CLEAR LAKE AUDIO

Clear Lake Audio was established in 1987 and soon became known as one of Los Angeles’ premiere recording studios.  Chief Audio Engineer Brian Levi has been a Recording Connection mentor for over a decade.  Preston Boebel, a Recording Connection graduate, learned the craft under Brian Levi’s tutorlage, and now runs the studio.  He has recorded numerous acts as a recording engineer and has also served as producer on a number of albums.

Over the years artists who have recorded at Clear Lake Audio include Dishwalla, Dwight Yoakam, Crosby and Nash, Clint Black, Trish Yearwood, Adam Ant and many, many more.  Besides being heavily involved in the music recording scene, Clear Lake Audio has done gaming, film and television audio production for the likes of Doom, Assassin’s Creed, UHF,  the BBC and more.

BRIAN LEVI – CHIEF AUDIO ENGINEER – CLEAR LAKE AUDIO
RECORDING CONNECTION MENTOR

The Recording Connection uses the same reference book, Modern Recording Techniques which I studied with 25 years ago, with the first edition as a starting point. We are now up to the 5th edition and the problem is the modern recording technique is not a training source. It’s very technical. What the Recording Connection has done is taken the information from there and made a course from beginning to end. So you will skip around different chapters for each test. And then with me teaching you, you can go from the beginning to the end of learning recording engineering and it’s an excellent course. The reference book is the best in the world and the Recording Connection has created excellent course of top to bottom. And you come to me and we put it all together here in this room and we record bands, we produce bands and we mix bands. And we just keep doing that till you get it. Also what we had is you can intern here and you are either on a professional session that you get to relate to how a producer works with the artist and works with the engineer and if there isn’t a session in which I hope there always is but if there is not you get to Pro Tools and train and learn and play around.

PRESTON BOEBEL – AUDIO ENGINEER – CLEAR LAKE AUDIO
RECORDING CONNECTION GRADUATE AND MENTOR

“The great thing about this program is that you’re exposed to so many different influences, all of them in a professional working environment,” says Preston. “Even the ‘outside’ engineerswere eager to share what they knew. It was great to learn from people with different styles and approaches to recording.”

“One day I’ll be doing horn overdubs, the next I’ll be recording vocal tracks or guitar riffs,” he says. “I’ve gotten to work with some awesome musicians, like [drummer] Dennis Chambers and [bassist] Billy Sheehan. And, ironically, I have met some screen icons: Steven Seagal, David Cassidy and a few others have done sessions with me.”  Boebel also does post production for films and television. His credits include the HBO hit Six Feet Under, Hysteria: The Def Leppard Story, and several Dreamworks projects.