Artists :: Allen Sides

Biography

Allen Sides is the owner of Ocean Way Recording in Los Angeles, and one of the most respected engineer/producers in the music industry. As an engineer/producer, Sides' has recorded over 400 albums and won two Grammy's. A brief list of some of the artists he has worked with include: Phil Collins, Green Day, Eric Clapton, Alanis Morrisette, Faith Hill, Trisha Yearwood, Wynonna Judd, Beck, Mary J Blige, Ry Cooder, Joni Mitchell, Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, Tom Newman, Andre Previn, Frank Zappa, and the list goes on.

 He began his distinguished recording career in 1968 and opened his first studio, Ocean Way, in 1973—originally in Santa Monica. In 1977, he purchased the renowned United Recording and relocated to Hollywood. After acquiring Western Recording in 1979, he consolidated both venerable operations into Ocean Way Recording, where it still stands today. Ocean Way Nashville opened its doors on the famed Music Row in 1997. 

Sides’ history with TASCAM/TEAC stretches back to the ‘60s, where as a teen he put a TEAC R-310 reel-to-reel through its paces in his garage studio.

These days, he’s graduated to TASCAM’s DV-RA1000HD, originally using the high-resolution stereo hard disk recorder as a CD player to demonstrate Ocean Way’s monitor system in the studio and at international trade shows. “We’ve made comparisons of the DV-RA1000HD to extremely high-end players—in the $18,000 to $25,000 dollar range—and I've preferred the TASCAM player in every occasion thus far. Now I'm not saying it's the best player in the world but it's certainly good, [especially] for the price and what it does.”

For the first time last year, he used the DV-RA1000HD on a recording. 

“My friend Bill Schnee was using it as a sort of storage medium as something to record to. I hadn't really listened to the converters until recently. I was mixing a Bobby McFerrin record, mixing to 192kHz on a stock Pro Tools 192 interface.  I was using a Big Ben clock but using the stock Pro Tools converters, and I made a comparison to printing DSD on your device. And it sounded significantly better recording DSD.”