Many great hits of the sixties were recorded in a tiny bedroom in Los Angeles. The bedroom belonged to child prodigy classical violinist Armin Steiner. When he turned 16 he started his career in sound engineering. In 1960 he built his own recording studio from scratch in a bedroom in his parents’ house in Los Angeles – including a self made recording console.
Soon word got around about the young and talented engineer. Stars, top producers and the hottest studio musicians came to his home studio: the Supremes, Marvin Gay, Stevie Wonder, Herb Alpert, in-demand guitarists Glen Campbell, Billy Strange, Tommy Tedesco and Dennis Budimir, electric bass innovator Carol Kaye, top drummers Earl Palmer and Hal Blaine and many more.
This was only the start for Armin Steiner who became one of the best in the field of sound engineering, music and score mixing. He recorded among others Neil Diamond, Dolly Parton, Hall & Oates and Barbara Streisand.
As scoring engineer he recorded orchestral soundtracks for films and television shows. A small sample includes “Finding Nemo”, “Cocoon”, “Witches of Eastwick”, “JFK”, “A League Of Their Own”, “Dynasty”, “King Of The Hill” and “Star Treck: The Next Generation”.
If you want to know why the Watts riots in 1965 forced him to close down his studio and what his recording philosophy is, then read this very interesting interview with Armin Steiner published by “Mix Online”.
Lost & Sound 