UA Heritage : David Kulka, Tech to the Stars
By Marsha Vdovin

This month, I had the pleasure of interviewing David Kulka about his years working at United Western Studios from 1977-1981. David left United Western to start his own business, Studio Electronics, which he still operates.

David Kulka in 1981 at United Western

What’s your background?
I've been interested in electronics since I was a really young kid, but my uncle, Leo Kulka, was an industry veteran. He had worked with the army in World War II, and founded one of the first studios in Hollywood called International Sound, which later became Sun West. He was a pretty well-known recording engineer and mastering engineer. He knew Bill Putnam in the early '60s. He worked with Sonny and Cher, Little Richard and Sam Cooke. He moved to San Francisco in the mid '60s, and he had always said, “Well, gee Dave, you’ve always liked working with electronics, why don’t you come work with me?” I did, and I really enjoyed it. I worked for him for a few years in the mid '70s.

He had a large recording studio, south of Market, called Golden State Recorders. He recorded a lot of the early psychedelic San Francisco stuff. He recorded the first Big Brother album, and It's a Beautiful Day, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Michael Bloomfield. He worked with Nick Gravenites and he did the first Sons of Champlin LP. He was also really into classical recording. That was his passion. He did direct-to-disk recordings and binaural recordings, and was always interested in trying new things and experimenting with recording techniques. He also had one of the first recording schools, called College for Recording Arts. The school was operating while I was working for him. A lot of the students at the time went on to be pretty well-known engineers.

There was a lot going on there, and that was a lot of fun. I worked for him for two or three years, doing maintenance. He also taught me disk mastering, which I really enjoyed. I was itching to go to L.A. and work for a bigger studio, and a guy by the name of Skip Sailor, who was a graduate of my uncle's school, had gotten a job for United Western and heard they were looking for a tech. They were planning to remodel some of the studios and expand.

Skip called and tipped me off, and I spoke to Jim Cunningham, who at the time was chief engineer of United Western, and worked closely with Bill Putnam. He interviewed me, and they hired me. So on April Fool's day, 1977, I moved down to Los Angeles and started work at United Western.

I guess in the beginning I didn't really realize what an amazing and historical place that it was. I didn't quite realize what I was getting into. My uncle Leo said, "Oh, yeah, Bill Putnam's a good guy, and that studio's been around for a good, long time. It will be a good opportunity for you." But then when I walked in the door, and I saw the kind of sessions that were going on every day, I was just amazed, and realized how lucky I was. It was pretty exciting.

We might have Santana recording in one place, and Abba in another room, and who knows, Barry Manilow in another studio . . .

What type of consoles did they have?
When I first started working there they had five studios. There were four studios in the 6000 Sunset building, which was Western, and then down the street was United. United and Western were really two different studios in two different locations and SIR (Studio Instrument Rentals), which is torn down now. We had five studios at 6000 Sunset, and then a big Studio A at 6050 and a couple of smaller rooms. They had a disk-mastering room and a film-transfer room. But basically it was MCI consoles in most of the rooms. And then we had these custom Bushnell boards that had been installed probably in the late '60s.

Bushnell?
Oh, yeah. Bob Bushnell was a well-known engineer who worked closely with Bill Putnam and with the studios, and was into designing custom consoles. You know, back in the '60s and '70s there were really very few consoles that you could buy. Most studios just built their own. The big rooms, which were Studio A and Studio 1, had these Bushnell consoles in. I think that these were custom boards that Bob Bushnell had designed, maybe with some help from Frank De Medio. Bill Putnam was somewhat involved, or a sort of executive designer in some sense.

These big boards had been there since probably the late '60s, and by the time I got there, in '77, they were pretty outdated, and really were not suitable for 24-track recording. So those got replaced with Harrisons, which were just becoming popular at the time. United Western bought two large consoles. At least they were large back then. I think the one in Studio 1 had 36 inputs, and the one in Studio A may have had 38 or 40--a lot of inputs back then. I think that's one reason I was hired, to tear up the Bushnell consoles and install the Harrisons. That was a big excitement.

Wow, that was a lot of work.
Yeah. Dave Harrison came out, and Bill came down a few times, just to sort of pace and look at what we were doing while all this was going on. We didn't actually see Bill Putnam very much in those days. He hardly ever came by the studios. But when we did the big upgrades, and did the monitor changeover, that's when he would show up and ask questions. Make sure we were doing a good job. Those were some of the first technical projects that I was involved in there. Helping to install the Harrisons in both of those rooms.

We had a lot of sessions going on. We had five 24-track rooms all together, and a lot of times all five rooms would be going at the same time. We might have Santana recording in one place, and Abba in another room, and who knows, Barry Manilow in another studio, or a soundtrack. It was just like that, day in and day out. It was really, really exciting, and there was a lot of pressure, because we had to scramble to get these rooms set up for a 10 o'clock downbeat. We had lots and lots of live dates with string sections--live! Everything had to be perfect, because the clock was spinning really fast and the money was being spent.

It was very exciting, and it was a lot of fun. It was just an incredible thing for me, to come from the studio in San Francisco were we did some big sessions, and it was pretty cool, to suddenly be at United Western, where these Number One big records were being made, and national advertising campaigns were being recorded, and soundtracks of the motion pictures, and all this stuff just day in and day out. It was really pretty exciting a lot of the time.

That sounds amazing. What years were you there?
I was there from '77 to '81.

A really exciting time for music.
Yeah, it really, really was. We did a lot of great stuff there. Barbra Streisand recorded her Superman album there, and that was just a great experience to be in on. Frank Sinatra, I'll never forget, did the "Trilogy" album there, including the song, "New York, New York." I still remember that day. I was the guy who helped set up the tape machine and the line of Dolbys for that day. As that song was being recorded, "New York, New York," I was just standing in hallway, about four feet outside the door, and heard this racket coming from the studio. Everybody playing live, and Frank singing live in the vocal booth. It was just stunning. It really was.

Cher did an album there. The Beach Boys came in one time. They had recorded a lot of their old hits in Studio 3, with Chuck Britz, and I guess one day they decided, gee, wouldn't it be great if we go back into Studio 3 and round up a lot of old tube equipment, just like we used to have in the old days, when we had our hits, and do another session with Chuck? I think they had a 3- or 4-track tube tape recorder, and some kind of tube recording console they brought in. Maybe even one of the 610s. It was a lot of fun, just to see the Beach Boys come in and do a project in Studio 3 there.

Outside Studio 3 there was a plaque. Maybe you've read about this, knowing the history of that studio. Rick Olson had put together this plaque called the Studio 3 Alumni Club. There was this locked glass showcase in the hallway, next to the entrance to Studio 3, and in it there was this board with a little brass plaque, with the name of every artist who'd had--I think it was a million-selling record, or a Number One record--that was recorded in Studio 3. And it was a long list. There were probably 30 or 40 names there. The Mamas and the Papas, and the Beach Boys, and Johnny Rivers, and Carole King. All these people. And that's one of the first things that I remember seeing when I started working there.

Were the other companies like UREI running out of those studios that were upstairs, or were they moved to a different place by then?
No. UREI had been in several different locations over the years. I guess in the very beginning, they were at 6050 Sunset, upstairs. I think they were just there for a short time. Probably less than a year. After that, they moved to North Hollywood, and then they outgrew that space and moved to San Fernando Road in Sun Valley. That's where UREI was when I was working at United Western. We'd go up there pretty often. UREI would always be sending us limiters and equalizers and other toys to outfit the studios with. Sometimes when they got very busy, they would have one or two of us techs from United Western go up there to help build stuff, and QC, or do troubleshooting on the gear that was being produced. So I had the chance to go up there and work once in a while, and that was pretty enjoyable.

Were there any particular engineers or mixers that you worked with at that time that had a big influence on you?
Well, yeah. First of all, I would have to say Chuck Britz. Chuck had been with United Western for a long time, and he was probably the best-known engineer there. He personally recorded all of the Beach Boys' stuff that was done in Studio A there, but recorded a lot of the other hit records as well, in the '60s, that were recorded at United Western. Everybody really loved Chuck. He was a total sweetheart. I remember, he always called me "babe." [Laughs] Kind of funny. I'd never had a man call me "babe" before, but he was this swinging hipster kind of guy from the '60s, and if he liked you, he called you "babe," which was cool.

I definitely remember him, because he was pretty intimidating when I first started there. There was a lot of pressure, but Chuck was one of the people that really said, "Now Dave, it'll be OK," and show you the ropes, and show you how to get along with everybody. He was a very cool guy, and very helpful.

When I was there in the '70s, his era was sort of over. He'd recorded lots and lots of million-selling records in the '60s, but later on in the '70s he was doing more radio spots, and any old thing that came in. But he was still a very great guy. He'd have big parties up at his house and invite everybody.

Chuck Britz, also from 1981, in the traffic office at Western

In the photo of Chuck, you can see behind the glass windows on the right are the double doors that were the main entrance on Sunset Blvd. The staircase behind Chuck leads up to offices that were rented out to various people. The Crusaders had an office up there, also Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul, and Mary). On Chuck's right, facing the entry doors, is the back door of Studio 1. That was the biggest room at 6000, home to hundreds (maybe thousands) of hit records. Chuck, bless his heart, passed away in 2000.

Did you watch him in the studio?
Yeah, I did. Normally, we technicians would just be assigned to sessions, or we could request to be assigned to a session. A lot of times, if any of the engineers had some particularly important or tricky session, they would just want a tech to be there, sort of on call. Which was great for us, because we got to watch everything that was going on, and be a little bit involved in the creative process. At one point, Dolly Parton did an album there that was produced by Mike Post, so when I saw that one on the board, I thought, "Wow, I sure would like to be on the Dolly Parton project." So I asked Joan Barnes--she and Jerry Barnes were managing the studio--I said, "Joan, is there any way I could get booked in on that project?" "Sure, you got it." So I had the pleasure of watching Dolly Parton record this album there, at United Western, and that was a lot of fun.

Do you remember the song, "Here You Come Again?" That one was recorded in Studio 3. I don't remember who the engineer was. It wasn't Chuck Britz. But anyway, Mike Post produced that, with Dolly Parton, and she was just a blast.

Was she a one-take person, or did she do numerous . . . ?
Well, she was a two- or three-take person, I would say. What I remember about watching her was that she was one of the few artists who would come in, and she would do a take, and then listen to the playback and go, "I think I'm going to try that one again." But then sing it differently, with a whole different interpretation. That was really cool to watch. She was so talented, she wouldn't go in and do one phrase differently, but she would do the whole song differently, a different meaning, almost, and then pick the one that worked the best. It was a wonderful experience to work at those studios and I’ll never forget it.

Stay tuned to the Heritage column. We hope to have more great stories from David Kulka in the coming months.