I came across this video of a lecture given by Rupert Neve, of the classic pro audio consoles, about audio, digital vs. analog, and some theory about distortion (his discussion of THD is eye opening), how transformers are euphonic, etc.
I have always thought Neve was the Moog of pro audio. His 1073 preamp/eq module has a lot of parallels with the minimoog: discrete transistor based electronics when they first came out, a simple, serendipitous, almost accidental design which is totally obsolete and outperformed spec-wise by modern equivalents, yet still prized for it’s vintage sound, both about the same price today for an original, both considered THE classic vintage design and copied extensively, both names exploited by companies not affiliated with them, both names synonymous with their areas of design.
Rupert actually makes all of his gear flat to 100khz, because he says that though we usually can’t hear above 16khz (he can only hear up to 14khz at age 80), we can perceive super high frequencies as evidenced by EEG’s that show changes in brainwaves. He talks of one engineer that could perceive a 54khz resonance of 3db as “something not right” about a channel in one of Neve’s consoles.
i love ruperts designs. he seems to have a really good ear, as well as a determination to make something good- which is hard to find.
i have a GAP pre-73, a 1073 clone, which is my favourite mic pre, and also my favourite instrument in.
i haven’t watched the lecture (i will now) but i have personally spent a lot of time pouring over schems and designs for effects and recording gear in a quest for tone.
i spent considerable time looking at the 1073 schems. i look at the schems of all gear i buy if possible. the 1073 is quite rudimentary really. a lot of the magic comes down to the tuning of components by ear and the transformers used.
if theres one think ive learnt, transformers can make THD sound really nice, as can valves/tubes. it’s hard to get a good distortion sound out of a transistor. well, silicon transistors anyway, germanium transistors can sound really nice, but not like tubes. imo a transistor pedal just cant measure up to a tube amp at high distortion. its hard to make a silicon tranny or opamp sound real. and by real we mean tube distortion.
i read that the minimoog d had a printing issue with a 10k resistor pushing a tranny harder than originally designed 1k. they say thats where the warmth comes from. i dont know how true it is. funny.
Thank you very much for this link. I just finished listening to the 2 hour talk of Rupert Neve. He spoke to many things I’ve been convinced of for many years. Fantastic man and a very inspiring talk.
It is so interesting when he speaks about the EEG’s and how our brainwaves are affected by waves that we can’t hear. I wonder how our brain picks up these waves, by the vibration of our body tissues or bone? There are those spinal cord implants which let deaf people perceive sound by vibration, I wonder if they can “hear” super high frequencies.