Photo by Michelle Bird
Keith Taylor’s Custom Taylored Studios is just that—he wants to make sure musicians obtain the sound and quality they expect when they record at his second-floor Fountain Valley, CA home studio.
The vibe is comfortable and professional; welcoming and businesslike.
Part of the warm atmosphere comes from Taylor’s wife Gina’s furniture. The two were college sweethearts in Tennessee who parted ways, but reconnected when Taylor was living in California.
When Gina moved to CA from Florida, among her furniture were some distinctive well-padded chairs and detailed rugs and blankets. They add to the “hominess” and character of the studio.
The studio walls are lined with guitars custom-made for Taylor, one of which he traded for with legendary singer-songwriter Carly Simon.
Autographed photos of extraordinary musicians Taylor has worked with also adorn the walls. Included are photos of Eric Clapton, The Righteous Brothers’ Bill Medley, Paul Williams and his sister-in-law, country music star Lynn Anderson, Richard Page, formerly of Mr. Mister, and David Pack, formerly of Ambrosia.
As Taylor sits behind his mixing console and MAC, with other recording equipment to his right, he sees the areas he designed so artists may rehearse and/or record in soundproofed rooms.
The studio was opened in 1984 and has been remodeled once since that year.
“What’s interesting in here,” Taylor explains, “is there’s still some isolation and separation—this landing area at the top of the stairs has a door which is actually two doors with double-paned glass in each. It’s like a vault when you close it.”
“But I have people doing pilot vocals out there [in a spacious area beyond Taylor’s equipment] while the band’s in here working. It works quite well. You’ve got eye contact between here and there.”
There are microphone and headphone feeds on both those walls, and a partition panel can be removed and placed so that there are two soundproofed rooms.
“And then another little isolated area. . .I isolate guitar amps in that one. And again, even though this door’s not as massive as the other one, it’s still solid. You can tell by the way it closes.”
Taylor uses only high-quality equipment in his studio. He knows that in the recording chain, each component is a link and each link needs to be of as high a quality as practical for each application. Cutting corners or going with inferior quality components will eventually reveal themselves in the results in the end.
“As an example, I insist on using the finest microphones, as this is generally where things begin. For vocals, my favorite choice is nearly always one of my Stephen Paul-modified Neuman U87 condenser mics. At $4,000 apiece, they are not inexpensive, but they do the job extremely well and are renowned worldwide as an industry standard for this application. I own quite a variety of microphones, however, and there are many with a considerably less-extravagant price that function for other specific applications as well as many alternate offerings available. I even like the comparatively humble Shure SM 57 as a snare drum mic, for example.”
Taylor uses the studio to not only record the musicians, but to also duplicate and master recordings for musicians and music publishing companies.
He was recently asked to head an archival project by his good friend, singer-songwriter Harold Payne.
“This is not a common activity with me,” Taylor says. “All told, we went through nearly seventy old reel-to-reel tapes, which we simply attempted to archive from that format to digitize them for future playability. We had to rent a reel-to-reel machine to accomplish this task, as I no longer own any open-reel tape equipment.”
This involved a “baking” process (yes, in an oven) to dry out the tapes which usually get gooey when stored a long time. These reels were top-of-the-line in the ‘70s and ‘80s, but are not used today.
Other duplicating and mastering projects Taylor has done have been for the production company The Richmond Organization and other production houses.
So what does Taylor see in his business future?
“The future is always uncertain, and with home recording so inexpensive, many predict ultimate doom and gloom for commercial recording facilities. In spite of this, we have moved along and done well as many folks realize that they will ultimately achieve the best possible results by teaming up with industry professionals who can bring their experience, and ultimately, their world-class results, to the table for the client.”
Taylor just finished recording The Eliminators, a highly-renowned south Orange County instrumental surf band. They began the project in April last year. Taylor now remains busy with upcoming recording and mastering projects.
“I just began recording a younger Orange County band called The Dealers, whose influences are undeniable classic rock. It’s quite refreshing to observe a group of folks at least 35 years my junior who have cut their teeth, musically speaking, on the same kind of music I did many years ago,” Taylor said.
“I also have a full-album project on the horizon with a very successful entrepreneur who now resides in Cabo San Lucas. Actually, now that I think about it, I may have more prospective projects at the moment than I have had in several years.”
Taylor is also busy with replicating projects.
“Currently, I am doing jobs for Rusty Richards (an original member of Sons of the Pioneers who also wrote “Cool Water”), Rhombus Records jazz-fusion artist Dan Carlin, Max Bennett, Richard Page (currently on tour with Ringo Starr’s All-Star Band), WillSumner, Sebastian Sidi, and numerous other independent artists. I have orders in excess of 3000 CD units in-house for this week.”
Visit Keith Taylor’s website at www.customtayloredstudios.com
