The new API 1608 at the Peabody Conservatory of The Johns Hopkins University
API in Jessup, Md., reports that the Recording Arts and Sciences Program at the Peabody Conservatory of The Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore) recently replaced its aging console with a new 16-channel API Audio 1608 console, largely because of its authentic sound quality and flexibility. The university program awards a double-major Bachelor’s degree and a Master’s of Arts in Audio Sciences, and is the American equivalent of the European Tonmeister training program.
Its students are in close alliance with the JHU’s G.W.C. Whiting School of Engineering, a dedicated faculty of experts and a comprehensive recording studio facility to anchor the program.
Students from the Peabody Conservatory engage in more than 1,000 performances a year in five venues of varying size, and the Recording Arts and Sciences Program’s studio facilities tie into those venues. Recording arts students record each and every performance under the guidance of faculty members. Beginning students handle simpler stereo recording sessions and assist on more complex sessions, whereas advanced students conduct multi-mic recording sessions for the orchestras, operas and jazz ensembles. Studio D is connected to three of those performance venues, and the new API 1608 console will play a large role in those recording sessions.
The API 1608 is paired with a Pro Tools HD system, which Scott Metcalfe, director of the program, states is an excellent hybrid analog/digital combination: “With the API 1608, students can experiment with the full range of possibilities, from in-the-box mixes, to analog summing, to DAW fader control, to full-analog mixing and processing,” he says. “It’s a very flexible design, and we will use it in a lot of different ways.”
Each channel features a slot for an API 500 Series format module, with eight spare slots that can be patched in. The API 1608 readily accepts a variety of third-party processors.
API is already present in the facility’s other studios. A 4-channel API 3124 preamp and a 10-space 500V rack loaded with API equalizers and dynamics processors lend the warm analog “API sound” to Studio A.
“In addition to the sonics of API and the flexibility of the 1608, I was also happy to be working with our neighbors,” says Metcalfe, acknowledging the fact that API’s headquarters are located about 25 minutes from the Recording Arts and Sciences Program at the Peabody Conservatory of The Johns Hopkins University.
For more information, visit API at www.apiaudio.com and the Peabody Conservatory at www.peabody.jhu.edu/conservatory.
