How the Stones captured the live-room punch of Elektra Sound Recorders for 'Some Girls'

In 1977, the Rolling Stones decamped to Elektra Sound Recorders in Los Angeles to overdub and mix Some Girls after the album’s basic tracks were cut in Paris. The studio had been built a few years earlier with a live room designed by acoustic guru George Augspurger — the same guy who tuned up the Record Plant and the Village Recorder. His signature was a floating floor, non-parallel walls, and a huge main room that gave drums and guitars a tight, punchy attack without the sloppy reverb of a traditional hall.

That sound was exactly what the Stones wanted after the disco-tinged Black and Blue. The room’s fast decay and focused midrange made Keith’s