Golden State Recorders

Golden State Recorders was a San Francisco recording studio that was owned by Leo De Gar Kulka. Some of the albums recorded at the studio were Brewer & Shipley's second album Weeds in 1969, sessions for The Beau Brummels originally recorded between 1964-1966 and released as San Fran Sessions in 1996, and The Grateful Dead's Birth of the Dead, recorded in 1965 and released in 2003.

The recording studio was opened by Kulka when he came to San Francisco in 1964. It was located at 665 Harrison Street, San Francisco, CA. It has been alleged in a Rolling Stone article that The Great Society were doing sessions in Golden State for what would be the release of "Somebody to Love" b/w "Free Advice", it took 286 takes to get it right. The producer was Sly Stone.

Some of the artists to come through the studio in the 1960s were Mike Bloomfield, Janis Joplin, Grace Slick and Sly Stone.

In 1967, some of the emerging acts geared towards the modern sound of the day to be recorded at the studio were, Bristol Boxkite, the Incorporates, Living Children, Poor Souls, Rear Exit, Stone Hinge and Ticket Angents. The producers that were working with him on these acts were Marty Cooper, Larry Goldberg, Jim Marino, Hank Levine and Don Ralke.

In the mid 1970s, the studio had acquired a Neumann disc mastering facility which according to Kulka was the most advanced in the area. Also at that time, most of what was taking place at the studio were connected with Kulka's College for the Recording Arts which was being used to teach students the aspects of sound recording.

Founder Kulka died on March 17, 1998, aged 77. David David Tonelli who was a chief engineer for the studio and engineer at the College for Recording Arts died on January 14, 2014, aged 65.

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