Christian Harrison

Professor Ben Thomas

LENS-101

12/1/2021

Electric Lady Studios

Do you remember the first time you heard your favorite song/album? Do you remember
how you made you feel ? As a musician, the album that made me want to become a professional
musician was Voodoo by D’angelo. Voodoo is an amazing album but I’m here to talk about
where it was recorded. The studio Voodoo was recorded at was the Electric Lady Studios.
Throughout R&B history this studio has been the cornerstone of all the major projects in the Top
R&B charts and a part of albums that changed the world and influenced the culture.

Electric Lady was built in 1970 by architect John Storyk and audio engineer Eddie
Kramer. It was originally commissioned by rockstar Jimi Hendrix in 1968. In 1970 Hendrix only
got to spend 10 weeks at the studio before his untimely death on September 18, 1970. This studio
was in the mecca of music and entertainment at the time. Even in 1970 New York was the most
highly populated city in the United States and was responsible for moving the culture forward in
numerous ways.

Inside this marvel of a studio they have some of the best equipment that created the
sounds from some of your favorite records and some of your favorite artists. If we take a brief
look inside the main studio we can find NEVE 8078
OUTBOARD :
ADR F760X-RS Compressor/Limiter, 2 x dbx 160VU Compressor/Limiter, Drawmer Dual Gate
DS201, Emperical Labs EL-8 Distressor, Eventide Instant Flanger FL201, Lexicon Prime Time
Digital Delay, 2 x Lexicon PCM42, 6 x Neve 32264 and Neve 33609. A Yamaha C7 Grand
Piano and so many more pieces of musical equipment that really allow for premium quality of
sound. There are carpets in the room from the original building that gives the room a beautiful
retro look and feel. There are three different types of rhodes and 4 condenser mics and a Electric
Lady branded drum set. There are 5 different studios that all have extraordinary recording
capabilities.
Christian Harrison

Professor Ben Thomas

LENS-101

12/1/2021

At the first peak of its fame from 1970-1990 some of the biggest artists in history
recorded at this studio. These artists include Steve Wonder, Led Zeppelin, John Lennon, David
Bowie, Chic, AC/DC, Carlos Santana. Beginning with Stevie Wonder. The R&B legend who is
highly regarded as one of the greatest and most influential artists of all time went on to record
two albums in the iconic studio. The first being Music in My Mind and the second being the
Talking Book. On the Talking Book, Wonder recorded one of his most iconic songs which has
topped the charts multiple times and has sold and been streamed over 20 million times
Superstition. This attracted a lot of attention to Electric Lady and caused some of these other
amazing acts to record at Electric Lady. And at the turn of the century superstition was voted as
one of the 500 Best Songs of All Time. Moving on to Chic who recorded their hit single Le
Freak here which also hit the top of the funk and R&B charts. And Chic went on to record Good
Times which was sampled by the Sugarhill Gang for Rappers Delight the first hip-hop song
which is the reason the rap is the #1 genre in the world as of 2021. Another notable artist that
recorded here was David Bowie. Bowie cut the track fame in ELS for his album Young
Americans. After this ELS took a hit and was not being that frequently used as it had been in the
past.

But at the turn of century in the late 90s and the 2000s an incredible thing happened. A
gigantic black collective of upcoming artists with a new sound decided to take their talents to this
small studio in Greenwich Village in New York. They called themselves the Soulquarians.
Comprised of the artists Questlove, Bilal, Common, Roy Hargrove, Erykah Badu, D'Angelo,
James Poyser, Mos Def, Q-Tip, Talib Kwel,i Pino Palladino, Slum Village,Musiq Soulchild,
Black Thought Method Man, Redman and Jill Scott.The group coming out Philly and NY and
other areas completely took over all of ELS using every studio from A-D to record some classics
album with a new RNB sound they called Neo-Soul. The most notable album created in the
space at the time was good ole Voodoo by D’angelo including tracks like Spanish Joint, Send it
On, One Mo’gin and the album smash hit Untitled(How Does it Feel), which sold over 2 million
Christian Harrison

Professor Ben Thomas

LENS-101

12/1/2021

copies and went on to win best R&B single and Best Male R&B performance at the 43rd
grammys that year.

This is highly relatable to me because only has this studio produced some of my favorite
songs and albums of all time but I have worked with some of these artists and their teams and
they have been majorly influential on me as a musician and the way I look at the world and what
I want to do with my life. These people are the reason I make the style of music I make right now
and are the reason I go to Berklee College of Music. I have worked with the band for Jill Scott
and Erykah Badu. I am a mentee of some of the Roots and D'angelo is my favorite artist of all
time. I have visited Electric Lady a couple times in my life and I will actually be visiting over the
winter break while I'm in New York. My greatest hope is to be able to record in there one day
and have whatever I play on have the same impact as the albums that I revere. As of 2021 many
R&B artists such as Jon Batiste and Yebba record there currently. Jon Batiste who resides in New
Orleans is one of the sought after artists in the R&B game. He produced the music for an award
winning film SOUL from Pixar studios. Yebba is top the charts with her new album which had
some tracks recorded

Sources

Home. Electric Lady Studios. (n.d.). Retrieved December 14, 2021, from
https://electricladystudios.com/.