Los Angeles, CA (January 3, 2014)—Producer Noah Shain has installed an API 1608 small-format analog console at his three-room studio located inside Bedrock.LA.
Shain initially purchased the 1608 to record band Dead Sara in a Malibu mansion for a forthcoming release on Epic Records. Shain, who is best known for his work with Sonny Moore (Skrillex) and Atreyu, purchased the API 1608 because it was, in his words, “the only console available with a small enough footprint and a big enough sound.”
After recording its previous album with Shain at Sonic Ranch—a residential facility in the West Texas desert —the Dead Sara band members reportedly wanted to take the experience to the next level. As a self-described API-fan who had been considering a 1608 to complement his hybrid, bus-intensive mix style, Shain recognized the sonic and logistic advantages of having a 1608 for the remote sessions.
According to Shain, “In the end, we rented an 8,000-square-foot Malibu mansion for two months. All told, we paid about as much going that route as we would have paid going to any of the world-class L.A. studios that I tried to talk them into originally.”
Shain separately processes stems according to their role in the music, using eight passive busses and saturating signal on the other end with boutique gain make-up amps. “The 1608 is the perfect heart for that kind of system,” he said. “It’s small enough to make it easy, and I can still focus a lot on the computer for a truly hybrid workflow.”
With the remote recording date with Dead Sara finished, Shain moved the 1608 into his facility at Bedrock.LA, a 120-room rehearsal space in the hip Echo Park neighborhood of L.A. “Bedrock is a great place with a great community of musicians,” he said. “A lot of notable bands rehearse there. My door is open and a lot of people are going to see the new API 1608.”
