THE BEGINNING
About two years ago I started my quest for an analog console. I wanted something small, flexible, powerful, sonically amazing, and visually gripping and unique. This is the story of how I came to put together a custom API console.
SUMMER 2010 — I BECOME AN "API GUY"
After a lot of thought, I finally settle in on the API Legacy console as the sound for me. On a more practical level, I like that API is still in business and have a great service department. There's no way I can afford a full-on Legacy, so I try a few 7600 channels summed through the 7800 master module and realize immediately that this is, in fact, a small 4-bus, 4-aux Legacy console. I see pictures on-line of a 24-channel built from 7600s with vertically printed face-plates and everything clicks. I do a lame rendering in Google Sketchup.
SEPTEMBER 2010 — THE DESIGNER AND BUILDER IS FOUND
As I sell off various pieces of outboard gear in order to purchase a small collection of 7600s, I put the feelers out for a builder of the desk and got the name UM Project from Andy Hong. I take one look at the website and am on the phone to Francois Chambard that day.
EARLY OCTOBER 2010 — DESIGN CONCEPTS
I sign on with Francois, explain that the console has to defy conventional studio aesthetics (dentist office, WWII submarine, 70s disco club) and capture the spirit of modernist design. The only consoles we reference are EMI desks from Abbey Road, SSL's AWS900 and Quad Eights, but the real inspirations are typewriters and Telecasters. I get back five amazing designs. In a display of sharp decisiveness, I choose #2 on the spot.
MID OCTOBER 2010 — INSPIRED BY ICELAND
I return to Iceland for a week and decide that the console needs to reflect some of the landscape, fashion and architecture I see there. Photos are emailed to Francois daily. I visit Valgeir Sigursson's Greenhouse Studios and confirm my suspicions that clean modern design + recording studio = my kind of vibe.
NOVEMBER 2010 - THE 1RU S.N.A.F.U.
Francois and I run into the senseless conundrum that 19 is not evenly divisible by 1.75, the measurements of a single rack space — a legitimate US military S.N.A.F.U. After countless discussions, we finally come up with a solution that allows for the left and right bays of the console to hold eleven units either vertically or horizontally. My assistant Nicole Pettigrew gives me her best are-you-on-drugs look and asks, "Who the fuck builds a twenty-two channel console?" Back to the drawing board yet again to make it a proper twenty-four channel board. We compensate for the extra space by adding a Sharpie-holder next to the horizontal bays and finally settle on a totally flexibly 24-channel board. Either of the left and right bays can hold either twelve vertical or eleven horizontal 1RU units.
