Classic Neve Consoles 1961 to date (Story #4)

Neve's Greatest Consoles

What defines a great console? The sound? The facilities? The number of channels? The price tag, even? Well the consoles I have in mind had high scores in all of these and more!

All Neve consoles were special in their own individual way because of the perceivable skills put into their manufacture. Just look at the hand laced wiring looms and listen to the great sound. From the early Class "A" BCM10, 8014, 8016, and 8028 analogue consoles to the current digital Capricorn's and Libra's, the consoles have all been well revered in the recording and broadcasting industries. So what motivates me to rave about one particular type of console? It's going to take another trip back in time to explain!

Zoom! We're back to spring 1974 and I'm head of the Electrical Design Drawing Office, motivating Nigel, Richard and Janet to produce the "Two Wire" diagrams for the current work load which include an enormous range of consoles for the South African Broadcast Corporation. Colin Morton, one of the sales engineers of that era (later to move to Technical Publications) has asked me to look at a block diagram he has been preparing and confirm that a very tricky piece of monitor switching makes sense. I concur and find myself reading the specifications for an amazing new custom recording console. This is my first encounter with the EMI Neve series of custom consoles!

From that first encounter I was rapidly plunged into organising the production of the console diagrams with project engineer Robin Ireland. The first order was for five custom consoles (A3094 to A3098) and this was also the first major console order from EMI who had previously manufactured all their own consoles. I believe that it was EMI's involvement in the specifications of these consoles that made them so uniquely adaptable.

The consoles all had a separate monitor section and several were configured in an "L" shape with the monitor section forming a separate wing on the left end of the console.
The consoles were built with 24 or 36 input channels with either 1093 EQ modules or 1091 modules with 1294 line input modules. Both modules were based on the BA382 motherboard which offered comprehensive four band equalisation. The motherboard was also used for Utopia Studio's 1095 equaliser which in turn eventually lead to the standard 8078 console's 31105 module.

The 1093 had a regular mic + line sensitivity switch (very similar to a 1081 except the BA382 motherboard used BA438's and 440's) but the console's "Line" input was, in fact, a "Replay Input" from the tape machines selectable by a global Mic or Line switches and overridden by individual Mic/Line illuminated switches in the Auxiliary Panels above the faders. This meant that the 1093 system offered two high level inputs; Line input (only selectable in Mic mode!) or Replay (1) Input which bypassed the sensitivity switch and was the primary tape return input.

Better still, the 1091 used on the 36 Channel consoles had only Mic gain settings on its sensitivity switch and used a 1294 module mounted below the meters to look after the line inputs. The 1294 had two illuminated source switches that allowed three inputs to be assigned to the channel line input path. The module was fitted with a dual concentric gain pot with outer steps of 10dB and inner precise trim potentiometer. Also fitted was a Bach Simpson VU meter permanently assigned to the equaliser output. This was in additional to the regular 24 track meters that were switchable between 24T Output, 24T Replay #1, 24T Replay #2, and Follow Monitor.

A switched Solo was also available from the Equaliser output.

The 1975 Routing unit provided for 24 track outputs (remember that most Neve consoles of this era were 16 track) with separate pan pots for left <> right and front <> back. Above the pan pots was a three position rotary switch with lamps to indicate if other than the default (track) mode was selected. Turning this rotary switch one way sent the bus selection to the Monitor busses (which is simpler than the unfortunately confusing markings on the 8078's 32424 passive routing module!) and turning the switch the other direction selected the Group busses. The Group busses could be selected by a block of 8 (or 12 on the larger consoles) input channels by pressing a red TJ switch at the base of the equaliser. In this mode the equaliser channel became a sub-group and could reassign any mix on its input to any other track, group or monitor bus. . . very flexible!

In Group Mode the Perspex scribble strip above the fader was illuminated red.

Down below the equaliser were the auxiliary panels. Each channel had eight auxiliaries switchable pre and post, and with 4 pots controlling the send levels in pairs. A block of four illuminated switches selected Mic or Line Inputs, Solo, and Channel Cut. Unlike earlier Neve consoles whose Rev signals were divided into "Channel Rev" OR "Rev on monitor" but not both, the EMI Neve's had a source selector panel offering a choice of Channel Rev, Monitor Rev, or a mix of both. . . much friendlier!

All Auxiliary outputs were amplified by 2076 modules (2074 equalisers with 36dB gain). A separate monitor section accommodated 2074 equalisers in each monitor path with the 1978 Monitor Routing Unit offering the same pan pots and choice of destinations as their 1975 counterparts. At the flick of a switch any monitor channel could be routed to either Monitor 1 - 4, Track 1 - 4, or Group 1 - 4. The monitor sources could be toggled between Replay #1, Replay #2 or Sync Inputs and could be sent to four auxiliary outputs. Full size Penny and Giles monitor faders were fitted as standard.

The centre section of the console provided very comprehensive monitor and meter facilities. Large illuminated Licon switches offered a wide choice of stereo and four track playback sources and a wonderful array of similar switches changed the monitor mode from Normal (N) to Stereo (S) to Stereo Reversed (SR) to Stereo as Quad (SAQ) to Quad as Stereo (QAS) to Top Centre Mono (TCM). Individual illuminated switches enabled each of the four monitor outputs to be cut or phase reversed and global cut and dim controls were also provided. It was even possible to program different dim levels depending on whether the command came from the Monitor Dim control or the Talkback Keys. A four gang monitor level control was used in conjunction with a two gang front/rear balance control. There was also a "built in" illuminated "Alt LS" switch, a function fitted by many studios as an add-on, but seldom supplied as standard.

All the meters were fitted with BA386 VU buffer amplifiers which, besides removing the VU's rectifier from the audio path, also provide +10dB and +20dB gain settings for all the meters. Below the 4 Track meters were three custom SIFAM 22F meters connected to an EMI Correlator module. The centre meter was a Phase Meter and the outer two meters indicated the noise floor of the 4 Track outputs. A level of -65dBu could be read (just) on these meters so it was a good job that the 4T noise floor was well below this!

A3096 (EMI Cologne) differed from the other consoles by using a VDU to indicate the 24 Track and 4 Track levels by vertical bar columns. A3098 (EMI Paris) had red LED's beside each routing module switch. Many of the consoles were fitted with EMI Limiter Compressors.
The EMI Abbey Road console was particularly well known and used by Pink Floyd and other major artists/groups.

EMI must have liked the Neve interpretation of their specification because, barely three months later, they ordered two more consoles A3269 and A3271.

So zooming back 23 years to current time, where are these consoles now?

A3269 and A3271 were at Great Linford Manor Recording Studios, Milton Keynes, England, and were joined together (by yours truly!) to make one huge Classic EMI Neve console. It offers 56 channels, 12 effects returns, 24 track monitoring with custom two band EQ and P & G mini fader, and 68 Flying Faders controlled by a custom QWERTY control panel carefully crafted into the centre section. It has 92 inputs (80 with EQ) to the 4 track and Auxiliary busses and a remote mounted bantam (TT) patchbay. It is the largest EMI Neve in the world and has been used to record top artists including Jamiroquai's 5 million best selling album and ten "top ten" UK hits in the past year. The console is now in Steakhouse recording studios in North Hollywood, USA.

http://welcome.to/The.Steakhouse

As a result of the successful completion of this custom EMI Neve project I spoke with Pete Winkelman, owner of Great Linford Manor Recording studios, as to the feasibility of using the experience we gained to start another similar project! I had already discovered the locations of the EMI Abbey Road and EMI Paris consoles and we gave much thought to how these consoles could be linked to make the ultimate Classic EMI Neve console. As a result of these discussions I have arranged for Pete to purchase both the EMI Abbey Road and EMI Paris consoles and have organised their shipment back to his workshop in England.

http://groups.msn.com/EMINeveConsoleforsale/shoebox.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=4

So, to recap, of the seven EMI Neve consoles manufactured, four have been working for Great Linford Manor!

The three other consoles are scattered across the four corners of the world!

In Dublin the band U2 have a 24 channel EMI Neve extended to 36 channels. The console was split into two halves to enable it to be transported easier. I last saw this console in Marbella, Spain where it was being rented by The Spanish House Recording Studio. I had flown there to perform some emergency repairs and was rather alarmed to find what appeared to be a wooden railway sleeper wedged against the rear connectors of the 1975 routing units (by persons unknown!), the force of which had cracked some Amphenol back connectors. I have seen less drastic ways of improving the seating problems of old Neve modules! The console is back in Dublin now, with U2.

A3096 EMI Cologne is at ICP Recording Studios in Brussels where Aurora Audio International have been progressively restoring the console back to its pristine original condition.. The console is in great shape and still making hit records!

Last, but not least, A3095 is at York Street Recording Studios, Auckland, New Zealand. This console was assembled as 16 track and used 1977 channel routing units. The console is in impeccable condition and still churning out hit records such as the last three "Crowded House" singles.

As can be seen, I have been associated with this series of consoles from the earliest moments of their design stage at Rupert Neve and Company to performing custom modifications on them over 20 years later and servicing and supplying spares to the others.
Have I convinced anybody to my selection of the best Neve consoles? Let me know your views!

-Copyright © 2002 Geoff Tanner