Having been named Best UK Studio, by the Music Producers Guild in 2010 and celebrated ten years in operation in 2013, West London’s Kore Studios has now installed a 32-channel API 1608 analogue mixing console to best serve a roster of artists that includes Scott Walker, Florence & the Machine and Richard Ashcroft.
The studio typically records rock and indie bands in its main 2,000-sq-ft studio, which includes a live recording space with two iso booths, and Studio B and lounge on the second floor. ‘We are known as a great tracking space and we wanted a console that would reflect and enhance that,’ says studio owner, George Apsion.
For the move to the 1608, Apsion turned to Funky Junk, as a recognised authority on analogue mixing consoles. Funky founder and owner Mark Thompson reports that the process – from sale to installation – went well: ‘Kore required a few custom modifications and we suggested others to enable the power supplies to be sited in a remote machine room,’ he says. ‘API liaised with us regarding these mods, and together with Source, the UK distributor, we worked to deliver the console bang on time, ready for the first session a few weeks after order. Commissioning on-site went smoothly, and the desk was installed and ready to start churning out the hits within two days of arrival.’
Since installation, Apsion reckons that the desk makes everything the studio works on ‘feel like a record, straight away’. The layout of the console has particularly impressed him: ‘The features are so well thought out – the sound is deep, wide, and glues everything together. The sound is the same as other API gear we’ve used, there is just more of it.’
The biggest change, Apsion notes, is the ability to record entire sessions on API mic amps and nothing else. ‘We have used it as a split console, with the expander section acting as sends to tape, using the 312 mic amps and 550b EQs,’ he says. ‘We then use the first 16 faders as tape monitors, with aux sends feeding a cue-8 mixer system in our live room. We use the aux return inputs in the centre section for summing outboard mic amp signals together. The 1608 desk mic amps are always used for drums.’
The work is paying off through an album recorded for Australian rock band Short Stack, as well as an indie EP for the British group House of Lions. Once these projects are complete, Kore will continue work on a ‘top secret album project for an international artist’. While the artist’s identity remains secret, Apsion’s feelings on the console are not: ‘It seems to bring out the best in the other gear we connect to it, as the headroom is so impressive. The 1608 is a beautifully engineered, reliable and astonishing piece of equipment.’
