CREW
Paul Horabin
Studio Owner, Recording Engineer
- - -
Paul was born in Chichester, West Sussex, England. He started playing piano and guitar age 7, performing classical piano solos with the school orchestra. His boarding school encouraged the arts. Paul came to acting late but showed a surprising skill at understated overacting! At 13 he discovered heavy metal, and by 16 started his own band, Braindead. The band enjoyed local success and played various venues.
Paul continued to study music, majoring in composition and performing. During this time he also gained a little experience using 2" tape to record his fellow students. This, he determined, was what he wanted to do! After he finished the course he got the opportunity to spend time interning at a California recording studio. He took the advice of the studio owner and returned to England to study recording engineering - with the promise of work when qualified.
Paul was accepted to the University of Sussex, Worthing Campus, which had a state of the art recording studio, using Pro-Tools before it became an industry standard. While undergoing extensive training in many aspects of music technology and production, Paul also gained practical experience as the sound engineer in the college theatre and an in depth experience recording and editing with Pro-Tools. During this time Paul explored other musical genres, playing in Sussex towns with a talented group of musicians while working as sound tech at local concert venues.
Paul returned to California where he interned at Barry Paul Recording, in North Hollywood. He discovered his four years of ProTools experience was much in demand as the studio was just introducing digital systems. During this time Paul worked on a variety of projects, gaining experience in music recording, as well as some post-production for TV and radio.
During a recording session, he met Sarah Taylor when she came in to sing backgrounds vocals. They married 18 months later. Moving on from Barry Paul Recording, Paul did some work at the iconic Capitol Records in Hollywood.
He continued to work on various projects in his Pro Tools home studio. Paul also worked on the design and wiring of a number of private studios. In 2007 he got the chance to take on the Barry Paul Recording 'Studio B' - a long cherished dream of his.
Once the writing space for Jackson Browne and Little Feat, the studio had fallen into serious disrepair.
Paul and Sarah spent six months renovating and restoring the rooms, retaining the original groovy vibe while Paul renewed, restored and improved the acoustics to bring it up to modern standards. Once the live room of the studio was sound Paul turned his attention to the control room and getting his equipment in place. Recording Sarah's first album in the studio over the next few months gave Paul the chance to identify and eliminate any problems in the systems while giving everything a good workout. Being extremely pleased with the sound of the album - ReadyMix's first born - the studio opened for business.
Paul has a love of vintage gear, musical quirks and oddities. He found and renovated a Stage Rhodes 73, a beautiful 1961 Hammond A-100 organ. His buddy Bill Mumy loaned him his 200A Wurlitzer electric piano. In addition, he likes to pull out the Dubreq Stylophone, Suzuki OmniChord OM27, and the 1949 “Third Man” Junior Zither, to name a few of his musical toys. A highlight for Paul was the loan to the studio of a Mellotron M2000 for several months in 2009.
Paul and his wife, Sarah, have been donating their time to several community projects for young musicians, and continue to make a stand for artistic integrity and sonic excellence.