5150 Studios is
Eddie Van Halen
Edward Lodewijk Van Halen ( , ; January 26, 1955 – October 6, 2020) was an American musician and songwriter. He was the guitarist, keyboardist, backing vocalist, and primary songwriter of the rock band Van Halen, which he co-founded along ...
's recording studio in the
Studio City neighborhood of
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
. The studio is located at 3371 Coldwater Canyon and was built so that Eddie Van Halen could have more control over the recording process than he had in the past. Every
Van Halen
Van Halen ( ) was an American rock band formed in Pasadena, California, in 1972. Credited with "restoring hard rock to the forefront of the music scene", Van Halen was known for its energetic live shows and for the virtuosity of its lead gu ...
album from ''
1984
Events
January
* January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888.
* January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast A ...
'' onwards was recorded at 5150. They took the name for the studio (as well as the band's seventh album, ''
5150'') from
Section 5150 (almost always pronounced "fifty-one-fifty") of the California Welfare & Institutions Code, which allows a qualified officer or clinician to place a person under an
involuntary psychiatric hold if the person is, "as a result of mental disorder, a danger to others, or to himself or herself, or
gravely disabled."
The Studio is now used by Eddie's son
Wolfgang Van Halen
Wolfgang William Van Halen (, born March 16, 1991) is an American musician. The son of guitarist Eddie Van Halen, he performed alongside his father as the bassist for the rock band Van Halen from 2006 to 2020. He also performed with the heavy ...
who used it for his
Mammoth WVH album and plans to continue using it in the future.
History of studio 5150
Beginnings (1983–1989)
In 1983, Van Halen built his home studio near his home with then wife
Valerie Bertinelli
Valerie Anne Bertinelli (born April 23, 1960) is an American actress. She first achieved recognition as a child actress, portraying Barbara Cooper Royer on the sitcom '' One Day at a Time'' (1975–1984) for which she won two Golden Globe Award ...
. He named it "5150" after the police code overheard by producer/engineer
Donn Landee
Donn Landee is an United States of America, American record producer and recording engineer. Much of his work as an engineer has been done with producer Ted Templeman at Sunset Sound Recorders in Hollywood, Cal. The pair worked with a wide varie ...
, one night on his
police scanner
A scanner (also referred to as a radio scanner) is a radio receiver that can automatically tune, or ''scan'', two or more discrete frequencies, stopping when it finds a signal on one of them and then continuing to scan other frequencies when the ...
.
Designed by Landee, the beta version of 5150 Studios was a high-ceilinged sixteen-track studio suitable for recording, overdubbing, and simple mixing, if needed. The recording room was roughly , sound insulated with
fiberglass
Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass cloth ...
and
rubber
Rubber, also called India rubber, latex, Amazonian rubber, ''caucho'', or ''caoutchouc'', as initially produced, consists of polymers of the organic compound isoprene, with minor impurities of other organic compounds. Thailand, Malaysia, and ...
, with a booth on the north end.
The construction on Van Halen's property was passed off to city inspectors as a racquetball court, disregarding the soundproof walls with cinder blocks filled with concrete. A challenge arose in the form of a powerful AM radio antenna from a sports station broadcasting 50,000 watts of power a few miles away. To prevent Van Halen picking up boxing fights and football games through his wireless guitars, engineers wrapped a layer of grounded chicken-wire fencing around the studio, turning it into a
Faraday cage.
Remodeling and beyond (1989–present)
Between February 1989 (after the
OU812 Tour ended) and March 1990 (before starting work on ''
For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge
''For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge'' (often abbreviated as F.U.C.K.) is the ninth studio album by American rock band Van Halen. It was released on June 17, 1991, on Warner Bros. Records and is the third to feature vocalist Sammy Hagar. It debute ...
''), Van Halen remodeled the studio, doubling its size, replacing the main mixing board, and at the end of the recording floor, adding an isolated drum room for his brother
Alex
Alex is a given name. It can refer to a shortened version of Alexander, Alexandra, Alexis.
People
Multiple
*Alex Brown (disambiguation), multiple people
* Alex Gordon (disambiguation), multiple people
*Alex Harris (disambiguation), multiple pe ...
. When he was finished, it also featured a small arcade for video games and pinball machines.
The studio met with controversy as the
Hollywood Association of Recording Professionals cracked down on home studios in the
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
area, claiming owners were renting them out and hurting traditional recording studios. Van Halen's studio proved otherwise, as Van Halen insisted it was for himself to make music. Because of his testimony, he was given the proper zoning variance to legally make music at his house.
In 1999, Van Halen remodeled the studio once again, by adding a 72-input analog mixing desk and a
Mellotron
The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which pushes a length of magnetic tape against a capstan, which pulls it across a playback head. A ...
.
References
Further reading
External links
Studio and storage pictures – photos of 5150 Studio.{{Van Halen
Buildings and structures in Los Angeles
Recording studios in California
Studio City, Los Angeles
Van Halen
Buildings and structures completed in 1983
1983 establishments in California