Offering an exceptionally wide and true stereo image since its release in 2002, the 2500 is famous for its signature tone and analog warmth. In an age of sterile digital sound, the 2500 enhances mixes across virtually all musical genres, from classical and jazz to pop and rock.  

Not surprisingly, the 2500 has found a home in the live market as well, with a large percentage of tours carrying one or more 2500 Stereo Bus Compressors for main, subgroup and monitor mix buses. With the standard for live sound now being digital front of house and monitor consoles, the 2500 has been proven invaluable in providing punch, fat bottom end and warmth.

Now, with well over 4,000 original 2500 units in service today, API announces the 2500+. While retaining all the functional and sonic characteristics of the original 2500, the 2500+ adds several additional design parameters that have been carefully incorporated into the original unit. The result? The same great API sound with an enhanced feature set including:

• Expanded Threshold control of +20db to -20db (from the original +10db to -20db)
• New ‘Blend/Mix’ function 
• Featured in the limited production 50th Anniversary Edition, the Blend/Mix function offers both cross fader and parallel mix control of the compressed and uncompressed signals.

A full list of features and specifications can be found on API’s website.

“Over the past 18 years, many improvements have been made to the 2500, some small and some larger,” API’s Director of Engineering Todd Humora noted. “The 2500+ is an evolution of the 2500, with the addition of a few key features that our users have had on their wish lists for quite some time! We’re very grateful for the ongoing success of the 2500 and it’s our hope that the new 2500+ will allow for even greater creativity among its users in the studio, and in the live market.”

The 862 features a combination of the 550A EQ and 312 Mic Preamp 50th Anniversary Editions, integrating the original 500 Series pcb’s exactly as they were designed by API’s founder, the legendary Saul Walker. The result is a vintage-style, highly collectable and incredible sounding API classic. Each 862 Anniversary Edition is individually serialised denoting its status as part of a limited run of only 50 units. Painstakingly assembled and carefully hand wired, the 862 is a true work of art and a rare piece of recording history. 

Next, the new 50th Anniversary Edition 2500 Bus Compressor features a vintage style optimised with a several new features, including flexible output mix blending, LED gain reduction meters, premium VU meters, and a 2U, gold-faced chassis. As with the 862, a limited run of 50 units will be produced. Carefully designed to deliver API’s signature analog sound, the 2500-AE delivers warmth, clarity and punch, whether used for subtle adjustments or heavy compression effects.

DIGITAL BRAIN, ANALOGUE MIND

The ‘Analogue DAW’ (as I’ve christened it) was not much different than the average digital setup. My ‘tape machine’ consisted of two Apogee Ensembles linked together, providing 16 channels into Logic with no processing. My ‘console’ was a mixed bag of preamps including two API 512Cs, a Focusrite ISA428, a JLM NV500 and TG500, and a lunchbox of Neve 1073LBs. The onboard Apogee preamps covered the remaining channels.
I set up a 24×8 template in Logic to replicate a large format console, albeit with some custom mods. On the individual drum channels I stuck to Waves’ SSL G-Series channel strip plug-ins, and used a combination of Neve, Universal Audio, Pultec and API EQs and compressors for the rest of the tracks. For ambience I used Lexicon PCM reverbs and our lovely old Roland RE-201 Space Echo. I tried to live without Sound Toys’ Decapitator, but couldn’t — and I’m not sorry about that!
With the understanding that analogue studios don’t come with infinite outboard gear, I kept the plug-in count low and was careful not to use multiple iterations of the same plug-in; channel strip and common console EQs were the exception. I applied most of the compression to the auxiliary buses, and I was able to stick to only two or three ambient plug-ins plus the Space Echo per song.
All automation was done on an Avid Mix and printed to replicate the analogue process; I was lucky in this respect as the band’s ability to balance themselves as they played meant automation was minimal anyway. No time-based or pitched-based editing tools were used on any of the tracks. There really is no substitute for a good band, locked in together!

A NEW DAW-N

The ‘Analogue DAW’ process was indeed eye-opening. Making decisions on-the-fly and sticking to them is outside of our collective DAW comfort zones, but is a completely liberating experience; the mere act of trying something new moves us forward and forces us to learn and accept new ways of thinking. However, I’m adamant that the allure of using purely analogue gear is secondary to the feeling of being in the moment. Taking a risk and committing to a sound is a far more romantic concept than the equipment used. I suspect that what these analogue proponents are trying to convey when they speak so positively about analogue processes is not so much the gear itself but the joy and thrill of being decisive, critical and ultimately satisfied with the choices you make. It is exhilarating, and it transforms the recording process by creating high-stakes realism that you don’t get when you know you can fix it later.
I’m sure that when the analogue proponents of the world criticise the digital process, they are reacting against one of the worst of digital’s excesses — the over-production that comes with endless possibilities. If I’ve proved anything in my sessions with the Suicide Swans, it’s this: you absolutely don’t need a console and a tape-machine to experience a sense of immediacy and connection with the music you’re creating. That particular joy comes from the constraints we place on ourselves, not from the limitations of the equipment we use.
The digital recording process can lead down endless rabbit holes of options and revisions, but the solution isn’t to throw out all of digital’s advantages with its disadvantages. To do that smacks of analogue elitism. My advice? Set yourself some limitations to maintain your focus. And if you decide to use 36 CLA-1176 plug-ins on your mixes, f**k ‘em… you do you.

Benjamin Lancaster is a multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and engineer at By The Living Grace Studio in Brisbane, Queensland.