SOUNDING BOARD

But above all else vintage Neve consoles are famous for one thing: their sound. They’re certainly not known for their brilliant ergonomics or comprehensive mixing options – that’s where SSL stepped into the limelight – and, to that end, Rupert Neve has certainly harked back to his earlier designs to develop the modular 5088, resisting any temptations to add any extra bells and whistles. It’s not feature-packed by any means; it’s unashamedly about sound quality. So it makes sense then that everyone is keen – above all else – to know what the console sounds like, as was I.

To cut right to that chase, from my experience with the board, the 5088 is the cleanest, purest and most open sounding console I’ve heard in a long time. Beyond that it’s hard to attribute many adjectives to it without them seeming preemptive or presumptuous – [after all, the sound of a console is assessed over years, even decades, not weeks].

The 5088 has more headroom than my old Ford XC Panelvan. Its so impressive, in fact, that I really never actually heard the board push back against the input signals during the whole time I used it. It seems that before you’d ‘hear’ the console, in a way you might hear an old Neve circuit distort, you’d probably find you’d broken off all the needles on the channel and output VU meters. To many this might actually sound like quite disappointing news, particularly given the ‘retrospective’ nature of its Class-A, transformer-balanced design. But to expect an old ’70s sound from this board is to misunderstand one important fact: although Rupert Neve has reverted to a simpler layout, and chosen quality components to construct an ‘uncompromised’ signal flow, he certainly hasn’t gone back in time to a world of high distortion components and inferior circuit analysis techniques to design the 5088. In every technical respect the 5088 is cutting edge – like the Neve consoles of the early ’70 were in their day. Rupert had no intention of making something “inferior,” as he puts it. He’s obsessed with providing the best possible product – always has been – and, unfortunately, those searching for ‘rock’ distortion specs and vintage 80-Series punch will need to look elsewhere.

What you will find in the 5088 is a stereo mix bus that offers superb depth of image, great phase coherence and a rock-solid soundstage. As a line level summing mixer you’d be hard pressed to find anything better anywhere on the market. And given that Rupert’s aim for the 5088 was to provide “the highest possible sound quality to complex digital or analogue recording systems” you’d have to say he’s been highly successful. Unlike old Neve consoles that everyone rightly or wrongly claims ‘has a sound, no matter what do on the board’, the 5088 sounds open and versatile and will probably never earn the reputation as a ‘one-trick pony’.

RESOLUTELY MODERN

So what does it offer then, if not that ‘vintage’ sound? Well, as the centerpiece of an analogue stereo mixing environment, where a small footprint, high quality summing mixer is required, the 5088 is a great option. There are professional features like VU metering, a built-in oscillator, multiple talkback options, three speaker selection options, as well as the ability to monitor auxiliaries 1&2, the solo bus, and three external inputs. All eight auxiliary sends can be muted (in pairs) while auxs 1&2 and 3&4 (in stereo mode) can have their pan pot overridden by the channel pan, via the ‘Send Follows Pan’ switch. The pan pots can also be switched in and out of service as required, guaranteeing centred audio placement and improving headroom specs. The eight groups each have Stereo Left, Stereo Right and Group Insert switches above each individual group’s pan pot, as well as solo and mute switches (The solo switches also provide simple visual overload informationby changing colour when they’re hit hard, in the same way some VUs might have a small peak LED contained within them). The auxiliary masters also have solo and mute switches. The master section has five talkback routing paths and a master talkback switch that doesn’t ‘latch’.

Although this list constitutes only some of the board’s facilities, while space permits there are a few obvious things missing from the 5088, and other ‘unusual’ design decisions that should be mentioned.

Given the console must surely be capable of, for instance, mixing music, the concept of a ‘line mixer with optional extras’ won’t satisfy everyone’s expectations. Let’s say, for instance, that you wanted to buy a 5088 but you didn’t want the ‘optional extras’ of an upper penthouse filled with mic-preamp/EQ modules etc. In that case you’d be buying a console that contained no EQ and no mic preamps, only line trims and auxiliary sends. Moreover, the comprehensive back panel (that offers a veritable phalanx of connectivity) doesn’t include channel inserts, only group and stereo inserts, which makes the core lower deck of the console feel a little restricted, again, without a patchbay. With an upper deck comprising 16 preamp/EQ Portico modules, and with all the console connectors reflected on a professional patchbay, inserting things like external compressors and EQs etc would be a simple matter of patching between the preamp output and the line input. However, without these extra modules feeding the line inputs, and without a dedicated patchbay, this is impossible without interrupting the signal before it even reaches the console, which isn’t ideal. So, without question, a patchbay is mandatory if you intend using the 5088 for any involved mixing duties.

Other peculiar features are solo switches that only work if you’re monitoring the ‘solo’ bus on the right-hand side of the console. To solo you must first select ‘Solo’ at the monitor controller, at which time you hear silence, and then hit a channel, group or auxiliary solo to hear signal. Conversely, you could solo individual channels first and then hit the ‘solo’ switch at the monitor controller, but whichever way you go about it, it feels clunky.

There is no headphone jack input to monitor signals either, even though there is ample space on the console to accommodate one. Comprehensive monitoring these days really should include some sort of headphone setup and without this facility the console feels a little restrictive. Having to monitor in headphones via a separate system feeding off the stereo output bus during mixdown was a drag, in my experience, especially given there was patently so much wide open space on the board. Lastly, because the console contains Class-A circuitry throughout, the design includes fans to prevent overheating, and these are not as ‘silent’ as the literature suggests. They’re not noisy, but they’re distracting at times when you’re listening to low-level audio. I’d love to see these improved if possible, or, better still, removed altogether.

These criticisms aside, if you’ve got the funds available and you’re looking for a superbly clear, supreme line mixer, the 5088 is a must-see. It’s beautifully constructed and a genuine credit to Rupert Neve’s skills as a designer. The mix bus sounds fabulous and the facilities it offers are first class, and highly spec’d. Having things like VUs on every channel and output bus is very handy indeed and great for managing gain structure at a glance. But without the added penthouse section the console feels a little trapped between worlds (given there’s no EQ, dynamics control or mic preamps on the lower deck). So unless you fill the upper ‘Penthouse’ full of modules and connect it to a patchbay, don’t expect it to comprehensively mix that next masterpiece you’ve recorded. Meanwhile, for summing a pristine DSD recording or feeding an elaborate digital mix into an analogue environment, it’s perfect.

Text: Greg Walker (5043 review) & Andy Stewart (5042 review)

5042 ‘TRUE TAPE’ EMULATION & LINE DRIVER

My first reaction upon seeing the Portico ‘True Tape’ emulator – and the rest of the Portico range for that matter – was that it seemed nowhere near as ‘dinky’ as I had imagined it to be. The units are far slicker and better built than pictures imply – altogether more substantial both in weight and strength. What I inadvertently discovered after handling these new units for the first time was that I had become a bit of a ‘half rack unit snob’ over the years, without realising it: if a product didn’t stretch across the full 19 inches, I wasn’t interested. And as for third-rack units, well…

But this bias (no pun intended) has been utterly irrational, based on nothing more than the fact that half- and third-rack units don’t easily bunk in with all my other gear – unless I strap two or three together of course (although I still have three RNCs that roll about like homeless waifs, never having been given a permanent home). But with the arrival of the Portico range – and a couple of other, quality, half-rack unit designs already on the market – it may be time we each started building our first half-rack bay (easily done), which would open up our studios (and minds) to a whole wave of gear that’s being built with an economy of scale to improve audio performance without increasing manufacturing and shipping costs. Or am I the last one to realise this?

Rupert Neve’s Portico ‘True Tape’ emulator is, of course, tapeless. It’s not like a Roland Space Echo or a Mellotron; there are no tape heads, transport mechanisms or tape loops of any kind (even though an initial glance across the unit’s controls might have you believing otherwise), just transformer balanced line amplifiers and some other tricky Neve analogue circuits that emulate the saturation characteristics of tape… minus the hiss, wow and flutter that, to a greater or lesser extent, make up the other sonic ingredients of most of the world’s tape machines. The guts of the 5042 consist of two line driving amplifier circuits with transformer-balanced inputs and outputs that utilise some refreshingly old-school components which are actually recognisable, and more importantly, easily repairable. Rows of resistors, capacitors, op-amps and transformers adorn a relatively spacious circuit board, and nowhere (apart from on two separate boards that drive the LED metering) is there the now familiar micro-circuitry which can prove almost impossible for local technicians to repair – in the event of failure, of course – and which often means a unit needs to be returned for lengthy periods overseas to the manufacturer. Further to that, the construction also refreshingly lacks an on-board switch-mode power supply (the switch-mode supply is external, to minimise internal heat and noise, as well as to safeguard against a failing supply ‘frying’ the audio circuitry around it).

AT A PLACE CALLED PORTICO…

As Greg has already mentioned in his preceding description of the 5043 stereo compressor, the 5042 tape emulator is similarly subtle in its influence over the audio driving through it. This is no emulation of a wild, unpredictable or erratic tape machine, but rather an archetypical – almost abstract – notion of what a tape machine has historically been. It doesn’t emulate the sound of a dodgy old Tascam with a recalcitrant noise floor and an erratic pinch roller rubber. Nor can the unit really lay claim to sounding like a Studer (although perhaps it feels closer to an A80 MIV to my ears than other machines, but that’s a bit of a speculative stretch, to be honest). There’s nothing about the 5042 that emulates the latent fear of the tape tearing in half as it spools at breathtaking speeds (á la an Ampex ATR100), nor does it have the rock ’n’ roll punch of an MCI. The 5042 is not wholly like any of these machines, but what it clearly emulates is something that all of them possess to some degree, and that’s a characteristic ‘head-bump’ (as it’s always been affectionately known). This characteristic low-midrange boost, intrinsic to the sound of tape machines of all shapes and sizes (which is basically the mechanical side-effect of tape/head interaction) is nicely emulated by the Portico the moment you ‘engage the tape’, as it were.

What’s nice about the 5042 is that not only has Rupert Neve designed the unit to emulate the sound of a tape recorder (albeit a somewhat idealised one), he has also built in certain ‘mechanical’ outcomes reminiscent of a tape machine. For instance, when the input/tape level buttons are pressed, which switches the LED meters from input level to the measure of faux recording levels, nothing shows up on the meters unless the ‘engage tape’ buttons are also activated. This will probably confuse some people initially, but it follows the mechanical logic of a tape machine that wouldn’t register level on tape if the unit wasn’t in ‘record’. There are also two buttons that switch the ‘tape machine’ from 7.5ips to 15ips, which has very subtle effects on the top end and more obvious effects on the bass frequencies.

The 5042’s functionality is actually quite simple. There are two basic controls on the unit (per channel), the first knob being an input Trim. This is effectively the calibration knob – an incoming signal of 0dBu lights up the first ‘lineup’ LED on the meters when the Trim knob is set to 12 o’clock. This is where Rupert suggests (in the manual) you should set your incoming signal peaks, to illuminate this first LED. Initially this is a little odd for someone used to lining up a tape machine where VU meters typically display 0dBu over on the right hand side of the needle’s trajectory. Seeing only one LED light up on the far left of the meter instinctively felt too low to me…

The second, larger knob controls the ‘tape saturation’, and this only affects the sound when the ‘engage tape’ button is pressed (illuminating red). Interestingly, although this knob effectively drives the amount of ‘level to tape’, it has absolutely no influence over the output volume of the unit, which again seems instinctively a little odd. Unlike a tape machine, where the volume of an incoming signal would naturally increase if the recording level were raised up, the 5042’s design melds the record and replay gain controls of a tape machine together as one. As you increase the ‘recording level’ to ‘slam’ the ‘tape’, the replay level attenuates the output to compensate so that the overall output remains constant. Again, this is perhaps a little odd at first, but ultimately an elegant solution that allows you the freedom to mess about with tape saturation levels without having to constantly re-adjust the output gain. This also means that you’re only ever listening to the effects of the saturation, not just the ups and downs of level, which can be distracting and deceiving.

Using the unit across a mix, which I inevitably did, given that it’s a stereo device (I wonder when someone will bring out a 24-track version of this type of thing!), quickly saw me departing from the ‘correct’ gain structure in order to get the emulator cranking. As my instinct had already told me, I quickly found that calibrating my mixes to the Portico so that the peaks only lit up the first input LED left me scratching around for more saturation, which I quickly had open to full throttle. Increasing the input gain allowed more saturation potential, although I was initially just testing to hear how ugly things could get when the unit was fed too much gain. It certainly got pretty ugly, producing some really crunchy and clapped out sounds – this might be beneficial to individual instruments at some point, but perhaps not so for an entire mix. Given that I was in the middle of a session at the time of testing, I quickly backed things off until I eventually settled on a sound that provided me with some power in the bottom end while the top end remained almost unchanged.

I’d have to say my gut feeling was initially that this box was almost too subtle for its own good. But as I used the 5042 on several mixes I was eventually reminded that audio gear shouldn’t always be judged by how radical or extreme its effects are. Extreme outcomes aren’t always what you’re after, and a ‘radical’ box is not, by virtue of its wild changes, somehow better value for money than a subtle one. And besides, the effects of recording to tape are nearly always subtle (assuming you’re not intentionally slamming tape for a specific purpose) and most untrained ears and monitoring environments can barely discern the difference anyway. I soon realised, however, that the 5042 was doing great things to the bottom end of my mix, adding power and weight to the songs long before the signal began to break up. Switching the ‘Engage Tape’ button in and out soon proved that these supposedly subtle effects I was getting were actually quite vivid in the mix, once I knew where to listen for them. The compression effect was pushing the bottom end up through the midrange, strengthening my mix in a way that I soon became reliant upon. Disengaging the ‘tape head’ was then like taking a knife to a football, deflating the mix in a way that was not subtle at all. My conclusion: this box works wonders on the bottom end and has some desirable faux tape compression effects that are very addictive once they become obvious.

It hardly needs to be stated that the Portico True Tape emulator is vastly more practical than an actual tape machine – particularly in the hands of those who, through no fault of their own, couldn’t thread up a tape spool if their life depended on it. Of course, it’s not as much fun as a real tape machine either… tape machines are amazing beasts; their presence, sonic balance and depth, and even their smell can be reassuring at times. But the reality is that tape machines need to be used regularly, serviced regularly, overhauled occasionally, aligned daily, cleaned and pampered continuously and regularly repaired with parts that are often are hard to get, impossible to get or expensive to buy. And that’s just the reliable machines! Although I’m a firm believer that recording to tape is of benefit to at least some aspects of nearly any recording you care to contemplate, owning a tape machine is like owning a dog, you don’t just buy it and then move on to the next thing. You have to form a relationship with it, for better or worse. The reality is that most people’s interaction with the mechanics of a recording device these days scarcely stretches beyond the on/off switch. If you’re this type of person (and that’s fine if you are) the Portico 5042 is the ‘tape machine’ for you. No moving parts to worry about, no alignment issues, no head wear… and the reel of tape lasts forever!