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In 2006, Paramount closed its legendary recording Stage M. In 2007, CBS shuttered the Todd-AO stage in Studio City, which dated back to the 1940s. Composers and musicians worried that scoring work would leave town simply because of an ever-dwindling number of professional recording facilities.

Some of that work is now being absorbed by a recording stage that, while going by a new name, will be familiar to hundreds of Hollywood musicians. The L.A. Sound Gallery -- once known as Evergreen Recording Studios -- has opened for business on West Magnolia Avenue in Burbank.

"It's the largest privately owned, most technically advanced studio in L.A.," boasts owner Matt Salazar, a pop composer-producer who last year purchased a state-of-the-art Solid State Logic console with 72 mic inputs and was looking for a fair-sized room to install it.

He discovered the old Evergreen building, which Media Concepts president Yves Chicha was using (and continues to use) as a post-production facility. They spent $3 million refurbishing it, consulting with veteran mixer Dan Wallin ("Bullitt," "The Right Stuff") on acoustic issues.

The 4,000-square-foot live room features three isolation booths and can accommodate up to 60 musicians. Composers Michael Giacchino ("Lost"), Alf Clausen ("The Simpsons") and Walter Murphy ("Family Guy") have already recorded there, while former Stage M manager Stephanie Murray is onboard as scoring consultant.

"I have the love for it and knowledge of it, and Matt has the passion for it -- and all the equipment," Murray says. "It's a perfect marriage for this stage."

Until 1978, the building at 4403 West Magnolia was a movie theater. Composers Artie Butler and Charles Fox and harpist Gayle Levant bought it and turned it into the Evergreen scoring stage in 1979. Films like "White Nights" and TV shows like "Dallas" recorded scores there through the 1980s. Under other management, it became Ground Control in the mid-1990s and was briefly owned by composer-producer Craig Huxley.

Why open a new scoring stage when the economy is in the toilet? "Why not?" says Salazar. "I'm completely addicted to it. I think of this not as revitalizing something but building something new."