API 2500 Stereo Compressor

"Dat API. Doing magical things to my drum bus. What a difference!"

"new music! ft @DAwallach"

The second device is Kaskade's premastering hardware chain, "to thicken the transients."

The API 2500 compressor was used for parallel compression on Daft Punk's drum tracks during the mixing process.

Used for the drums on *Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace*, as stated by mix engineer Rich Costey in this March 2008 *Sound on Sound* interview. > **Drums: Quad 8 310, Pultec EQP1, API 550a, Neve 33609, API 2500, Lexicon 960, Urei 1176, Smart C2, SPL Transient Designer, room mics** > "I had just gotten some Quad 8 310 EQs before I began the Foo Fighters project, and I found that cranking the s[**]t out of the mid-range with the Quads helped the drums quite a lot. On most of the album the bass and snare drum went through the Quad 8s, with severe amounts of mid-range added. Quad 8 grew out of Electrodyne and was very popular in the 1970s, particularly with film companies. I obtained some channels that came out of the Motown Sunrise console and they're basically three bands of EQ and a mic pre and output level, and the Q gets tighter as you push it up. The Quad 8s are a little bit rounder and warmer-sounding than similar API modules. I also used the Pultec EQP1 and API 550a on the bass drum. > "I had a bunch of different side-chain compressors on the drums that would change from song to song. On some songs it would be the Smart C2, medium ratio and fast recovery, on others the Neve 33609, the Urei 1176, the API 2500 or the Empirical Labs Distressor, and the SPL Transient Designer on toms. You can use the SPL to lengthen the sound of the toms. I don't compress all the drums at the same time, I'll compress individual parts and mix the compressed sound in with the natural sound of the drums. There was relatively little compression implemented on the drums in this song, because the band didn't care for it. They wanted the drums to sound more raw. > "Throughout the album mix I might have used a bit of Lexicon 960 on the drums for reverb, but the room mics — amongst them a heavily compressed foldback microphone — were so good that I tended to use those. I tend to like room mics that are on the darker side. If they're too bright, you can't turn them up very loud because you then also get all kinds of messy cymbal noises. One other thing to note is the drums that come in after the intro of the song. When the whole band is slamming accents like that, you want to make the drums sound very aggressive, and this meant pushing room mics, pushing compression mics and so forth. As I said, there were a lot of rides."

The API 2500 is part of Owl City's studio equipment.

The API 2500 is the top-most module in Thomas' setup in his Instagram photo. "Setting up my 3 new little babies in the studio!! #morepunch #fatnesssss" (the one says compressor of course)

From a Q&A with Sebjak on Facebook: "Q:Matt Gorzka What waves eq & compressor do you prefer? Sebjak: I don't use waves, but the API 2500 is nice"

Used for the drum submix of "Icky Thump", as stated by recording and mixing engineer Joe Chiccarelli in this October 2007 *Sound on Sound* interview. > * Drums: Neve 8078 EQ, APSI EQ, Chandler TG1, API 2500, Chandler Zener Limiter and Curve Bender EQ > “The moment I heard Meg play that drum beat during tracking I knew that this song would call for a big, heavy drum sound, so I had to scramble to get the drums sounding as big as possible. I might have added some low end, perhaps 80Hz, to the kick, some mid around 4k to the snare, and some air, 15k or so, to the overheads. Adding 4k gave the snare some more crack and made it cut through better. I also used an old APSI graphic EQ on the kick drum — settings -2 at 35Hz, +2 at 75, and +4 at 3.5k. APSI was a ’70s offspring from API. I may also have added some bottom to the overheads with a Chandler Curve Bender, which has great low end. I loved it so much, I ended up buying one. In terms of the mix, in most cases the room microphones were not really processed. > “As far as compression is concerned, I applied a couple of drum submix compressors, probably API 2500 and Chandler Zener. On other songs I also sometimes used the SPL Transient Designer and sometimes an [Empirical Labs] Distressor. I set the API to fast attack and fast release, to get a bit of a pop to the snare, and blended that back in with the original. The Chandler has more of a round, warm, vintage sound. I set it to heavy limiting with a fast release, and blended that in to give the drums more character. I would say that the compressors were used on this album to make a statement, so I wasn’t shy of using extreme settings. I also may have sent the snare via loudspeakers to Studio A’s live room and blended that in to give more ambience.”

SSL bus compressor, Chandler Germanium pre-amp, API 2500 and Kush Audio Clariphonic EQ

at 0:11 you can see his API 2500 in the rack.

A FOH stage hand sent out a couple pictures of Chris Stapleton's live rig on May 27, 2016 in Simpsonville, SC at the Charter Spectrum Amphitheatre. The stage setup clearly matches the setup seen in various videos around the web from early-2016 shows. The API 2500 Stereo Compressor can be seen in Chris' rack setup.

"The API 2500 is just soooo cool .. I even tried to put my shoes through it.. But didn't fit"

in this photo we can see his rack equipment..

RAC in this vieo show his gears for everybody: 2:16

he says he uses this at 1;01 of the video

My favourite plugins would be the FM8, Surge, Synth1, Trash2, Kjaerhus classic, the waves API 2500 compressor, superior drummer, Drumatic 4, everything Fabfilter offers and of course Camelphat.

Hannes Bieger in his Berlin studio. His name may be unfamiliar to many, but that’s only because he works behind the scenes. Those in the know are well aware that Bieger is an in-demand sound engineer who has mixed down tracks by artists like Steve Bug, Ruede Hagelstein, and Tale Of Us. We peeked over Hannes’ shoulder while he worked in order to learn a bit more about his philosophy and his approach to his trade.

The API 2500 Stereo Compressor can be clearly seen in this image.