)
Key Personnel:
Felipe: Since Chris became a partner, the studio has started to blossom. He’s been a great motivator with his experience in making numerous records.
In just the few sessions I’ve worked with him, I’ve noticed his ability to preserve a sense of peace in a session. He is constantly searching for the right balance between musicians. Watching him record an ensemble together in a room is purely a work of art in itself to encounter. I think that’s why people enjoy working with him and the records he makes are transparent to that feeling. It’s been great having him here.
Chris: Steve Krolikowski is one of the great engineers on staff here. We had a crazy week last month where we recorded a 10-piece swing band, then a classical string quintet, then an overdub session with Thomas Rhett’s band on consecutive days. Steve handled everything we threw at him.
System Highlights:
Felipe: Our front end is an 8-Channel Roots Console made by Tree Audio (Steve Firlotte and Ian Gardiner). It’s an all valve-driven desk if you use the direct outs from each channel. It’s also a hybrid with Steve Firlotte’s custom discreet class A blocks design on the stereo buss.
Our back end is either through our Lynx Aurora 16×16 or our 1966 Scully 280 1/2 inch 4-track tape deck which we recently picked up.
The Tree Audio Roots Console is key.
Distinguishing Characteristics:
Felipe: When I walked into this building, I knew it was the one I was looking for. The facility is on the second floor of a retail space. Our “live room” sits in a corner room facing La Brea Avenue and it measures at 25′ long by 19′ wide by 12′ high.
This space was a ballet academy back in the 1970s and my oldest sister was actually a student here! The old paint on the wood floors, halls, tall ceilings and the energy is magnetic. I believe that the kinetic and potential energy of the sound that resonates in our ‘live room’ from the artist that come here survives on its own as its own like no other place.
Chris: All Welcome is the first studio I’ve worked in that possessed a legitimate natural hall reverb.
This is not a plugin: What real hall reverb looks like.
Depending on the type of session, we will leave the double doors open to Studio A and place a large diaphragm condenser about 20 feet down the hall. Because the room is so beautifully tuned, we can also mix and match with a room mic. When I mixed down that 10-piece swing band the higher the room mic was mixed, the older the recording sounded.
The building is on fire, you only have time to grab ONE thing to save, what is it?
Felipe: Oh man… this one is hard, I’m putting positive suggestions in the air for this to never happen.
Chris: I’d ask Felipe to help me carry the Roots Console!
Rave Reviews:
Felipe: I’d have to say the good vibes and our minimalist approach with record production. Everyone that records here has been very receptive and relaxed. I think it goes back into our core beliefs of doing more with less in a sense that all players are in a room and we have a few microphones up to capture a live performance they can feel.
Chris: Everyone is impressed with how clean, open, and well designed the studio is. There are high ceilings with custom light fixtures, two restrooms, and a lovely kitchen and lounge area. Combine that with how good everything sounds in that room and through that console and you’ve got a lot of repeat clients.
Most Memorable Session Ever:
Felipe: The most memorable session for me this far I’d have to say was the last session I did with a new band from Echo Park, California called Solar Sons.
Horns soar.
I got to engineer and co-produce three cuts with a cat called Samuel Shea, he was an engineer that worked out of Electric Lady Studios when he lived in New York. What made this session so much fun was doing it all on only 4 tracks! It was the first session that we got to use with our new Scully 280 1/2″ deck. In this day in age where everything is overly miked, this all seemed like an ambitious escapade.
Chris: Last month I assembled an 11-piece band for a day of recording Brian Eno’s Music For Airports. I brought in some of my favorite musicians including Mike Watt (of the Minutemen) and Paul Masvidal (of Cynic).
We set everyone up in Studio A: two drummers, two bassists, two guitars, two keyboardists, and three horns. Jeff Lewis, Devin O’Brien, and Steve Krolikowski engineered the session. We played everything together live in the room with no headphones and no overdubs. For me, that’s what it’s all about.
Session You’d Like to Forget:
Felipe: The only session I can say I’d like to forget was at a studio that had a huge, cool looking MCI console with a ton of channels. The band showed up, I was a little late, and they were starting to get warmed up.
The live room was tiny and dead sounding with nearly no reflections. I sat down and started routing the desk and putting up some microphones and that’s when it all dawned on me that nothing seemed to be working at all. Most of the channels on the console didn’t work and there were noises coming out of the monitors that I had never heard before. It was a brutal session to say the least but on a positive note I remember telling myself I will never let this happen when I build my studio.
Chris: Years ago, I was hired to produce a record for an artist in Los Angeles and went to listen to a rehearsal before they gave me a deposit. The band was terrible and the artist was disorganized. I should have turned the job down then but I needed the work. Eventually, after a couple of grueling sessions I gave the artist his money back and told him to find someone else to work with.
Dream Session:
(l-r) Chris Schlarb, Felipe Navarro Delgadillo, and All Welcome’s committed assistants.
Felipe: If I could put the band of my dreams together for a project here it would be: James Gadson (Drums), Nick Movshon (Electric Bass Guitar), Thomas Brenneck (Electric Guitar), John Clement Wood (Keys), Leon Michels (Tenor Sax), Todd Simon (Trumpet), and Charles Wright (Vocals).
Chris: I’d love to have worked with Frank Zappa and the Mothers circa 1975. I mean, George Duke, Tom Fowler, Ruth Underwood, Napoleon Murphy Brock, and Chester Thompson? That’s the best group of musicians ever disguised as a rock band.
Felipe Navarro Delgadillo & Chris Schlarb, All Welcome Records
Looking up in the live room.
Another shot of Music for Airports.
Loungin’ in the kitchen.
Overseeing sound.
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