Monthly Archives: October 2006

Heider’s San Francisco Alumni Meet

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Left to right: GD clients Bob Matthews, Betty Cantor-Jackson, and SF staffers Stephen Barncard and Russ Gary.

Some former WHR San Francisco clients and employees gathered for a MIX magazine photo shoot at Hyde Street Recorders at 245 Hyde Street Studio A. The studio, although improved with a vintage Neve console and a couple of iso booths, is otherwise intact after 37 years. This was the first time the four were there at the same time at this location since the 70′s.

Unless something else happens, the studio location is slated for demolition later this year, as the building has new owners and Hyde Street have lost their lease.

More info about the photo shoot and Hyde Street can be found in the October issue of Mix Magazine, and a tiny photo and abbreviated article at Mixonline.com

Memories of W-W-Wally

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I was probably one of Wally’s earliest associates in Los Angeles/Hollywood. In 1959 I was the tech service guy for Ampex in Los Angeles. Late one afternoon I got a call from a guy in Oregon who talked so fast and stuttered so bad that it was difficult to understand him. Eventually I got the drift that he was to record the Terry Gibbs big band that weekend in Hollywood. Wally lived in Oregon and was having someone drive down, pulling his recording equipment in a trailer.

(Later, when we were better acquainted, I learned that in college he had known the son of the man who founded U-Haul. Wally got U-Haul to custom-build a closed trailer to his specs. The entire floor of the trailer was covered by a mattress, soft riding for delicate recording equipment.)

This frantic, stuttering guy wanted to have his Ampex 351-2′s checked over and carefully aligned for the recording sessions. The next day a guy showed up with the equipment. I carefully checked out the Ampexes and put a spit shine on the alignment. It was the beginning of a long-time, supremely interesting relationship with many ups and a few downs. If you knew Wally well, there was never a dull moment in your life.

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Welcome

Welcome to the Recording Wally Heider site. We aim to chronicle the life and times of Wally Heider, his studios and the people who worked and created there. We celebrate the technology of the time as well, and welcome articles of interest to the technically inclined.

This site can only exist with the participation of the people who were there. If you have any stories or photos to post, please do. Enjoy!

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