Blasting Room co-owner and chief engineer Jason Livermore discovered API Audio ‘pretty much immediately upon becoming interested in pursuing the recording arts’. The impact was still strong when the studio recently approached local dealer Wind over the Earth for a new mixing console.

The studio’s history began in 1994, when members of punk rock band The Descendents (later ALL and Black Flag) built it as a personal recording facility. But from the day it opened, other people wanted to use it to record. While the band is from California, they chose Fort Collins, Colorado, to build their studio, where ‘it has grown into the multiple room studio that it is today, recording some of the biggest names in the industry’.

Almost all of Rise Against’s discography was recorded and produced tere, including the American platinum single ‘Savior’. The studio has also worked with Alkaline Trio, Flobots, Air Dubai, Puddle of Mudd and The Lemonheads.

Like the studio, its new API 1608 analogue mixing desk has been busy since it was installed. One of the more eclectic sessions was brought to the studio by Japanese ska band Kemuri, who cut their eighth record at The Blasting Room. Livermore says the 1608 has kept up admirably: ‘The console is exactly what we had hoped for and expected from API. Extremely clean and sleek design, intuitive functionality, and the ability to craft our tones into exactly how we want to hear them.’

While the console has made business flow more smoothly, it has also changed a few things – Livermore says for the better: ‘Before, we just had an ITB [in-the-box]set-up with eight channels of summing, but now we have the ability to lay out entire sessions on the desk and mix from there, which has been a huge improvement.’

In reference to the 1608, Livermore says ‘it’s perfect for our room’, and is routinely used for everything from tracking drums or individual instruments to recording live bands.

More: www.blastingroomstudios.com
More: www.apiaudio.com