People began to connect the great sound they were hearing on records to the equipment that recorded them, and the 1073′s infamy grew.Įventually Neve sold his company (which later merged with AMS) and started Focusrite (where he designed the ISA preamp). The combination of versatile and cost-efficient resulted in Rupert Neve being a very busy man, installing consoles in virtually all of the independent studios. Neve had developed a versatile console that was (brace yourself) affordable. Wessex Studios was more than satisfied and news began to spread through the independent engineering world. Also, because this was a console pre, the amp could not be source selective. This was done due to Neve’s history in broadcast and radio electronics where protecting the signal from degradation was critical. Rupert Neve designed a solid-state preamp with transformer balanced inputs and outputs (somewhat of a rarity for the time). When Wessex was looking for a new console to satisfy it’s varied client’s needs, Mr Neve was asked to design what became the A88 console. In these days Rupert Neve ran around the independent studios of the world designing equipment for them on request. It was introduced in 1970 as a module in a console custom built for Wessex studios. Like so many things in history, the legendary Neve 1073 preamp owes much of its fame to being in the right place at the right time. Some of them (like London’s Trident Studios) had the budget and manpower to design their own equipment while others had to contract out to specialized engineers. Independent studios began to pop up to fill this need. Recording artists were working stranger hours and desired more control over their recordings (old hat studios like EMI had strict rules for engineers). Some incredible equipment was designed this way (EMI TG consoles, Coles 4038s, Fairchild compressors, etc.) but as time progressed this vertically-integrated model began to make less sense. The same went for Motown artists, Capitol records artists and so on. EMI artists would record at EMI studios using equipment designed and manufactured privately by EMI engineers. Prior to the proliferation of independent recording studios that seem so familiar to us today, studios were owned by labels. The range of analogue colours it paints is vast, and its sonic clarity and depth are fabulous.This is a guest post from Geoffrey Granka of Fresh Produce Productions. This new 1073 is a huge step up from the original UAD model, and not just because it simply sounds better, but also for the inclusion of the Apollo input preamp stage, which really is a potential game-changer. But if you intend to mix with the plugin in your DAW, when using, say, a UAD-2 Duo unit, you'll only be able to run 4 mono or 2 stereo instances (though the EQ section can be disabled to reduce DSP usage). If you're recording through it as a Unison input stage, it's not so bad, as you only need to record through it once. One caveat is the enormous DSP demands of the new 1073, consuming 40% of a single UAD DSP chip per mono instance, and 67.6% for a stereo one. The long-throw output fader adds colour- useful for a bit of overdrive.
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The low shelving band is a coarse control that works to add or subtract weight at 35, 60, 110 or 220Hz, while the passive high-pass filter shaves off bottom-end at 18dB/octave from a 50, 80, 160 or 300Hz rolloff point. The air of the 12kHz shelving band is there, as is the extreme but smooth nature of the mid-range bell band, with its distinct colouration. The new EQ algorithms better portray the tasty non-linearities of the real thing. And all of this is before you've touched the drive levels and the high/low impedance switch. "Audio recorded through it comes at you with a definition and solidity that you can almost reach out and feel"Īudio recorded through it comes at you with a definition and solidity that you can almost reach out and feel - if you're not already a believer in the theory that the quality of the preamp is as important as that of the mic it's connected to, this will leave you in no doubt. The Apollo's own preamps sound good as they are, but insert the 1073 and the difference is night and day.
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UA's new 1073 sounds absolutely stunning.
![best neve 1073 preamp clone best neve 1073 preamp clone](https://thumbs.static-thomann.de/thumb/thumb600x600/pics/bdb/425140/12879142_800.jpg)
The only 1073 input feature not present on the Unison version is the switchable 300/1200 Ohm mic impedance. It works beautifully, too, and with other Unison-enabled plugins (the API Vision Channel Strip and UA 610), the versatility of the system is beginning to be realised.