An 80-channel API Legacy Plus was installed in Western Studio 3 at Cellos Studios (Hollywood).
API’s Legacy Plus all discrete mixing console with moving fader automation was recently installed in Western Studio 3 at Cello Studios in Hollywood. The facility, located at 6000 Sunset Boulevard, was once a part of the United Western Recorders complex, established by industry legend Bill Putnam at the beginning of the 1960s.
Gary Myerberg, chief engineer and director of technical operations, is very happy with the new 24-bus API Legacy Plus saying that, “I think APIs always lean into the wind. They’re very aggressive, they’re very punchy and forward. This desk is laid back and wonderfully clean and punchy, but if you want that API angst you just kick it in. It’s modern retro.”
The installation in Studio 3 offers both API technology, as well as some of the company’s classic outboard components, including a rack of 550A mic pre’s. “It’s a wonderful desk, with 32 of their API 212 mic preamps, 12 compressors and six gates. And we’re adding another API 500 rack of compressors and EQs.” Six DIs and six filters are also being added to the console center section.”
The console was installed by Myerberg, Dave Hecht and the studio’s engineering staff. Myerberg, who favors a minimal signal path, says that “The mic lines and the patchbay wiring are very, very short. The two-track run is six feet and the multitrack runs are even shorter. It’s a very tight sounding room, very punchy.”
The studio expects to announce a new owner at the beginning of 2005, and will change its name to Western Recorders. The studio has hosted staff engineers Chuck Britz, Bones Howe, Wally Heider and Lee Hirschberg. The Mamas and the Papas’ “California Dreaming,” Frank Sinatra’s “Strangers in the Night” and Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Nat King Cole and Johnny Mercer Lou Adler all recorded hits at the facility.
For more information, please go to www.apiaudio.com
or www.cellostudios.com.
