The Village (studio)
The Village (also known as Village Recorders, or the Village Recorder) is a recording studio located at 1616 Butler Avenue in West Los Angeles, California.
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| Location | 1616 Butler Avenue West Los Angeles, California |
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| Type | Recording studio |
| Opened | 1920s |
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| villagestudios | |
History
Built by the Freemasons in the 1920s, the building was originally a Masonic temple. It remained that way until the 1960s, during which the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi used it as his Los Angeles center for Transcendental Meditation. The Building maintains much of the original Masonic characteristics including a large Auditorium/Masonic Meeting Hall and original stained glass windows. Once converted to a studio in the late 1960s the Village was the birthplace of classic records including Aja by Steely Dan, Joe's Garage by Frank Zappa, Planet Waves by Bob Dylan and many more.
The Village is home to a vintage Neve 8048 console as well as two Neve 88R consoles. The Village is renowned for its extensive inventory of vintage microphones and outboard gear. The Village also has Oscar Peterson's Steinway & Sons Model A, which Peterson used extensively from the 1940s through the 1980s.
John Mayer recorded parts of his album Continuum at The Village Recorder - and released some of those sessions on his EP The Village Sessions, featuring Ben Harper.
Many major motion picture and television soundtracks have also been recorded at the studio, including Ace Ventura, Dead Poets Society, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, The Simpsons, Toy Story 2, Walk the Line, The X Files, Wall-E, Revolutionary Road, The Shawshank Redemption and others.
The Village also becomes home to KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic radio show, hosted by Jason Bentley, during on-air membership drives when the station's own performance room is unavailable.