Heavyocity, a collective of composers and sound designers that creates virtual instruments, has purchased and installed a new API 1608-II analog console. The console is being installed into Heavyocity's new facility in Yonkers, NY, just north of New York City.
No strangers to API, the team behind Heavyocity has been working on three small format API THE BOX consoles since 2014, using them to produce and release more than 30 virtual instruments, with hundreds of accompanying demo tracks that have amassed millions of plays and views.
Heavyocity was started by Dave Fraser and Neil Goldberg who met at Berklee College of Music in 1989, forming Heavy Melody Music in 2003 after working as musicians, engineers and composers. Along with Ari Winters, a graduate from Carnegie Mellon's Master's program in Music Technology, the team worked for clients including Paramount, Universal, Electronic Arts, the NFL, The Discovery Channel and Gillette. Out of this collaboration sprang the idea to produce modern virtual instruments that could deliver world-class sound.
After 17 years in Manhattan, Heavyocity and sister company, Heavy Melody Music, moved into a new facility encompassing three custom-designed control rooms, a 600 square foot live room, three edit suites and production offices. This provides the team with its own space in which to record and manipulate samples for the creation of virtual instruments. A priority was the main control room, which needed to accommodate larger recording sessions. Once again, Heavyocity turned to API for the solution.
"We've loved our BOX consoles and wanted to stay with API; we love the sound and Neil couldn't take his eyes off of the 1608-II," says Fraser. "Coming from a degree in Recording Engineering from Berklee College of Music, and as an engineer turned composer and sound designer, the 1608-II has been at the top of his list as a larger console with that classic API sound. We loved how the 1608-II allowed us to add more EQs and compressors in the master section; 24 in total. So far, with a couple of months of mixing and tracking, it's been an amazing addition to the facility. The headroom is pretty mind-blowing and the ability to have 16 mic inputs plus four stereo aux returns has been the perfect starting place for us to cut larger sessions in house. We also love that as time goes on, if we need more inputs, we can always upgrade by adding on another 16 mic inputs via a 1608 Expander unit."
Vintage King, which facilitated the 1608-II sale, has an ongoing relationship with Heavyocity, having also supplied THE BOX consoles six years ago. "It's been an amazing opportunity to work with Neil, Ari, and Dave," says Vintage King's senior audio consultant, Jacob Schneider. "Watching the studio grow from three API BOXES into a much larger facility is the type of success that you hope for all of your clients.
Heavyocity has won accolades for its virtual instruments including EVOLVE, GRAVITY, Vocalise and NOVO. This August, nearly a decade after the release of its iconic cinematic percussion virtual instrument Damage, Heavyocity released Damage 2, which has already received MusicTech's Excellence Award and been praised and endorsed by leading composers such as Ramin Djawadi, Steve Jablonsky and Harry Gregson-Williams.
