Bangor, Maine - Oct. 2010:
The audio engineering students at the New England School of Communications (NESCOM) benefit from top flight instructors and top flight facilities, the combination of which makes candidates holding NESCOM diplomas highly sought-after in the job market. The school keeps its seven fully appointed control rooms, remote truck and 500-seat theater current with regular equipment upgrades. The installation of an API 1608 32-channel analog console last year proved to be so popular among students and faculty that NESCOM has added a 48-channel API Vision large-frame surround sound analog console to Studio D. Like all large-frame API consoles, NESCOM's Vision was built to specification and includes hand-selected bird's eye maple trim, compressors on every channel and 560 Graphic EQs in the options bucket.
"Classes only started a few weeks ago, but already we're in love with the new Vision," said Dave MacLaughlin, executive director of audio for NESCOM. "I, and some of the other instructors, have conducted several recording sessions with students. The Vision's sound is purely magical. It's probably the best-sounding console I've ever heard. Even with the processing flat, signals come out sounding better than when they went in. In addition, the Vision looks great. It's literally awe-inspiring."
NESCOM's new Vision is being used primarily by advanced juniors and seniors working in classes and independently on music and post-production video projects. So far, two students are recording and mixing full albums on the console this semester and eight students are set to do the same in the spring. With full 5.1 monitoring in the room, the console's unique surround sound topology will be used to full advantage. Its automation will make it easy not only to produce creative and nuanced mixes, but also for students and classes to easily pick up where they left off when they had to turn the console over to someone else.
"Working with API is a joy," said MacLaughlin. "I asked them if they could trim our Vision in bird's eye maple – a wood that generations of my family, all the way back to my great-grandfather, have worked with in the handmade furniture industry. They said, 'no problem.'" In addition to the great sound, functionality, and look of the API Vision, MacLaughlin cited its build quality as one of the factors that inspired the purchase. "Unlike a lot of the other big-name consoles we have here, which go down frequently and require regular servicing to remain functional, our API boards have always been remarkably well-built. Because our studios are running full-tilt all the time, that's a huge boost to our student's productivity," he enthused.
