Anyone heard teh API A2D in action?

frobisher

Here's a link to the home page. Seems like a peice of kit that ticks all the right boxes for me. Wouldn't mind getting feedback from anyone who's heard it in action.

http://www.apiaudio.com/a2d.html

brettzy

I have't heard it yet but I can only imagine what it would be like coming from API.

The 312 mic pre's are ledgendary and I doubt the AD would be anything short of brilliant. It's not a bad price either!

frobisher

brettzy wrote: »

I have't heard it yet but I can only imagine what it would be like coming from API.

The 312 mic pre's are ledgendary and I doubt the AD would be anything short of brilliant. It's not a bad price either!

Yeah, my thoughts exactly. It doesn't have any digital to analouge outputs but I have a Benchmark DAC-1 and a nice set of Emes as my back end, the A2D could be a pretty nice front to whack on there!

brettzy

frobisher wrote: »

Yeah, my thoughts exactly. It doesn't have any digital to analouge outputs but I have a Benchmark DAC-1 and a nice set of Emes as my back end, the A2D could be a pretty nice front to whack on there!

The DAC1 is an amazing convertor, you won't be needing to replace that any time soon. I take it you like the Emes then. How do they translate?

I don't thing you could go wrong with the A2D, it would certainly make a nice addition to your set up.
It's just a shame they don't have a A8D or even A16D, or should I say, thank God they don't have a A8D or A16D. Hhhmmm!

studiorat

I want one.

Apparently they are orders for this thing for days... There doesn't seem to be much info on how the convertor is though. Pretty good I'd reckon, I had a go of the the 312 pres in a 4 in a rack version very nice, big solid sounding things.
Mercenary are doing them for $1,700 nice price. I reckon it would go well on the back of one of these here.

brettzy

studiorat wrote: »

I want one.

Apparently they are orders for this thing for days... There doesn't seem to be much info on how the convertor is though. Pretty good I'd reckon, I had a go of the the 312 pres in a 4 in a rack version very nice, big solid sounding things.
Mercenary are doing them for $1,700 nice price. I reckon it would go well on the back of one of these here.

For a second there I though you were saying that mercenary audio had the 4 312's in a lunch box for 1700 dollars. I was reaching for the credit card already!

studiorat

brettzy wrote: »

1700? Dollars? Wow, that is a great price! Does it include the rack and PSU??

I was just looking on the mercenary audio website and can't find them, can you post a link please?

It's just a 2 slot 1u rack, looks like you just plug it in and off you go. Now if you could get the convertors for a Lunchbox... that would be cool.

http://www.mercenary.com/apia2ddu312m.html

brettzy

Cheers studiorat.

I've been looking at the 3124MB with greedy eyes for a while. What app do find them best on??

studiorat

brettzy wrote: »

Cheers studiorat.

I've been looking at the 3124MB with greedy eyes for a while. What app do find them best on??

Would have liked to live with them for a while longer. I did use them on piano though, Balwdin 9ft grand. With a pair of B+K 4006's, the impression I got was they were well able to handle a lot of bass and not sound muddy. Used them on percussion too, timps and orch toms, same story there.

frobisher

Brettzy: You're 100% right about the DAC1. I hooked it up an I couldn't believe what I was hearing. The old adage about sorting out your monitoring first is a wise one.
The Emes are sweet too. They're an older model that I picked up over on gearslutz. I've got them hooked up with a harrison power amp. Getting a firm handle on the bass can be tough but I've been getting to know them. How are they translating? To be honest I'm not sure yet!! You know that modern trap of being a musician recording material before you've finished recording it? Well I'm really trying to avoid that so I have been on a big writing buzz as oppossed to recording. Got me a hatful of new songs now though so I need to start some serious tracking! And I swear to God I can't wait to get my teeth into recording again. Yeah babeeeey!

The more I think about the A2D the more I want to try it out. One of the great things is that you can use the API pre's or something else and patch direct into the A/D converters. I could use my GT Brick, or even the pre's on my desk which are sometimes perfect. That's pretty damn sweet. Not sure about that super clock malarkey though. Sounds like one of those things like mLan that is possibly very good and powerful but will ultimately fall by the wayside. Doesn't make it a bad product though!

It's funny, I recorded a load of stuff at home a few months ago that ended up getting decent radio play in various countries (except in Ireland of course!) and I can't help thinking, had I had better gear to record it properly maybe it could've caught on more. You get to a stage where you NEED the proper tools otherwise you're letting the music down. I'm defo getting my ears around this baby soon though and suss it out for myself, could be the winner! Being poor just isn't allowed stand in the way of recording!

PaulBrewer

frobisher wrote: »

!

It's funny, I recorded a load of stuff at home a few months ago that ended up getting decent radio play in various countries (except in Ireland of course!) and I can't help thinking, had I had better gear to record it properly maybe it could've caught on more. You get to a stage where you NEED the proper tools otherwise you're letting the music down. I'm defo getting my ears around this baby soon though and suss it out for myself, could be the winner! Being poor just isn't allowed stand in the way of recording!

The good things about going for proper tools is -

1. You buy the MoFos once and you use them until you bequeath them to your Grand Children or your Rock'nRoll Death Bed.

2. After you get to a certain level of gear it ALL Performs well - Neve, Porticos, Manley ,SSL, Api, Avalon, Chandler etc are all a quality cup of coffee .... with different amounts of milk and sugar.


My Studio order of priorities are generally-

THE VITAL TOP 4

1. Get the control Room right - If you can hear what you're at decisions are easily and quickly made. Especially for the 'Mystery of Low End' that we've all suffered.
It was StudioRat who made the point to me after we did a job on his acoustics , that because he could hear better he could work quicker. Because he could work quicker there was more energy in the work.
I'd not thought of that before.

1.5 Get the Recording rooms right, the recording room is often half your sound, be it drums , guitars , strings etc. If the noise is happening acoustically it'll make your gear sound better - that's true for a top P-Tools HD3 with Apogees as for a Boss Multitracker. Rooms are also generally the most expensive to sort out after - and acoustic stuff generally has no Re Sale value.

2. Monitors - Last year we went to Metropolis Mastering in London for a look see. (You can see photos of our trip at myspace.com/audiowarehouse in the 'SSL etc' folder)
In the PMC equipped 5.1 room they played us their current project, Re Mastering the Beatles 5.1 mixes. They played 'Come Together' and we nearly fell over. I'd never heard such detail before.
We went to their stereo room (also PMC) and listened to some CDs we had.
The first 4 bars revealed to us a hidden slap back echo on the snare we'd never heard before - on a track from Alison Kraus we were all familiar with -
That really slammed home the value of monitoring - it is your interface to the music.

If your Acoustic Spectacles are greasy you'll not see right!

I've been mixing some tracks recently for Glen Baker. We've been using a Demo pair of PMC AML1s - the mixes are better than we've ever done before- we feel we're doing exactly as we would have before - we've even stopped turning on the NS10s! But the results are far better. It's ALL about monitoring!!

3. Conversion - Even guys with good budgets need to make compromises and I think there are smart ways of doing that. One area you can't skip on is A2D and D2A - I think of it like a waterpipe where your music is the volume and speed of the water - If the pipes are too narrow (your A2D/D2A chain)
you'll get lots of water through...but not it all. Apogee make great Water Pipes! Everything you do goes through these - unlike a reverb for example that's only effecting a track if its on! Get the global stuff right and you're in a strong position.

4. Mics - Every studio needs at least 1 great mic - If you only have one great mic ( U87, Brauner, C12 etc) and a heap of '57s you can still make
better recordings than with half a dozen mid priced mics.

THE VERY IMPORTANT

5. Mic Pres - If you have good mics and good Conversion you CAN make compromises on Mic Pres. If you've used a lot of your budget on the VITAL stuff above you can still get some thing like the 8 chan Audient ASP008 for a bit over a grand that in my opinion will give you a better result than a posh mic pre through something like a Motu interface. I have a lot of customers who have one Posh Mic Pre pair, and an ASP008. The Audient won't be AS good but it will be very good. It's a wise compromise.

6. EQ - There ain't nothing like running your Mix through a Manley EQ or similar. It can't be beat that no matter which way you turn the knobs it sounds better! However if the first 4 things have bust your budget you can get away with out an outboard EQ. If your Monitoring, Mics, Pres + Conversion are good you'll find you Eq an awful lot less. Good Conversion also makes your Plug In Eqs (like Waves or SSL Duende) sound better - It's a good way to save money if only in the short term.

7. Compression- The same applies here, a Vocal through a Distressor or a Manley Vari-Mu is a magical noise that's just 'Right'. However they're pretty serious Bucks - Your plugins will suffice in the mean time, it'll still sound great.

Have I nothing better to be at than posting on your Steenking Forum?? Huh

teamdresch

API pres sound great on pretty much everything I've used them on.
Particularly guitars and drums.