Fascinating documentary about an amazing studio mixing desk - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: mikeselectricstuff
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 23, 2016, 10:50:40 pm
content: Just watched this excellent doc on an amazing bit of audio kit - the Focusrite studio console :

author: HAL-42b
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 23, 2016, 11:51:12 pm
content: I love how touchy feely and completely devoid of technical detail the whole thing is.It is slim but fat, short but tall, sharp but gentle and it always makes great music no matter who is twiddling the knobs. You have to see it to believe it but if you see it you won't believe your ears. O0

author: ez24
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 24, 2016, 04:42:22 am
content: thanks mikeselectricstuff

author: DrGeoff
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 24, 2016, 06:53:57 am
content: What a great video. Some real interesting history there.And, of course, the legendary engineering quality from Rupert Neve.

author: mikeselectricstuff
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 24, 2016, 10:28:23 am
content: Just found this in one of their troubleshooting guides

author: SteveyG
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 24, 2016, 11:12:02 am
content: Great video, thanks for the link

author: coppice
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 24, 2016, 02:38:58 pm
content: This takes me back to the 1970s, and going for a job interview at the original Neve Electronics in Rupert Neve Close, Melbourn (the original one near Cambridge, not the upstart in Australia).

author: rx8pilot
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 24, 2016, 05:45:17 pm
content: Its not about the 'specs' being perfect, it's all about messing it up in a very particular way that cannot be measured with anything other than a trained ear.

author: f5r5e5d
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 24, 2016, 06:27:00 pm
content: I went on a tour of pro audio restoration firm, they mentioned difficulty getting "period" steel TO-3 2N3055 and Tantalum signal path Caps for the 70's mixing desk they were restoringclearly idea of "the sound" is valued over accuracy

author: rx8pilot
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 24, 2016, 07:06:47 pm
content: As much as audiophiles, musicians, mix engineers use the words - 'accurate', 'precise', 'perfect'. What they are talking about is not a comparison of the input relative to the output as you may compare by technical means. They are talking about how the sound is 'precisely' what their ears were hoping for. It is truly were art meets science. It takes a significant skill to get it accurate from an engineering perspective, it takes black magic to make it sound good to the most finicky and critical ears on earth.Pretty amazing group of people and skills to make these things happen. No THD measurement or other instrument will determine if it sounds good. Kinda crazy.

author: DrGeoff
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 25, 2016, 01:24:06 am
content: Quote from: rx8pilot on February 24, 2016, 05:45:17 pmHocus-pocus mumbo jumbo, the kind of thing that Internet mythology is created from.If you can't measure it, you can't hear it. Measuring equipment is orders of magnitude more accurate than the ear.The 'musicality' and 'colouration' of a sound is principally subjective and there are no direct measurements to quantify what this means or assign a value to it.The equipment designed by Neve (and others) is designed to be as best as it possibly can be. There are interviews with Rupert around the net describing this, and I had this discussion with him back in the mid-80's. That means low noise, low distortion (particularly crossover distortion, which Neve uses a number of techniques to avoid or minimise, including class-A stages) and high CMRR. The use of transformers to balance inputs and outputs, and provide a degree of isolation and termination impedance is fairly typical of Neve preamps and does add colour when driven hard. The EQ section, which is where the real colouration comes from, since that is what it is intended to do, provides a unique sound based on its topology, selection of filter frequencies and Q values. The combination of these things can make the channel strip sound subjectively good or bad for music production of different types.

author: ez24
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 25, 2016, 04:10:16 am
content: Question on the video regarding the one in the bedroomWhich is more valuable the house or the mixer that is inside the house?tks

author: mikeselectricstuff
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 25, 2016, 10:22:43 am
content: Quote from: ez24 on February 25, 2016, 04:10:16 amAlmost certainly the mixer.