Or Mickey Dolenz, not quite sure. Having been rather nonplussed about the whole fervor surrounding Neves and Neve-alikes (yes they sound good, and they've always sounded good, but they're not for everything), I did find one application where I don't think it can be beat.
Tracking bass the other day we were going through a Great River MP2NV and a Daking compressor on the way into PTHD. Wow. Now that's what I'm talking about! Thick, fat-ass bass. Bass the way you hear it in your head. Impressed.
Bass is one of those things that this chain really flatters. On some other preamps it falls pretty limp, and sometimes it can be a pain to get it to sound big enough to stand on it's own. Not a problem here.
I still portend that Neve-y sounds aren't applicable everywhere, sometimes you don't want that kinda hair on your signal. Here, though, works really well.
/amazement
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jjg wrote: AudioGaff: Could you elaborate on your "Neve" clones
jjg wrote: AudioGaff:
Could you elaborate on your "Neve" clones a bit more?
I'm not sure what you mean by elaborate? There are several units made that either are trying to be as close as possible, or that have taken some liberty in making some changes such as in which transformers are used, which switches, how much gain, or different and/or additional freq selection, hand wired vs PC board layout and things like that. Clone makers include Shep, Vintech, Brent Averill, Chandler, and a few others.
I don't know if more color from the Neve-alike would be such a g
I don't know if more color from the Neve-alike would be such a great thing to have all the time. The ability to dial in the color if you want it is great, but the pre becomes much less versatile if it has "all that color, all the time".
The bass sounded thick, but not really "wooly" - it was just fat and low.
I'm glad you liked the MP-2NV [and the Daking compressor is damn
I'm glad you liked the MP-2NV [and the Daking compressor is damn comparable to a Neve 32264a]... however, the MP-2NV only started with the drawings for a 1073... it ended at the end of that piece of paper.
The component selection and layout is entirely different than that of a Neve unit, and way different than most of the "Neve a bee"s... we spent a year going through different input and output transformers until we found the combination that I felt was the absolute best combination for what I wanted from the unit... which was the "thunder" of an original Neve module, but without the 'haze' and 'buildup' that occurs when you use an original Neve modules over 20 or more tracks within the context of a song.
The DI function on the MP-2NV was a real ball breaker as I demanded that the signal go through the input transformer on the way in... which is not the traditional way to put a DI on a 1073 type design... the traditional method bypasses the input transformer.
Again, we spent several weeks tweezing the DI input until I thought it sounded the balls with my P-bass [Jap or Mexican... definitely not American]... because being the selfish bastard I am, and seeing that this thing was being built to be my dream box... I took full advantage of the situation.
There are a ton of other groovy features about the MP-2NV that make it kinda far advanced from an original "N word" module... but hey, we've had over 30 years since the original came out... they didn't have a lot of the shit available then that we have available now or they probably would have taken advantage of it... think of the MP-2NV not as a "Neve-a-like", but as an extention of a wonderful original vision... sort of like how the BMW 5 series kinda grew from the original 2002's...
See and I just picked the MP2-NV for the PBass cause it sounded
See and I just picked the MP2-NV for the PBass cause it sounded like it would feel good!.
I hadn't read any of Fletcher's marketing KY. I didn't even know he had a Pbass. All I know is the MP2-NV has done us well here for Bass, Electric guitar (R121-> MP2-NV -> MP2-NV -> Cranesong trakker -> to PT), Some aggressive vox (Soundelux E47 -> MP2-NV -> Distressor)
I liked being able to cascade 2 channels of the MP2-NV for the ribbon mic without OD'ing on the sound of the pre.
:D
Steve
jjg wrote: AudioGaff: I was looking for your opinion on which N
jjg wrote: AudioGaff:
I was looking for your opinion on which Neve clones sounded most lke the original in your experience? Thanks
From what I have heard using most of the clones is that they all are within the expected margins. Many original Neve pres of the same model and type don't sound exactly like one another so there really is no exact reference to fairly judge.
The DI on the GR NV was designed and optimized for bass guitar.
The DI on the GR NV was designed and optimized for bass guitar. And as good as the the GR NV is, it is it's own sound and not the same as a real Neve 1073 which has even more color. Other units that are true Neve clones sound much more like a real Neve than the GR NV unit.