Innovations In Analog

Today’s recording and mixing needs are more varied than ever before. Do you record symphony orchestras or make weekly Podcasts from your living room couch? With the growing amount of creativity, everyone’s needs are different and impossible to address efficiently in the traditional console designs of the past.

The mixing console of the future will be created by YOU, the artist.

We will soon have available the Rupert Neve Designs 5088 modular console. The 5088 will be a 16 channel, expandable high performance mixing platform, providing the traditional faders, I/O’s, Aux’s and bussing allowing you to use the Portico Series modules or any other of your favorite tools to complete your design.

The architecture of the console will incorporate all new discrete op amp cards instead of IC’s to elimate crossover distortion. We are also incorporating our custom designed transformers on all inputs and outputs to provide the sweet sound of Rupert’s classic designs as well as a true floating ground that electrically isolates the console.

YOU will decide which mic pre’s, EQ’s, dynamics and so on will be used. This modular concept allows you to build your system as you grow and change it as your requirements change. There are no boundaries or protocols and does not discriminate between new or vintage gear. You are the creator.

-Kevin

There have always been benefits of both analog and digital, but before I continue, you and I must ask ourselves: What is the end result we are listening for?

Ultimately I believe we are searching for the “best quality” sound, but how do you define quality? is subjective and therefore cannot be defined without a point of reference. What is YOUR point of reference? Do you remember the “best quality” sound you have ever heard?

The widespread availability of computers makes digital recording a perfect creative tool, but often imperfect sound. There is still something lacking or we wouldn’t be asking this question time and time again. It can easily be demonstrated that good analog I/O’s make a very noticeable difference in the
final outcome of a digital product. The less analog used in the signal path generally means the final product will sound less “alive” which can only be fixed by a strong dose of analog.

The “war” between analog and digital has mostly been a war of propaganda (marketing). Do you remember the disclaimers on early Compact Discs that warned you may hear imperfections that were there in the original (analog) recording! In some ways we have traded old imperfections for new imperfections. There have been some remarkable advances in digital technology but I feel that in the spirit of invention they have lost sight of their point of reference. They have forgotten their roots!

I am reminded of a conversation overheard between Rupert Neve and a young digital designer. The young man said he had invented a new EQ algorithm. “How does it sound?” Rupert asked. There was a long pause and the inventor restated, as if Rupert did not hear him correctly, “….uh….it’s an ALGORITHM”

Eventually all digital must end up as analog. Is it possible to have the best analog sound combined with the best digital performance and flexibility? The answer is: YES, BUT because our design passions and goals are different, the divide that currently exists in the technologies must be bridged before we can move forward. Unfortunately some technological brick walls are being designed into IC’s (especially AD-DA converter IC’s) that make it difficult or impossible to move forward. How do you get a 150 dB dynamic range out of a 3 volt power supply?

Both technologies are completely valid. Digital audio has been improving and some of it is quite good but I fear it may take a turn for the worse if the consumer does not demand better. We are in this business to express ourselves through sound. How frustrating it must be for the artist who, after recording, says “I spent years practicing this song and thousands of dollars on this violin- why does it sound like a keyboard?”

We are often asked “How can I make my digital recording sound better?” The Portico range is our first answer to that question. No one has asked me yet, “How can I make my converter chip sound better?

-Kevin

In the years before 1961 I designed mixing consoles for professional use using valves (tubes). Transistors were new, expensive, unreliable and did not provide the performance required for high quality music.

The disadvantage with Valves was that they were large, very inefficient, had a relatively short life, were “microphonic” and had inconsistent performance. Studios were known to have their equipment in pieces prior to an important session to change out valves, hoping to find some that sounded really good!

As the Pop Music Industry began to take shape it became evident that to provide the extensive features that recording engineers were starting to ask for, better technical solutions were going to be needed.

Ca 1964 -65 RUPERT NEVE & COMPANY


The original Neve Modules were custom designed for Phillips Records Ltd. London studio who wanted a very specific type of EQ in order to edit the levels of instruments in a mix that was already recorded. At that time there were no multi-track recorders; the final “take” in the recording session was the “Master”. Any desired changes in balance meant that the artists must be recalled and another session set up. I configured Equalizer circuits with transistors that would have been almost impossible or at least very cumbersome, with valves. Because the performance of professional valve amplifiers was very good, I spent many weeks, burned many midnight hours, in fear and trembling and prayer in the hope that these
transistor designs would be at least as good as the valves.

The results turned out to be very gratifying and my clients soon accepted that the new Rupert Neve & Company transistor designs were actually cleaner and more open than what they were used to.

These designs were configured much like the valve designs that they replaced: they were Single-Sided’, that is to say they were not “push-pull”. A “push-pull” configuration makes use of two amplifying devices where the signal is split into positive and negative half cycles and each half is handled by one device. In the middle of the transfer between the two halves, the signal crosses over. If it can do this seamlessly all is well but it is almost impossible to achieve this crossover without a small “kink”
in the transfer characteristic. Unfortunately this affects the signal at very low levels and the human hearing mechanism is particularly sensitive to the tiny amounts of harmonic that result.

For a number of years we used single-sided circuits until these, in turn, became too large and cumbersome for the many features that had to be crammed in to a modern Console.

Ca 1973 -75 NEVE ELECTRONICS INTERNATIONAL

We devised some very good “push-pull” amplifiers using discrete components but they were never quite as sweet sounding as the old single-sided originals.

Crossover distortion is not the only enemy a designer has to wrestle with. Multiple features result in enormous proliferation of circuits. Each one adds its tiny contribution of noise and distortion and limitation of bandwidth.

Ca 1978 - 82 NEVE ELECTRONICS INTERNATIONAL

1985 - 89 FOCUSRITE LIMITED

1989 - 2003 AMEK SYSTEMS AND CONTROLS LTD (System 9098EQ. 9098 Console.
PURE PATH R modules)

As the consoles grew in size and features we started to use some exceptionally good Integrated Circuits that became available. Bandwidth was extended to beyond 200 kHz. Dynamic range was superb and distortion was almost un-measurable. But golden-eared professionals could perceive a microscopic difference in the miniscule harmonic content.

I was never entirely satisfied!

More midnight hours of wrestling and praying over the search for perfection forced me to the conclusion that we must return to the simplest possible topologies. The break-through came when I realized that we could achieve the sweet sound we wanted using discrete transistors and new transformers that are smaller and more efficient than those of 40 years ago! (Not surprising, really!)

It was time to put new designs to the test!

With the use of all new discrete op amps instead of IC’s and our custom designed transformers on the inputs and outputs, Portico TM modules will never be as small or as cheap as the products of some other designers, but they give me pleasure when I listen to them as I trust they do to countless others.

-Rupert