Looking for API 1604 from Baltimore

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Greetings all. In about 2002 / 03 my family business, Flite Three Recordings in Baltimore, Md. went out of business. There was an old API 1604 in the main audio room there that was sold at auction when the facility closed. The man that operated that console for 30 years, Louis R. Mills Jr., just passed away. He was known as the godfather of audio in Baltimore and mentored countless engineers, myself included. In preparation for a memorial party, I'm editing a video and would love to have some pictures of that console. If you have it or know who does, you would be putting a huge smile on the collective faces of the entire audio community in Baltimore if you could send a few shots of it.
Thanks for any help locating the fabled beast.
'Frank Ayd

[drew]

Sorry to hear that Frank. My condolences to you and his family.

Good luck finding some pics.

[AdAudioInc]

Thanks Drew. I'll miss that man a lot.
Did you ever meet him?

[DaveDaveDave]

Originally Posted by AdAudioInc

Greetings all. In about 2002 / 03 my family business, Flite Three Recordings in Baltimore, Md. went out of business. There was an old API 1604 in the main audio room there that was sold at auction when the facility closed. The man that operated that console for 30 years, Louis R. Mills Jr., just passed away. He was known as the godfather of audio in Baltimore and mentored countless engineers, myself included. In preparation for a memorial party, I'm editing a video and would love to have some pictures of that console. If you have it or know who does, you would be putting a huge smile on the collective faces of the entire audio community in Baltimore if you could send a few shots of it.
Thanks for any help locating the fabled beast.
'Frank Ayd

I've never dealt with API, but an acquaintance of mine works for them as a field tech and he describes the crew like family. I think you might actually have some luck calling API up directly - as anyone buying a used API console very well might have called them up for service, info, etc. If they can't put you directly in contact with the new owner, perhaps they could forward your information on to them?

Good luck!

Dave

[gearslug]

It's funny I don't come here much but something told me to and i ran across your post. First I'm sorry for your loss ;- (
Second I'm actually the guy who bought it and boy did it need some work! I did a full refurb on it and wound up selling it. It now belongs to Rick Rubin and is making records as we speak.
I have lots of pics of it I can send to you send if you would like, pm your email
warm regards,
Bill

[drew]

Originally Posted by AdAudioInc

Thanks Drew. I'll miss that man a lot.
Did you ever meet him?

No, I never had the opportunity sadly.

[wckenney]

As the 1970 co-founder of Flite Three Recordings I bought that console for Louis in 1978 when The Ayd Corporation took over Flite Three. I built the monitor section and added more relays than what two pinball machines used. Once I left in 1979 Rick Seaby replaced the relays with a more sensible design, although the functionality remained the same for the life of the console. The monitor section had the ability to switch between the big speakers (Altec 604E’s) and the little speakers which I called RW Speakers for Real World. I think that may have been a first. I’d love to see some photos of it. Craig wcraigkenney@msn.com

[AdAudioInc]

Hey WC, thanks for the information. I remember the RW's being auratones and the big speakers were Urie 813's, but I wasn't using that console until about 1985. Do you remember the "coin return" on the big API? That always made me laugh. Keep in touch and I'll let you know when the memorial party is.

Thanks
'Frank Ayd IV

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Vincent Price, Louis Mills, Betsy Harmatz, Frank Ayd III
One of my favorite pictures.
Kenny, it's rumored that you're in the photo also - behind the MCI machine trying to get enough channels working to have the session!

'Frank IV

[wckenney]

I had forgotten about the coin return. As I remember (but I could be wrong) I put Altec 604’s in Studio A in 78/79 when I (with Frank III's financial support) completely re-outfitted the room. They could have been changed to 813’s later on. 813’s were great, but I really hated 604’s. Urei used a modified version of the 604 that included a wider flair horn. What I can’t remember is what I put in A in 1970 for monitors, although I remember everything else in the room including the Suburban Sound console. Sadly the person who would know is now gone.


Craig

[bhaudio]

Craig--i think the 604's were in studio A when i started, in 1974. The 803's came in the late 70's. i remember the "speaker test" in studio C on a Saturday, when about 3 or 4 pairs of huge speakers were lined up across the front of that huge control room in studio C, and we were all blindfolded to see if we could tell the differences, and what our preferences were, remember that? i think the 803's were purchased as a result of that test :-) anyone else remember that?

[rseaby]

I spent quite a few satisfying years at Flite 3 (in both its iterations - audio and then video) first as a freelance maintenance engineer and later as VP of Engineering. Both API consoles had an amazingly warm sound, due mostly to the descrete OpAmp that they manufactured and used throughout the product. I actually still have an "unpotted" one (not filled with epoxy) that Craig "borrowed" from the production line when he went to pickup the console. I designed and converted the monitor section to FET switching to get rid of all the relays. I also converted studio A to a "live-end - dead end" design with the quadratic diffusers and the UREI time-aligned monitors. Boy I miss those days. I do not miss, however, the cassette duplicator.... what a beast! Also spent many hours working on the 3M 24 track that "took a dip" in the harbor.

[AdAudioInc]

Rick - I loved the cassette duplicator!
Of course, I was about 5 years old, and just loved watching the tape spool through that thing at mach 2! But I remember how it just made the whole room smell like tape.

'Frank IV

[wckenney]

And while we are traveling down memory lane. . . Yes, the cassette duplicator did go fast – 120 IPS. But don’t knock the cassette duplicator - it, and it alone, was the driving force behind Dr. Ayd’s purchase of Flite Three.


Rick: You thief! I don’t want it back but I reserve visitation rights. Don’t let it out of your site, there are folks out there who'd pay dearly for an un-potted 2520.

[rseaby]

Hey Craig, my good buddy! You gave it to me to reverse engineer (which I actually did shortly after you left Flite Three,) so I held onto it for "safe keeping." I may still have my hand drawn copy of the schematic, but lord knows what box it is in down in my basement. I do, however, know exactly where the unpotted 2520 is. It isn't going anywhere! You can visit it anytime you want!

[AdAudioInc]

Assassins sent by Paul Wolff are on their way to your house right now.

[AdAudioInc]

Deviating from the original topic, but we have such a great collection of Flite Three family here, I'd like to post some pix. But, I'm saving the best for the memorial party.

Here is studio C in its final revision as an audio studio. It was called AudioMaster, Baltimore, and was a joint venture between Jeff Kidwell and I. The console was a Neotek Elite (I think) with a Neve 80something sidecar that we used for preamps and the channel comps. Urei 803 monitors, U87 on the stand, auratone RW speakers and my Honda XL650 that I used to ride down the hallway and park in the studio.

[AdAudioInc]

More of the control room with Neve visible. Also 47FET, Senn 441, Da88's.
In the rack: Eventide harmonizer, lexicon delay, Lang Eq at the bottom? DBX 166 comp?

[AdAudioInc]

And here is Louis' famous studio A. API 1604 as discussed (not one of the great shots that Bill so generously provided), AMS/Neve Audiofile Spectra - the fastest audio editor ever made, a pair of 1176's, Studer B67 that was full track mono, and gee I have no idea where that Bud can would have come from

[AdAudioInc]

Also one of my favorite pictures ever. I would have saved this one, but it's already making the rounds. Louis teaching, as only Louis could in studio A.

[Karen Groncki]

Frank, I have several photos of Louis dated back to 1980 - 1984. I worked with Louis for over 10 yrs. Unfortunately I do not have any pictures of him in front of the console. Let me know if you would like me to e-mail the old photos I have of him to you. I will be in town in a few weeks and would love to attend the Memorial Party. Please keep me informed.
K

[RemyRAD]

It was a real shock for me to hear about Louis. I had talked to him just a couple of months earlier. I was going to call him again when I heard the news.

Hi Craig! It's Remy. It's been too long since I've seen you. Oh wow, whatever happened to the API in studio C? I see that old JH 10-24 moved into studio A. I don't remember if Marshall/Leon Golnick got that Ampex MM 1000-8? I don't think we ripped that out. We ripped everything else out of studio A. I still have some components of the old SSI console, the microphone preamps. I also have the stereo mixer and the Mono mixer from that SSI. Or at least the same ones swapped out with someone else for a different colored scheme, dark yellow instead of gray. But I still have the original Mike preamps. That was a sad day for me. But in working for Golnick directly, I was hauled into this. I took no joy in what they were doing to Louis. Sadly that gear was taken to Florida where most of it got tossed. I was able to save the most important components only. As being given the order to dispose of it, I threw it out into my apartment (not the frame though). The original Altec 604E's ended up going into Greg Golnick's living room. I used them for a while and replaced the horns with the UREI's and purchased the Big Red Mastering Lab crossovers. Anybody interested in a AKG BX 20E from Louis' control A? Yup, I got that too.

Hi Rick. I think I talked to you back in 1976? Weren't you working for WLIF?

Whatever became of control/studio B? When I was there in 1973, it had that crap TEAC Model 10, UGH. Hey! Remember that ARP 2600? I used that thing to pulse hundreds of AV slideshows, LOL.

I remember one night I was in control B, editing commercials for Louis. He came into my control room and started screaming at me. He was reading me the riot act for what I did not know? He had had a pair of 1/3 octave equalizers on his monitors. I think Gene Meros walked into his control room for whatever reason and changed those equalizers around? He thought I had done it but I didn't. Another night he came into my control room and asked me to go into A with him. He was mixing the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. I think he had taken too many of his pills and was asking me if the oboe solo was precisely and exactly in the center of the stereo image. I found that to be rather queer (just a figure of speech)? We're all family here aren't we? By the way you know you broke that BX 20 when you took it out for a remote and put it in the trunk of your car. I also remember you cutting out the wizzer cones from your Pontiac Delco speakers. I'm sure you also heard that 10 years ago, Tom and Janet Bray both passed away from pancreatic cancer. You gave him the job as chief maintenance engineer on my recommendation after you offered that job to me at 16 years of age. Remember what I told you when I turned you down? I just wanted to be a production and music guy. Thanks for hiring me for that a few months later. Whatever became of Bob Bragg? He was your bookkeepers son and I was the guy that trained him. He was the reason I quit. I was working for you guys at the then minimum wage rate of $1.65 per hour. You hired Bob and asked me to train him while you were paying him $2.50 per hour. I was deeply hurt by that action, c'est la vie. If I had been more mature at 17, I would've just asked you for a raise to the same equivalent. But I was young and opportunistic and felt I had been disrespected. I know that wasn't the case today. Wow, I could go on?

Craig I don't think you ever knew about the time, I was working after high school, late. I was the only one left in the building. Louis and you had not given me any ADT card even though I had a key to the front door and knew how to turn on the alarm upon my exit. So as I'm leaving after midnight, I opened the front door and suddenly, numerous flashlights and 6 guys with guns and uniforms on ordered me to the ground. I thought I was going to be shot? Apparently, some guy broke into the gas station, exited the gas station and broke into the back door at the studio. He went in and I came out. So after an in-depth explanation, Louis was called and awakened at home. I left with my head still attached. LOL now. I really wish I had taken some pictures when I was there. I was really into photography at the time and can't believe I never took any? None. I'll never forget Bunky "*****rack", and I thought I was weird? I still have some old tapes of jingles, commercials, back then. Every now and then I would answer the phone at night and this guy would ask if he could speak to Louis. I would tell this person "he is in session, May I ask who's calling?" And it was George Massenburg. I wanted to talk to him this past October at my 39th attendance of the AES in NYC. Unfortunately he was too inundated by faithful Associates and fans. So was not much more than a hello and I'm sorry from him. Craig I would love to get together with you and see you and pass some time. Please drop me an e-mail at info@crowmobile.com or leave me a message at 202-239-7412 and I'll get back to you.

Betsy, I wish we could also talk but I know you hate me because Phil has been my best friend since 1971. He knows how poorly he treated you. He feels bad about that and he should. He actually grew up. And I'm proud of him for that. He's basically the big brother I never had since I'm the same age as Allen and Mark. Hard to believe he's a faithful and loyal husband and fabulous father to his 2 kids. Unfortunately, Max passed away a few days ago and the funeral is Friday the 17th at 10 AM at Sol Levinson funeral home on Reisterstown Road. Time heals all wounds or so I hope? Sorry this was so lengthy. I really wanted to hook up with everybody. I found out about the memorial the day after along with his subsequent passing. I remember always saying hello to Louis at every AES NYC from 17 years of age to 54. He was ripped away from this world too early.

Remy David
a.k.a.
Remy Altschuler