The book is out! Historic Recording Studios: America's Sound Factories and the People Who Made Them is available through Amazon and other book outlets. Your best bet is Amazon because there will also find my book Vintage Tape Recorders. Historic Recording Studios is Volume One, A through M. It consists of nearly 400 pages with many photos and illustrations. I appreciate my readers' interest in the vintage microphones, studios, records, producers, vinyl, and other aspects of the music industry of old. 

Here is another entry from the book:

BRIANS STUDIOS, 2200 Sunnybrook Drive, Tyler, Texas. Originally known as Robin Hood Studios, Brians Studio is the dream of a talented audio engineer named Robin Brians. When it opened in 1963, in his family home, he called it Brians Recording, but everyone called it Robin Hood Studios, so he changed the name. Now it is Brians. For over a half century he has survived trends, fads, recessions, and all manner of unlikely obstacles. And still, he operates--and does it well. “We offer equipment that is different,” he said. “I made some of it by hand.” His studio is one of those out-of-the-way operations which gains popularity because of the hits it creates. Its buzz keeps on buzzing. The studio, in a ranch house in a residential neighborhood, welcomes all types of performers. Robin has been interested in recording since he was a boy—a rockabilly singer-piano player who reminded people of Jerry Lee Lewis. Robin’s first experience with recording came in the 1950s when he went to Nashville to record “Dis an Itty Bit” for Harry Carlson’s Fraternity Records. He keenly observed the equipment in Music City. Back in Texas in 1960, Brians moved behind the console and started putting together pieces of equipment for his own studio. He quickly earned a reputation for his ability to find that elusive “sound.” His hometown, the self-proclaimed Rose Capital of the World, found itself playing host to all kinds of recording artists, who had come to town to record. In the mid-1960s he recorded The Uniques for Jewel Records out of Shreveport, Louisiana, on an Ampex 350-2 for stereo and 350-1 for mono, using Telefunken M250, Neuman U67, and Altec MII microphones. In the late 1960s he operated an Ampex 351 8-track recorder. When hit singles were peppering the national charts about 1970, Brians used an Electrodyne 16-position console, numerous custom-made effects devices, Scully 16-, 8-, and 4-track stereo recorders, Martin Audio Varispeed, and Pultec filters. He also used a natural echo chamber, quadraphonic mixing, and 8 pan pots. The 35x48-foot studio was equipped with numerous instruments, including a Baldwin harpsichord, Kawai grand piano, Ludwig drums, and a Hammond B-3 organ with Leslie speakers. His array of microphones included Electrodyne, Scully, Shure, and Pultec. Based in the studio were Brians’ new video services and remote van (he was an early advocate of such equipment), his music publishing company, Sunnybrook; his own audio equipment sales department, Texas Eastern Audio; and his RHB Productions, which he operated with the studio’s second engineer, Randy Fouts. Brians and Fouts produced commercials in the studio for such clients as Pizza Hut, Bordens, and Frito-Lay, and produced records for Uni, Fraternity, and other labels. In the late 1970s, Brians changed the name of the business to Robin Hood Studios. “Nobody called it Brians anyway,” he said. About 1970, Dale Hawkins recorded an album for Bell Records that was partially cut in the Brians’ studio. It was the essence of modern recording—done at more than one place and at different times. Its name, LA, Memphis and Tyler, Texas, summed up what recording had become: diversity in location and sound.

SOME HITS FROM BRIANS: “Mountain of Love,” David Houston; “Western Union,” “Sound of Love,” and “Zip Code” by The Five Americans (produced by another former rockabilly, Dale “Suzy-Q” Hawkins, A&R director of Abnak Records); “Do It Again (Just  a Little Bit Slower)” and “You Got Style” by Jon and Robin and the In Crowd; “Sweet Thang” and other country hits by Nat Stuckey; “Judy In Disguise (With Glasses)” and other chart records by John Fred and His Playboy Band; “Smell of Incense,” Southwest F.O.B.; “Fire,” Five by Five; and records by Dale Hawkins, ZZ Top, and the Uniques, among many other artists.

QUIRKS: The studio operated in a ranch house in a residential area. In the early days, Brians’ mother sometimes met visitors at the front door.