Many brands and products become iconic and highly sought after. In the world of music, you can count Fender and Gibson guitars, Marshall amps, and other such products in that group. However, when it comes to audio mixing and studio gear few names are as prominent as Rupert Neve. Neve was a British engineer whose electronic designs have graced many products, some under his own brand and others as an engineering consultant. Neve is most closely associated with audio mix console design, such as the famous 8028 from Sound City.
A brief history of the hardware
Consoles introduced from about the late 1960s onward are typically configured around a series of vertical channel strips that flow in groups through summing buses to the stereo output. It’s common for each channel strip to include a preamp section for mic or line inputs, an equalizer module, and then the sliding volume fader.
Some, like the classic Solid State Logic 4000 series, also include in-line gate/expanders and compressors. However, even SSL’s latest Origin console stepped back to a stock design that only integrates channel strip equalizers and leaves the built-in bus compression modules to the end stage. In short, while a manufacturer might pick and choose what to integrate into their channel strip, it will almost certainly include an equalizer. Of all the possible components, the equalizer module does the most to color the sound.
Neve’s equalizer section became known as the 1073 design. Based on this design, improved versions, such as the 1084 and 1088 modules, were integrated into many of the later consoles. While a lot of these consoles still exist and are in active use today, others fell into disrepair. The vintage consoles were often scavenged for their modules, such as the 1073. These were then rehoused into racks and sold as outboard gear. Today, the AMS Neve company sells modern outboard units based on the 1073 design, along with new consoles that feature 1073 preamps.
1073 software emulation
A number of plug-in and DAW developers have created software versions inspired by the classic 1073 preamps and equalizers. Apple’s Logic Pro includes three vintage EQs based on emulations of Pultec, API, and Neve designs. The Vintage Console EQ is Logic Pro’s 1073 equivalent.
Waves and Sonimus are two of the many third-party companies that offer their own spin on the 1073 – the Waves Scheps 73 (developed with Andrew Scheps) and the Sonimus Burnley 73 (Burnley, UK is the location of the AMS Neve headquarters). As a Logic Pro user, I have all three. They all feature a similar design and deliver a great result. However, I prefer the Sonimus version.
Both the Scheps 73 and Burnley 73 are more faithful to the original design than the Console EQ in Logic Pro. For example, like the original, the dials appear to be inverted with boost (signal increase) amounts on the left side and attenuation (signal decrease) values on the right. Zero is at the bottom of the dial. I presume the visual design concept is that it’s cleaner to remove conflicting sonic frequency ranges from a mix than to muddy it up by adding other frequencies to it. Moving something to the right is often where our brains go to first. Whatever the rationale, the actual rotation of the dial is the same – twirl the knob clockwise and you boost that signal range. Twirl it counter-clockwise to reduce it.
The Burnley 73
Sonimus’ Burnley 73 is designed to deliver the personality of Neve’s 1073 hardware and features a similar skeuomorphic appearance – worn metal faceplate and all. The plug-in is compatible with both Windows and macOS, comes in AU, VST (2.4 and 3), AAX, and RTAS formats, and supports sample rates up to 192 kHz. From left to right, the interface features four EQ controls for a high-pass filter, low shelf, mid-range, and high shelf. Dial the high-pass knob or the outer ring on the first two EQ controls to select one of the preset “musical” frequencies for that range. The high shelf control frequency is fixed. The mids control is the only one with a bell-shaped curve, but you can’t alter its Q value (width). Finally, there are preamp and output level controls.
A preamp section might not make complete sense in a plug-in, since you aren’t recording through it as you would in a recording session using a physical console for tracking. However, this control induces saturation and adds character to the sound. According to Sonimus, the line side (control knob to the right) adds subtle saturation, while the mic side (control knob to the left) becomes more aggressive at higher values. In fact, you can easily push the signal into overdrive if that much “mic” saturation is desired.
There are some nice UI touches. Click the icon above each filter control to bypass individual bands. (The icon will turn red in bypass.) At the bottom of the UI, you can opt to show numeric values, invert the phase, and enable/disable the full EQ section.
The 1073 layout might seem limiting based on more complex EQ plug-ins. However, this classic design has proven itself with countless hit recordings. Aside from a musician’s selection of instrument and amp and the engineer’s mic selection and placement, simple EQ adjustments do more to alter the flavor of elements within the mix than just about any other component. Sometimes simpler is actually better. The Burnley 73 is faithful to this approach, easy to use, and delivers a great sound.
©2023 Oliver Peters
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