These are the units I'm focusing on here. One could now buy a preamp that sounded more or less like a Neve for under $1500 per channel. Soon, a number of companies jumped on the coattails of all this Neve enthusiasm and, by changing and/or eliminating various features of the original designs, started to sell more affordable Neve imitations. And, as you might guess, clones are expensive, ranging from about $2500 on up toward $4000/channel. When you buy a clone of the 1073, you're getting all of the features, components and build- quality of the original.
#NEVE 1073 PREAMP AUSTRALIAN PRO#
(issue #46), Shep Associates, Vintech and more, started building Neve- inspired preamps and EQs, and we quickly entered what Bob Power (owner of an amazing array of orphaned Neve modules, see issue #60) calls "the second golden age of pro audio." Transformers were still being manufactured by Carnhill (after changing its name from St Ives) or they were being copied and manufactured to vintage specs, complex EQ switches were being soldered by hand and classic circuits were studied and re-created to bring us that vintage Neve sound. It was only a matter of time before companies, like AMS Neve, BAE, Chandler Ltd. Modules that were once members of large families were, in a word, orphaned.
They also discovered that another multi-purpose line amp module in the 80-series consoles, the acclaimed and often misunderstood 1272, could be modified to act as a mic preamp that contained nearly the same guts as a 1073 (more on the 1272 in a bit). Smaller companies like Brent Averill Enterprises (BAE) started to do just this, selling original Neve modules racked up with proper power supplies. In the early 1990s, as affordable digital recording gave rise to countless project and home studios, people realized the value of taking a Neve preamp or two out of a console and racking them up for home use. This cumulative layering of color on every track is a big part of what makes a record tracked and mixed on a vintage Neve console sound the way it does. The sonics of the mic input transformer would be captured to tape and then the line input transformer would add it's own magic during playback and mixing. In a British console in the '70s, the balancing of inputs and outputs was done with transformers, so you ended up with a separate mic input transformer and line input transformer. Neve's transformers are revered for the sonic girth and punch they add to whatever signal runs through them. Transformers introduce a certain amount of coloration to audio signals, and the saturation characteristics of a transformer are determined by various factors, including the materials used and the winding structure of the coils. A transformer is a device that transfers electrical energy from one circuit to another through inductively coupled wire coils. In original 1073s, the mic preamp and the line amp have separate, and differently designed, input transformers that are essential to the big, musical sound. The Neve 1073 modules consist of three main features: a mic preamp, a line amp and a three-band EQ section with a hi-pass filter. Deservedly, the name Rupert Neve (issue #26) is one of the most respected in the field of recording equipment designers. This preamp/EQ is a near perfect culmination of design that resulted in a big, iconic sound that has helped shape the tone popular music. There were other compatible modules that came first, such as the 6/, but nothing has captured the ears and hearts of today's recordists like the 1073.
#NEVE 1073 PREAMP AUSTRALIAN SERIES#
By far one of the most revered and imitated microphone preamp/equalizers is the Neve 1073, originally released in the early 1970s as the main channel module in the infamous 80 Series consoles.
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