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Author Topic: APB Pro Desk 4  (Read 88723 times)

John Roberts {JR}

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Re: APB Pro Desk 4
« Reply #20 on: April 08, 2009, 08:45:38 PM »

Must be a cool club. I didn't recognize one group except for  "battle of the bands",  they seem to be everywhere...  Laughing

JR
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Jason Dermer

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Re: APB Pro Desk 4
« Reply #21 on: April 08, 2009, 08:56:05 PM »

It's not a bad little place. They have decent techs that keep it running smooth and have us in every couple of months to do a full maintenence run through. They get some baby nationals that aren't yet big enough for the Pony on top of a good local scene. Every once in awhile they will have a bigger act on an off night, I went to see the Tony Levin Band on a Tuesday there not long ago.
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Jason Dermer
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cell: 732-616-3463
office: 732-938-3100

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Steve Payne

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Re: APB Pro Desk 4
« Reply #22 on: April 11, 2009, 05:40:43 PM »

We took delivery on our 24 channel ProDesk in mid March and have been putting it through the paces.  I put our order in a year ago when Chuck and the guys first announced the ProDesk.  I have to say it was worth the wait.  We replaced a Crest HP-8.  As soon as the money starts flowing in a bit this season I plan to order a second ProDesk and replace our Midas Venice.  I don't have time to do a really in depth review, but would like to share some quick thoughts.  #1 is, this is the little desk I have wanted someone to build for 20 years.  It is built like a tank.  Has every feature I could want and it sounds great.  That's about it in a nutshell.  Things I really like:
[]  as with all of APB's previous products - the sweep high pass filter.  I do not think it can be overstated how much more powerful and usable the rest of the consoles eq becomes when it is not crippled by a fixed freq HPF.
[]  and speaking of eq (and mic pres!) they are responsive and a joy to use.
[]  metering - everywhere.  Really cool is the Master / PFL metering which can be switched to display:  RMS/Peak/RMS+Peak (my favorite.)  We can thank JR for this really cool contribution to the ProDesk!
[]  USB in and out with high quality on board AD/DA converters.  Really cool to simply plug your laptop into the USB port on the ProDesk and be able to playback Itunes libraries for walk in/fill music as well as make a 2 track archival recording into Garage Band, Peak, etc....  easy,easy,easy!
[]  On board dual redundant PS (second PS optional, but I wouldn't have it any other way.)
Hot swappable.  If required, they can be changed out in about 60 seconds with a phillips head screw driver.  Complete PS status is displayed next to the Master Meters.  No more lugging around external PS racks.
[]  Headroom - forever.
[]  The pro level features just go on and on.  BIG lighted solo buttons.  BIG lighted mute buttons. (in fact, indicator lights for most of the more important functions). 4 mute groups. A really cool Subs on an Aux routing scheme. On board 1k/pink noise generator.  A ton of other really useful stuff without one "stupid" feature.
[]  It is just plain FUN to mix on a console that sounds this good and is this easy to use.

Very Happy  Very Happy  Very Happy

As with all of the other APB products, if you're looking for the cheapest entry price, this won't be it.  If you are looking for an absolutely amazing value in a full bore, no regrets pro tool....check it out.


Front of House duties for the Irish Festival -2 days, 20 bands, great fun.

index.php/fa/22203/0/
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steve

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Steve Payne

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Re: APB Pro Desk 4
« Reply #23 on: April 11, 2009, 05:42:34 PM »

and doing 6 monitor mixes the next week.

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steve

"My favorite things turn money into noise"

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John Roberts {JR}

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Re: APB Pro Desk 4
« Reply #24 on: April 11, 2009, 07:54:28 PM »

Steve Payne wrote on Sat, 11 April 2009 16:40


[]  metering - everywhere.  Really cool is the Master / PFL metering which can be switched to display:  RMS/Peak/RMS+Peak (my favorite.)  We can thank JR for this really cool contribution to the ProDesk!



Glad you like the meters... I am very pleased with this project. Very Happy It was a pleasure working with the APB crew, and I really appreciated their design chops and attention to detail.

One minor point the VU response is average, just like a real VU meter.  JP actually fired up a real VU meter next to a ProDesk meter prototype in VU mode and we dialed in the attack/release time constant to be to be the same visually.

Note: the Peak mode uses 4 mSec attack time similar to the PPM peak meter standard, but used the same release time constant as VU mode so in Pk+VU mode when the signal decays, the gap between Peak and VU display will remain steady.

JR

PS: My favorite meter mode is "Peak+ VU" too... Hard to image not using both if you can.

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Brett Smith

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Re: APB Pro Desk 4
« Reply #25 on: April 12, 2009, 04:47:12 PM »

Hey folks, Brett Smith here.  Haven't posted much on these boards, but I told Jason I would post up some reviews.  I'm one of the main house techs and engineers at the "Saint" in Asbury Park.  I also do some studio work as an engineer and producer.  

Took delivery of this demo console early this week.  We almoast couldn't fit it into our FOH booth, but with the removal of a few screws and some TLC, got it to fit.  I have worked this venue for 4 years and know the frequency response of this room like the back of my hand.  

All I can say, is WOW!!  I really dont want to give this board back.  The transparency is superb, seperation is simply amazing, preamps remain incredibly stable under high gain. The amount of head room in the subgroups and master bus section really says something about the quality of this console.  I was able to kiss the limiters of the driverack while only hitting a few yellow leds on the master bus, something the Midas board is not capable of without coming dangerously close to clipping the master bus.  EQ is powerful, but not too powerful.  For the first time in this club I was able to make a 58 sound exactly the way I wanted it to.  Under normal circumstances, I would be desiring a third parametric, but you simply dont need it on this console.  The LF reproduction took me by surprise and even caught the ears of some regulars.  It was tight, punchy and more importantly, "UNIFORM."  The LF holes weren't half as bad as they normally are with the Midas.  Like Jason said, "It's like taking a tarp off the mains"

As far as the layout, everything is set up to be extremly user friendly.  I have mixed on the Spectra T plenty of times before, so I had a slight advantage, but still, the learning curve is almost nothing.  Faders and knobs have a solid, quality feel to them.  I've always been a fan of knobs that have a slight bit of resistance.  It really helps against accidentally sending signal when your doing a 1000 things at once.

Props to the guys at APB for building another superb console.  I will be convincing my club owner to buy one ASAP!  

My first test drive of the console was with an instrumental electronica band.  All members are superb musicians and have top notch gear.  I decided to throw up a ton of inputs to see what this board was capable of.  I will upload a sample of the live recording.  Recording was a live matrix with  2 MXL 90 LDC mics ((x,y)10 feet from stage hanging from ceiling) and 2track board mix.  Heres the input list.

1.Kick In - D6
2.Kick Out - Homemade subkick
3.Snare - I5
4.Hats - SM 81
5.Rack 1 - D2
6.Floor - D4
7.OH - KSM 141
8.OH - KSM 141
9.Bass DI - Radial J48
10.Bass Mic - MD 421
11.Gtr - 57
12.Keys - Groove Tubes passive
13.Keys - Groove tubes passive
14.Congas - 57
15.Misc percussion - SM 81
16. Guest Gtr - 609
17.Vox 1 - MD 431 II
18.Vox 2 -  58
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Brett Smith

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Re: APB Pro Desk 4
« Reply #26 on: April 12, 2009, 06:19:15 PM »

http://media1.youshare.com/Guest/17775b966acff5ad-T.jpg



These mixes are fresh off the disk.  No mastering.  

2 MXL90 large diaphragm condenser mics in x,y, hung from the ceiling 10 feet from the stage, feeding a cheap Yamaha line mixer with a HPF at 80HZ and stock yamaha channel compression, combined with a flat board mix from the Prodesk with no compression.  Heavier on the board mix, lighter on the house mics.  
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Brett Smith

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Re: APB Pro Desk 4
« Reply #27 on: April 12, 2009, 06:24:40 PM »

http://media1.youshare.com/Guest/17775b966acff5ad-T.jpghttp://media1.youshare.com/Guest/8073fee4a9e6d535-T.jpg

Heres another.  

The stereo image this board acheives is enough to put a devilshed little smile on anyones face!
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Teri Hogan

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Re: APB Pro Desk 4
« Reply #28 on: April 25, 2009, 08:08:54 PM »

APB just informed me that Phil Junior (my APB ProDesk 4) has left the building!  Of course, it's headed to OptiCase, my case builder, so Opti Dave can build it some new clothes before we put it to work.  I can't wait!
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Randy Gartner

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Re: APB Pro Desk 4
« Reply #29 on: May 03, 2009, 09:23:13 PM »

Jason's description " sounds like we just took a tarp off the mains" is exactly what I thought the first time I mixed on an APB console.My system consists of JBL loaded custom Muelller Boxes from Mueller Speaker,QSC PLX amps,Ashley Protea and Crest X4 console.Not a shabby system.But just susbsituting the APB console for the Crest X4 made my system seem cleaner. The vocals were crystal clear and the instruments had more punch.It kind of put space between everything in the mix.
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