Hello, Hi there. 

My name is Rob Shelton, or Bobby Kamalino.  Or Robert.  I am a producer, a recording engineer, a mixer, a session keyboard player, a composer and artist.  I think generally speaking, I often live somewhere in between all of those roles on any given project or day.  But hell, I can keep to my lane if need be.  I worked as house engineer and producer at tiny telephone in San Francisco and Oakland for 10 years.  While there I worked 90 percent of the time on a Studer 24 track tape machine and mixed every record down to a ATR 102.  Some of my favorite records I’ve been a part of we did at Tiny without ever turning on a computer, and heading down to the usps with a box of 1/2 inch tapes to be mailed to our mastering engineer.  Now, I live in Los Angeles, and I’ve opened my own studio with some of my best friends Carly, Jamie and Andrew.  It is called Altamira Sound and it rules.  We brought a ton of the analog energy and gear we all held so dear at Tiny Telephone, but these days I tend toward a more hybrid approach, using our 24 track or 2 track tape when it feels correct, and/or diving into the computer to take it for all its worth.  What I mean to say is; I’m very comfortable recording music and sounds on both of those mediums.  And that there are no rules for creation.  But also I like make rules to adhere to and also to break.  One rule that I like to keep going as long as possible is to have fun in the studio, and I like to think I facilitate a fulfilling and also comfortable and chill experience in the studio, when the need arrises.  One other rule is that I love lunch, and oh baby are there some gems out here in the San Gabriel Valley.  I’ve had the extreme pleasure of working with a boatload of artists over the years as a producer, engineer and mixer, including Meernaa, Baby Queen, Jean Luc Eldenwood, Luke Temple, Art Feynman, Mirah, Jonny Kosmo, Jonathan Rado, Lucius, Paul Spring, The Dip, Cornelia Murr, Daniel Noah Miller, Cooper Kenward, Jerry Paper, Brijean, Logan Kane, Hand Habits, Bridget Kearny, Suzanne Vallie, and many more listed on ye ole’ credits page. 

TLDR:

Check it out , here’s the deal.  I love recording music, sounds, shapes, ideas; the visceral, as well as the ineffable and intangible. Objects. Stuff. But maybe even beyond that, I love creating , the act of making something, pushing something forth into the world that is new and unique.  Shit, I even like making things that are not unique sometimes, that has a place too.  There are no rules I guess, as the saying goes.  But back to the subject at hand, making things.  And capturing moments. Damn, not to toot my own horn, as that expression goes, but I’ve gotten pretty good at creating. In particular I’d say I’ve gotten good at guiding people and projects through the process of making someone, through the process of creation.   In even more particular, I’ve been part of guiding many projects towards there intended outcome.  Re:people that tends to mean community.  Re: project that tends to mean an album of original music.  And I love when making a record or song or piece or recorded sound becomes a communal affair.  Not that it has to be to be valid (refer back to that part about no rules).  But I guess if you’re reading this, chances are you feel that community in sound is worth something.  I always have this thought when recording that when you add another person to the song it can have this emotional widening effect.  But wide and deep, there must be a balance.  A rule? Perhaps.  Often it can feel amazing to whole up on your own and pressure cook the coal into a diamond.  Who am I to deny this. 

Now, surely, there are many stages to this process, and depending on my role in any given project I end up interacting with these stages in different ways.  Truly my favorite and most rewarding way to interact with a project is for me to help take something from soup to nuts, top to bottom, beginning to end as a producer.  Through discovery, defining the language and movement of the project from the jump, and helping with the tenacity to bring something home in the end.  That being said, I often interact with a project by being the engineer for the basic tracking, or sometimes just the drums, or just the vocals and string section.  Sometimes is taking someone’s demos and layer on top of them and stripping it back, playing bass, mixing it and then pitching it on the 2 track tape machine to make sure everything is at the perfect speed.  There are no rules. Ah ha. In fact there is only one actually, and it is ALWAYS BE RECORDING.  But even that can be broken for walk outside or a trip to horseshoe meadows.