Audio Productions (API), a commercial audio production, broadcast services and voice recording company established in Nashville in 1986, has expanded its operations to a new facility, equipping the new control rooms with three identical custom Argosy 70 Series desks.
A fixture on the city’s famed Music Row for the past 25 years, API recently purchased a larger building that provides more space for its core business, which includes syndicated media events, satellite radio tours and live broadcast production.
The three Argosy 70 Series desks are configured to house API’s three Mackie Digital 8 Bus mixing consoles. “We bought the new furniture because we had all this custom, hand-built stuff at our previous location that was very heavy. For the new facility, we wanted to go with something a little more streamlined,” explains Jim Reyland, company co-founder and president.
The new move enabled API to build out a larger main studio that is about three times the size of the previous one, according to Reyland.
In addition to a 72-input Mackie D8B console, each 70 Series desk also houses a Pro Tools|HD3 system. “We worked with Argosy for over a year, planning what we were going to buy and getting it here and putting it together,” Reyland continues. “We put the desks together while we were in the process of doing our renovation, then we were able to move them around in the rooms and figure out where things were going to go to suit the way we work. So it helped to have them delivered a little early.”
API found its niche 25 years ago and hasn’t looked back, according to Reyland. “There’s really not much we can’t do with audio,” he says. “We don’t make records, but we do everything else you can imagine.” For example, “We work with all of the major country record labels in town and we do a lot of press conferences and album release parties, and are involved in all kinds of high-end audio.”
To match the look of the items of studio furniture that were brought over from the previous facility, API ordered the new Argosy desks with unfinished wood side panels. “One of our associates here custom finished those side panels to match the oak pieces that we had that came with us from the old space, and it worked out really well,” Reyland reports.
API also keeps busy with ADR and voice recording work, says Reyland, recently shooting ADR for “CSI” with Ted Danson, and cutting some radio spots with Powers Booth. Actors on location in the area also drop by to shoot ADR for their shows, he says. API additionally performs 5.1 mixes for networks such as CMT and GAC, and has worked on commercials, promos and audio packages for the Grand Ole Opry and broadcast productions such as the Dove, Stellar and Trumpet Awards ceremonies.
