BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA: While analog recording equipment manufacturer API saw widespread and consistent success with its 1608 console last year, the company is already on track to rival its performance in 2010. As an example, API’s Argentine dealer, SL Audio, has already sold three 1608s. The new console owners include Barbara Zampini, Palito Ortega and Luis Bacque.
Barbara Zampini, bass player and widow of famed punk rocker Dee Dee Ramone, “splits her time between Las Vegas and Buenos Aires,” said Daniel Paracha, sales and support engineer at SL Audio. “She’s currently building a nice project studio in Argentina, and [when considering recording gear,] her engineers Jeronimo Escajal and Hernan Perez advised her to get the API 1608. [All other equipment] has been purchased around it.” According to Paracha, Zampini will be recording and mixing all of her future tracks through the
fully analog and discrete console.
Argentine music producer, promoter and politician, Palito Ortega, acquired his 1608 for his personal studio in Lujan after “growing tired of the lifeless sound of his old digital mixer’s preamps and EQs,” said Paracha. Built by renowned acoustician John Storyk, Ortega’s “Los Pajaros” studio is located in the outskirts of Buenos Aires and, uniquely, in the middle of a field. Ortega, originally famous himself for his 1960s rock and roll teen idol/movie star fame, uses the studio mainly for his own songs and commercial work, but he also makes Los Pajaros available for hire on occasion. “The API 1608 had the same wonderful sound that he was accustomed to from his formative years and it was flexible enough to fit neatly into his current recording system,” said Paracha.
Finally, Luis Bacque, jazz producer and sound engineer, now possesses the SL Audio’s first demo console as the heart of his analog synthesizer studio. According to Paracha, Luis has been, “pining for a 1608 since they were introduced a few years ago.” Before acquiring the API recording desk, Bacque had been using an eight-channel, tube-based mixer that, according to Paracha, brought in too much outside noise in the mixes. “He had always loved the API preamps and he was impressed that the 1608 seemed to have an infinite amount of ‘room’ to place new tracks without masking anything that was already in the mix.”
According to API Managing Director Gordon Smart, “Working with SL Audio is consistently a pleasure. Like API, they are completely focused on audio excellence and customer satisfaction. We salute their continuing efforts in Argentina.”
ABOUT API Established more than 40 years ago, Automated Processes Inc. is the leader in analog recording gear, with the Vision, Legacy Series and 1608 recording consoles, as well as its classic line of modular signal processing equipment. More information at www.apiaudio.com
PHOTO CAPTION Eagerly awaiting the API 1608’s arrival in Argentina, jazz producer and sound engineer Luis Braque purchased SL Audio’s demo unit.
