 | | October 1, 2015 | | New Products | | | | Today's Review | BAE 73MPL 500-Series Microphone Preamplifier
By Rob Tavaglione
All things considered, the Neve 1073 mic preamp/EQ module is likely the most popular mic amp in history. The reason, in a word, is saturation. There's also St. Ives transformers at mic input and line input; a second amplifier circuit providing gain over 50 dB; a particularly sweet EQ with HPF circuit; and an output level control (not found on Neve original console modules, but useful for attenuating the hot output of a purposefully overdriven preamp stage) which all work together for a sound revered on vox, drums, basses and especially guitars. The result is big, dirty, crunchy rock guitars.
The industry's love of 1073s spurred an enterprising Brent Averill to rack up 1073s and 1272s, which then led him to manufacturing his own clones. It must have been a really good idea. There now exists a cottage industry of classic Neve clones, actual AMS-Neve units slightly modernized, lower-budget Neve-like re-creations, plus Brent Averill Enterprises (now British Audio Engineering, led by Englishman Mark Loughman from a North Hollywood manufacturing facility) have their own 1073 (complete with EQ) as well as 1073 MP and DMP (rackmounted and tabletop, no EQ), among others. More » |
No subscription to Pro Audio Review? Get on the inside track with the best peer-to-peer pro reviews in the audio production biz: visit http://www.mypsnmag.com now! |
| | Today's Blog | LDCs, IFBs, Jimmie Johnson and the Pursuit of Excellence
By Rob Tavaglione
Earlier today I enjoyed working on an easy and productive gig: recording a phone interview with NASCAR driver Jimmie Johnson. It was a simple “phoner” audio-only interview, done without the usual telephone-hybrid/IFB/mixing-console arrangement. Instead we used the “cellular IFB” method: both the interviewer and Jimmie spoke to each other via cell phone, while each person's audio was captured at their location with a studio mic.
I used Sterling Audio's "Oceanway mic," the ST6050 large diaphragm condenser and a Sony ECM77 lavalier, recorded with a Marantz PMD661 portable digital recorder. Even though the ST6050 has a big bottom end and pronounced top boost, I placed Jimmie far enough back (about eight inches) to avoid proximity effect and slightly off-axis to encourage smooth sibilants. The resulting sound was nicely balanced, articulate, natural and perhaps complimented by the lavalier in post.
But this routine gig is not why I write for you today; it's what Jimmie said. More »
Click The Covers — Digital Edition Quick Links
Months of PAR's digital edition reviews are just a click away! More » |
| | Today's Video | Focusrite Introduces Circuit Synthesizer/Drum Machine
Novation’s new Circuit ($329.99, available this month) is a standalone “groove box” that combines Nova-heritage synths with sculpted drums. Users can apply Circuit to create an entire tune by combining up to 128 steps of synth and drum patterns, then add space, depth and energy to music with built-in effects; sidechain is included. Compositions can be saved to one of 32 slots. Being battery powered, Circuit can be used anywhere, and creations can be loaded into a DAW later. More » |
| | Events |
| | | | | |
