- Neve 8078
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Custom Neve 8078 in The Way Recording Studio London
The Neve 8078 was the last of the "80 series" hand-wired analogue mixing consoles designed and manufactured by Neve Electronics for high-end recording studios during the 1970s. Some were custom built for major studios like CBS Sony.
These consoles are considered by many experts to be the Rolls Royce of desks and are highly sought after. The classic Neve sound has featured on countless hit records by artists including Steely Dan, Nirvana, Pink Floyd, Dire Straits, Quincy Jones, George Clinton, Chick Corea.
Each console took several months to build using over 2,500 hours of highly skilled labour and top quality components. It would now be uneconomic to manufacture such equipment to this standard.
A limited number of these consoles were ever made and there are now only a few select studios who have 8078 consoles still working perfectly after almost 30 years. These include Threshold Sound + Vision (custom modified with 72 Channels of flying faders, and API sidecar, formerly housed at Sony Music West) in Santa Monica, CA[1]), Long View Studios in North Brookfield, Massachusetts, Ocean Way in Nashville, Blackbird Studio A (72 inputs) in Nashville[2]), Electric Lady Studios in New York City, Sound City Recording Studios (operating one 28-channel 8028 and one 40-channel 8078) in Van Nuys, CA, Cello (which is now closed)(Re-opened as East-West Studios) in Los Angeles, Royaltone Studios in North Hollywood, CA (now owned by songwriter producer Linda Perry[3]), The Site Recording Environment in Marin County, CA, The Way Recording Studio London, and Willie Nelson's Padernales Recording Studio outside of Austin, TX[4].
However Air Studios recording studio in Monserrat founded by George Martin which recorded Dire Straits award winning album Brothers in Arms was recorded on a custom made Neve console (A4792) constructed in 1978 that removed many of the inadequacies of the 8078 series. Only three of these consoles were ever made with the other two originally installed at Air studios in London. Air Lyndhurst still has the last in the series operating today.
Despite the recording industry’s wholesale move to digital technology, there remains a high demand for the superior sound quality that can be achieved with analogue equipment. Original Neve modules from vintage consoles command high prices in the second hand market and few serious studios are without some Neve equipment somewhere in their racks.
References
- ^ http://www.thresholdsound.com
- ^ http://www.blackbirdstudio.com/#/studios/
- ^ http://www.studioexpresso.com/Spotlight%20Archive/Spotlight%20Royaltone.htm
- ^ http://arlyn-pedernales.com/index.php?page=prs-equipment
See also
Categories:- Sound recording technology
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