Los Angeles, California – May 2010:
Almost two years after John McBride's Blackbird Studio in Nashville purchased 1608 serial number 001, API president Larry Droppa recently traveled to Los Angeles to congratulate film and television composer William Anderson on his purchase of the 100th API 1608 console. Built to the exacting standards of API's revered 1604 console, the 1608 puts API's coveted sound and discrete analog circuitry into a modern mixer that is perfectly suited to work with digital recording platforms, at a price that is within reach for project studio owners.
Anderson, owner of Anderson Scores, is a full-time film and television composer with over 200 projects to his name, including nearly 1000 episodes of animated programming. His music can be heard on commercials, comedies, dramas, features, games, radio, and CD. He was honored at the 2009 ASCAP 25th Annual Film and Television Awards for his theme and music for Fox's "The Moment of Truth." He will use his API 1608 together with Pro Tools to both track and mix a wide spectrum of genres, from orchestral music to hip hop to oblique electronic etudes.
"The API 1608 was a pretty major purchase for me," said Anderson. "It took me a few days to clear out my old console, untangle the spaghetti it left behind, and install the 1608. When I had everything in place and lined up, I put in a CD and was totally blown away. I had goose bumps and had to sit down. It was like there had been moving blankets all around my speakers and the 1608 cleared them away. The API sound is huge, open, and clear. The depth and imaging are precise and beautiful."
During the Publisher's Clearinghouse-style drop-in, Droppa surprised Anderson with the gift of an API 2500 stereo bus compressor, along with a host of other API swag.
"Typical of API products, the 1608 is hand assembled, American-made and designed to deliver decades of reliable service," said Droppa, commenting on the visit. "We're delighted to deliver serial number 100, all the more so, to a top-notch professional like Will Anderson."
Anderson has already put the 1608 to use for the opening number to Nickelodeon's Kids' Choice Awards 2010. "What I didn't expect was the improvement to my workflow," he remarked. "Recording and mixing is a lot more fun with the 1608 because the layout is so intuitive."
"The sound, of course, is fantastic, as I had expected," he added. "Clarity, image, depth, range, detail, power, bottom-end and top-end – the console is astonishing. In about thirty seconds, any lingering doubts I might have had about my investment in the 1608 vanished completely."