OCEAN WAY RECORDING
HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA
Jay Kaufman met Allen Sides in 1972 while he was at Creative Film Associates. Over the next 4 years, Jay continued to work with Allen on and off, performing a variety of jobs from engineer to tech. In 1976, Jay left Cherokee Recording and took on a full-time position at the garage studio on Ocean Way in Santa Monica.
In 1978, Ocean Way moved its operations to 6050 Sunset, taking over the famous Bill Putnam Studio B. By this time, Jay was handling all technical and personnel issues for the studio.
Getting Studio B up and running took some time as the control room had to be completely refurbished with new monitors and acoustic treatment. The Dalcon board that Allen purchased from Bill Putnam was not functioning and pretty much just sat there and oscillated. The Dalcon console was completely redesigned by Jay Kaufman which included dramatic grounding modifications, gain structure changes, a new patch bay and custom meter bridge, API 550 inserts on each channel, monitor to stereo buss insert, and API 1604 side-car seamlessly integrated.
The stage was left as intact as possible with the exception of a drum canopy that could be lowered via a winch located on the back wall of B, and the adjacent studio was opened up to the B stage via a large observation window and dual sliders making for an enormous isolation booth.
At this time, Jay had the title of Director of Operations and Chief Engineer, and was handling all studio operations including finances, technical and personnel issues.
Over the next 10 years we moved into Studio A at 6050 Sunset, followed by 6000 Sunset.
Ocean Way was highly acclaimed as an audiophile facility. It had garnered just about every award a studio can receive. A partial list of clients include: Eric Clapton, Jackson Browne, Olivia Newton John, Tom Petty, K.D. Lang, John Fogerty, Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, Barbra Streisand, Joe Cocker, Jennifer Warnes, Burt Bachrach, Ry Cooder, Supertramp, Diane Schuur, Count Basie, Bob Seger, David Benoit, T Bone Burnett, The Crusaders, U2, Etta James, Toni Tennille, Manhattan Transfer, Mr. Mister, Belinda Carlisle, Bruce Springsteen, Larry Carlton, Roy Orbison, Tom Scott, Chick Corea, Bonnie Raitt, Pat Benatar, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Kenny Loggins...
Jay left Ocean Way Recording in 1988.