Hyde Street Studios

Hyde Street Studios is an American music recording facility in San Francisco, California. Located at 245 Hyde Street and previously occupied by Wally Heider Studios, it became Hyde Street Studios in 1980 when it was taken over by local songwriter, musician, and independent record producer Michael Ward with his two partners Tom Sharples and former Tewkesbury Sound studio owner Dan Alexander, who initially had a 50 percent share in the business. Ward assumed full ownership in 1985. Alexander initially outfitted Hyde Street Studios with equipment from the defunct Tewksbury Sound, which Ward and Sharples had helped to build, and began acquiring older model microphones and other pieces of audio equipment not popular at the time but that have since become considered classic. The building contains multiple large recording rooms: Studio A, operated by Hyde Street Studios, and Studios C and D, leased to sub-tenants; Studio E, added in the 1980s; and Studio B, a converted game room used for recording beginning in the 2000s; as well as numerous smaller audio production spaces. Rancho Rivera, the site of Michael Ward's home recording operation in San Francisco's Sunset District before Hyde Street Studios opened, was utilized by Tommy Tutone in its original incarnation in the 1970s; it reopened in 2017. Studio A features a 970 ft2 (90 m2) live area and a 1975 Neve 8038 console mixer with 38 input channels and Flying Faders automation, originally installed, modified and upgraded circa 1992 by Chief Project Engineer Garry Creiman.