Classic Neve Consoles 1961 to date (Story #2)

For the second tale of amazing Neve consoles we need to take a time machine back 20 years to late 1977. Four years had passed since Rupert Neve and Company were acquired by the Bonochord group of companies (later to be renamed Energy Services and Equipment) and Rupert has subsequently left the company he had founded to form another called Nevenco, based in Hills Road, Cambridge. I recall seeing advertisements for Nevenco consoles in Studio Sound, and they appeared to be small broadcast style consoles. Are there any still around?

Back at the Neve factory major changes had taken place with a complete re-styling of the product range into "New Appearance Design" (NAD). The RAF Blue Grey paint work was replaced with Extra Dark Sea Grey, the Marconi control knobs were replaced with a custom Neve designed version, and all the lettering changed from upper case to lower case. The circle of dots around the control knobs also changed to a divided part circle. An easy way to establish a module's paint colour is to check if the module number has a 3 prefix. A 1084 module is RAF Blue Grey, a 31084 is NAD Extra Dark Sea Grey.

Current console production was 8058's, 68's and 78's with an ever increasing range of smaller 53 and 54 broadcast consoles. Meanwhile, in the very depths of the Neve sales machine, a project is stirring and the outline specification of a radical custom console is being finalised. The customer is AIR Recording Studios and the destination for the finished console is the idyllic West Indies island of Montserratt.

The 52 Channel, 24 Track console is the brainchild of two of the best respected names in pro audio, George Martin of AIR and Rupert Neve. Also involved in the design was Geoff Watts (with Rupert since his early days at the Priesthaus) and the project engineering was by Graham Wood.

The desk (A4792), although outwardly similar to an 8078, was a totally new concept taking some radical design departures from the more conventional Neve consoles. First, the console ran from + 15 volt rails and was designed around the TDA1034 operational amplifier I.C., later to become the NE5534. The custom wound audio transformers differed from stock Neve product by their toroidally wound construction.

The 31106 equaliser might appear to be a close cousin to the 8078's 31105 but the similarities end at the paint finish and choice of knobs! The equaliser frequencies for the 31106 were decided as the optimum choice by GM and ARN and were quite different to those chosen for the 31105. Remove the module side covers and the IC loaded motherboard appeared to be missing a mic input stage! Not so, for this was the first Neve console to have remote mounted mic pre's. The new 34427 modules were mounted in racks in the studio and their gain set by incrementally increasing a dc current phantom-ed up their audio outputs by a variable current source linked to the 31106's mic gain switch. The idea was to eliminate the deficiencies caused by long mic leads (and is reborn in a current AMEK product).

The 32436 Aux routing unit offered six mono aux sends plus a stereo pair and used the basically same toroidal transformer + IC amplifier output circuit of the 31106. The passive 32424 Group Switching modules were lifted straight out of an 8078, one of the very few similarities!

One nice feature (not exclusive to Neve consoles, of course) was their wide frequency response. You can wind a 1073 up to around 50KHz and still only be around 3dB down (eat your hearts out you 44.1 clocked digital fans!) but this AIR Montserratt console had a response approaching dc to light! A slight exaggeration, of course, but the response had to be better than a 1dB down at 40KHz and no serious roll off until around 100KHz.

Much discussion can be held on the merits of a response like this, especially in light of my teasing of the digital brigade with their barn door filters around 20KHz, but the fact remains that many musical instruments have harmonics that pass above the 20KHz region and there are those, including George Martin, who can detect/feel a change in the quality of the fundamental sound if that harmonic is altered or removed. I'm talking soft classical music here and not head banging rock 'n roll!

Three years later, in early 1981, AIR placed an order for a virtual repeat of the Montserratt console (A7971) for use in their studio in Oxford Street, London. In 1986 Rupert Neve launched Focusrite and manufactured a "side car" of Focusrite equaliser channels to fit against this later console. I note a lot of discussion on the web concerning the merits of Neve eq versus early Focusrite. Here, at AIR Recording, now based at Lyndhurst Hall, London NW3, is an opportunity to make a subjective comparison! The original A4792 Montserratt console was brought back to England and consequently sold to A & M Records in Hollywood where a 12 channel console extension was added.

The third (and last) AIR console to be manufactured was eventually sold and migrated across the Atlantic to end up in Atlantic Studios in New York. The console was then purchased by Brian Adams and is now installed in his studio (The Warehouse Studio) in Vancouver. All three consoles are still making hit records two decades after they were built.

-Copyright © 2002 Geoff Tanner