About

RENOWN SOUND PRODUCTION


Founded by producer/engineer Brett Brown in the mid eighties in Redwood City, California, Renown Sound Production provides professional engineering, mixing and mastering services to a global market, producing vibrant, dynamic music that showcases the artist’s talent.

Below is a brief history:

1978
Collaborating with a group of four friends, Brett helps build Drone Studio, a small, private 4-track studio geared towards recording alternative and experimental music. He also records regular songwriter and band demos for his friends on occasion.

1982
Members of Drone Studio pool their finances together to upgrade the studio equipment, installing a new 8-track recorder, a custom mixing console, new control room speakers, new signal processors and an improved collection of microphones. Control room isolation and room acoustics are also greatly improved. Brett designs the custom console, control room layout and helps with wiring and installation. It’s here where he starts honing his skills as a recording engineer and music producer. He starts to produce professional sounding band demos and begins taking on paying customers.

1986
Brett does another major overhaul to Drone studio and Renown Sound is born. He purchases new professional grade 16 and 2-track tape machines, a new 32-channel, 16-bus console, new control room speakers, additional signal processors, and several high-end microphones. He drafts wiring schedules and oversees installation.

Renown Sound quickly becomes a popular place for local working musicians (and a few international artists) to record songwriter and band demos. Most become regular or repeat customers. Hundreds of demos and a few full album and CD projects are recorded at Renown.

1991
Renown Sound purchases a closing studio in Redwood City and invests in a major remodel to build a first class, full-service recording facility capable of hosting international recording artists. Sound isolation is greatly improved at the new location by building a new floating structure within the shell of the building. Room acoustics are also improved with solid cedar paneling throughout and additional acoustic treatments. Two new isolation booths are added and a lounge area with a full kitchen and full bath. Installed are: a new 192-input, 24-bus fully automated recording console, a new 2-inch 24-track tape machine, new dual-15 soffit mounted control room speakers, new power amps and several new high-end signal processors, including a collection of vintage compressors. Brett, again, manages overall construction, equipment specifying, drafts wiring schedules, and oversees installation and systems integration.

A few well known Bay Area engineers and producers join the staff at Renown Sound and over the next several years, the studio hosts several high profile recording artists from the San Francisco Bay area and around the world.

Brett continues to service his faithful client base and goes on to engineer countless band projects and over 30 albums, 5 of which he is the Producer and Engineer.

1998
Near the end of the millennium, during the advent of the digital age, Brett decides to liquidate his major pieces of analog recording equipment. He embraces digital technology, builds a new portable Mac based digital recording system and moves Renown Sound’s operations into an out-building at his California home. He keeps his vintage signal processing tools and installs them in portable rack cases able to interface with any studio patch bay. Basic tracks on projects requiring the spaces a large studio affords are contracted out and Brett turns to sweetening, editing and mixing almost exclusively. He is also capable of doing location recording with his portable 24-track system.

2010
Brett moves Renown Sound’s production offices to Florida and continues to service the same loyal client base he built up over three decades. Now able to email audio files from anywhere in the world, his clients send him projects to mix from the United States, Canada, England and New Zealand.

Employing one of the last studios in the state of Florida with a 2-inch 24-track tape machine, Brett embarks on a year-long campaign to restore and archive his catalog of analog recordings to the digital domain. Many clients send their deteriorating analog tapes to him for rescue as well.

Several albums produced at Renown Sound in the 90’s are slated to be re-mixed or re-mastered for release on the newly formed indie label Renown Records.

Renown Sound creates another new subsidiary, 2Pop Music Box, and starts building a library of exceptional original music from its own archives and other indie labels to license for film and television.

TODAY, Renown Sound Production continues to provide professional engineering, mixing and mastering services, bringing great music to the world.