Tres Virgos Studio

From PoliceWiki


Tres Virgos Studio
the music room
the control room in 1980
Location: San Rafael, CA, USA - 1925 East Francisco Blvd. Ste. L
Years in operation: 1975 - YYYY

Stewart Copeland recorded the Rumble Fish soundtrack at Tres Virgos Studio. The studio is now called Tarpan Studios (see history).

History

Robin Yeager and Allen Rice started Tres Virgos with their partner Mike Stevens in 1975 in a small converted garage in Mill Valley , CA. It was an 8 track studio used as a song writing studio at first, then blossomed into more of a going concern after doing The Judds first recordings. Many artists used the studio for pre-production before going into the larger studios. Mike Bloomfield cut his last album before his death at Tres Virgos.

By 1978 a new facility was started in San Rafael, CA. This was to be the worlds first Live-End-Dead-End studio to be built from the ground up. It was designed by Chips Davis. At the direction of Allen Rice, the studio came to life one layer at a time. The framing was all independently floated from existing floor and walls. No nails were used, only screws as fasteners. In total, 8 layers of various building materials ranging from Hi-density particle board, to rigid insulation, to stucco were employed to give the studio it’s intensive sound quality. The Materials coupled with the ingenious design of Chips Davis made the control and Studio room very neutral environments in which to listen.

The studio opened in 1980 and was used by such notables as Joan Baez, Mickey Hart, Van Morrison, The Tubes, Joe Satrianne, George Cables, Exodus, Laaz Rockit, John Handy and many other splinter groups from The Grateful Dead to the Doobie Brothers.

In October of 1982 work began with Stewart Copeland on the Rumblefish Soundtrack for Francis Ford Copola. In the late summer of 1983, the tracking was finished for the movie. The mixing was done at Francis’ Napa Valley winery in the Sound mixing facility there known as Zoetrope.

In 1984 Narada Michael Walden brought in a new artist by the name of Whitney Houston. He produced the first 2 albums for Whitney, and album for Clarence Clemons and one for Jackson Browne while the studio was named Tres Virgos. He purchased the studio in 1985 and still operates to this day under the name of Tarpan Studios. Aretha and George Michael had a hit out of the studio very early on. Then the Backstreet Boys, Elton John and many, many more.

Robin Yeager Gig Harbor, WA 5-14-09


Recording history

The following Police and related albums or songs were recorded at this studio:

Album (or song) title Artist or band Producer Release year
Rumble Fish: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Stewart Copeland Stewart Copeland 1983 (USA) / 1984 (UK)

See also

This section needs more information.

External links

Tres Virgos Studio homepage

Tres Virgos ad in BAM - December 2, 1983

Tarpan Studios homepage

References

source: Robin Yeager