TECHNOLOGY REVIEW Building The Box
Audio Media editor Jory MacKay chats with API owner and president Larry Droppa about bringing the company’s big-console sound to The Box.
fully-featured inputs grew into what we now know as The Box. The process from practical rough designs to a working prototype took about 18 months.
Tell me about the inspiration behind The Box. How did the idea first come up and how long was the design process? The idea for The Box grew from a number of around-the-table discussions with Sales and Engineering. API manufactured a summing solution called the DSM (Discrete Summing Mixer) that was flexible, modular, and expandable, but a number of customers had suggested improvements to the options and workflow of the system. A console-based solution to a simple summing system with faders and some number of
winner Dame Evelyn Glennie for the world-renowned music library company, Audio Network. This was a special session in itself as Evelyn rarely performs her own compositions on the piano. As this console is clearly all about sonic quality and tone, I knew this was the ideal situation to really find out how well it would deliver. When recording acoustic grand pianos, it is very challenging to capture their true natural sound. There are few instruments with quite so many harmonics and potential noise-related issues for recording equipment as pianos and orchestral marimbas. I set up with my
professional partner, Ross Simpson of Woodbury Recording Studios, and we deployed his matched pair of Earthworks QTC40s, a pair of Audio-Technicas, and a
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API’s traditionally known for larger consoles (1608, Legacy, etc…), were you concerned about how people might react to something with a small footprint like The Box? Yes. There were concerns that the initial reaction to a smaller API might be that ‘API is cheapening the product for a down-market customer’. In reality, the engineering directive was to maintain the quality and audio performance of the product regardless of the eventual size or feature set that we decided upon. It was unanimous among Sales and Engineering that every part of The Box had to be as sonically excellent as any other API console with as many of the ‘big console’ features as could be integrated into the package size, and we certainly have done that.
How did you bring that large console legacy into The Box? The circuit design is very much the same as any other API console. The ‘heartbeat’ of API – the 2520 op amp and custom API transformers, devices that define all API products – are integral to the design of The Box. Attention to circuit board design and parts selection went through the same scrutiny as the ‘bigger brothers’ in the product line.
U87 for extra ambience. I ran the Earthworks and the Audio-Technicas through the API four-channel preamps with post fader direct outputs connected to Pro Tools. As I usually do when tracking with an analogue console, I set the faders to +3dB for extra headroom before clipping on the preamps, which gives me a clear indication of metering inside Pro Tools. The results were truly amazing. Obviously it helps when your performer is of the calibre of Evelyn Glennie, and the piano itself is a Blüthner, but there was a clear difference with the API sound compared to some other preamps we had with us. Back at the mix facility, we bounced the recordings with some Lexicon 480 reverb through the summing mixer and compared it against the internal summing of Pro Tools. The
sound from all aspects of this console really does have that rich and warm classic API sound. It wasn’t a case of close listening for any of these comparisons at all. The pleasant sonic performance was immediately apparent, which you would expect from any large-scale API console.
CONCLUSION I’m sure API is going to sell a lot of these consoles to today’s modern professionals and project studios. It offers everything you need to complete your DAW in a small studio situation with the very best quality in mind. It is products like these that are making it possible to have that large studio, ‘expensive’ sound in your own facility and The Box delivers this to the highest of standards. What it lacks in functions and DAW integration, it makes up for in
What are some of the desk’s key features that set it apart from the competition? Having a couple of optional 500 slots on the input channels to let a user customise the inputs for different flavours or audio tweaking is one. We did feel, however, that building-in a pair of industry- standard 550a EQs gives the user the confidence and sonic imprint that defines why you buy an API in the first place. The built-in stereo bus compressor is another
biggie. Including a pair of 527 compressors that can be linked sitting on the stereo bus is a huge bonus. In addition, when tracking, they can be individually assigned to the input channels with a single push of a button. Also, including a 0dB fader bypass switch on all 16 summing channels makes for easy and calibrated automation moves from a DAW. If fader adjustment becomes necessary, a simple button push puts the audio fader back on fingertip control.
Lastly, are ‘project’ studios the future of the recording industry? A small ‘project’ type studio may not be the best solution for everybody as a method towards a final album. But as a way to get anywhere from basic tracks to a highly sophisticated multi-tracked production with stems and automated DAW moves, the small, compact, high-quality project studio can indeed turn out a commercially viable product in the today’s, and likely tomorrow’s, music environment.
quality. With The Box you are investing in the heart and soul of your studio, both in terms of master control as well as offering ‘that’ sought-after analogue sound. My only suggestion would be that although the functions and layout are well thought out
THE REVIEWER SIMON ALLEN
is a full-time sound engineer and record producer. After a stint as senior engineer at City Studios in Cyprus where he headed up the new music studio, he can now mostly be found at Woodbury Studios in Hertfordshire.
INFORMATION Feature set
• Four-channel input tracking section featuring API’s classic mic pres
• Sixteen summing channels (20 channels during mix) • Stereo program bus with master fader, insert, and external input
• Full-featured monitor section with support for two stereo monitor systems
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March 2014 41
and presented, I would have appreciated an internal method of routing the 500 series units to any channel of the summing mixer. The most important aspect from any analogue console is the sonic character, and The Box is guaranteed not to disappoint.
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