The building had been a Vox musical instrument factory before Joe Gottfried and Tom Skeeter converted it into a recording studio in 1969. They bought a custom Rupert Neve console — 'One of four in the world,' as Neve described it — for $75,175. That console sat at the center of Sound City Studios in Van Nuys for the next four decades, and whatever it was that made the room sound the way it did — the live acoustics, the sympathetic electronics, the particular physics of that particular space — resulted in something that musicians kept coming back to find.
The first song recorded on the Neve 8028 console was performed by Buckingham Nicks — and led to an invitation that made Fleetwood Mac. By 1976, the band was back at Sound City recording 'Never Going Back Again,' a track from what would become Rumours, one of the best-selling albums of all time. Toto drummer Jeff Porcaro insisted that to get a good drum sound at Sound City, you only needed to set up the drums — the room did the rest. Producer Rick Rubin, who recorded the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Johnny Cash here, as well as Metallica's Death Magnetic (which debuted at number one on the Billboard chart), put it plainly: 'Guitars sound pretty much the same everywhere, but drums change from room to room, and the sound at Sound City was among the best.'
The list of artists who recorded at Sound City spans eras and genres: Neil Young, Grateful Dead, Fleetwood Mac, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Bob Dylan, Elton John, U2, Guns N' Roses, Nirvana, Metallica, Tool, Slayer, Rage Against the Machine, and many others. Charles Manson recorded in Studio B in 1969, months before the Manson Family murders. Over the studio's active years, more than one hundred albums recorded there achieved gold or platinum certification. The studio closed to the public in 2011, when much of its equipment was sold. Dave Grohl, former Nirvana drummer and Foo Fighters frontman, purchased the Neve console and installed it at his Studio 606 in Northridge.
In 2013, Dave Grohl directed Sound City — a documentary about the studio's history that brought the space back to public attention. The same year, Grohl assembled an album featuring Nirvana collaborators, Tom Petty, Paul McCartney, and others, all recorded on the salvaged Neve console. The studio itself reopened to the public in 2017 under a partnership involving Sandy Skeeter, daughter of co-founder Tom Skeeter, and Olivier Chastan. Sound City today houses two of just eleven surviving Helios Type 69 consoles and continues to record in analog. The main studio floor remains essentially unchanged from 1969. The room that made the sound is still the room.
Located at 34.217°N, 118.470°W in the Van Nuys neighborhood of Los Angeles. The studio is approximately 2 miles east of Van Nuys Airport (KVNY), which serves as the primary general aviation airport for the San Fernando Valley. Bob Hope Airport (KBUR) lies approximately 7 miles to the east. The flat suburban grid of Van Nuys is clearly visible on approach from any direction.