Early Rupert Neve Consoles and their stories | PART ELEVEN: 1973 | The ‘extravagant’ Neve for Barclay in Paris and ‘The console that disappeared’.

Researched and written by DAVID TAYLOR
With information and photographs by JOHN TURNER
And further assistance from BLAKE DEVITT and Neve Project Engineer TONY MALE
Thanks to John, Blake and Tony for providing the important Neve documentation to help provide an accurate history.

THE ‘TECHNICAL’ CONTENTS

If you’re interested in just the ‘techy bits”, these can be accessed via the ‘jump’ facility using the following numbered section ‘IDs’, and then use the browser’s ‘Back’ button’ to come back here again:

86| Neve’s standard 8014 and 8016 consoles sell around the world.
86a| Supraphon Records, Mozarteum Studio, Jungmannova Street, Prague – Neve 16-8
86b| Covent Garden Opera House, London – Neve 16-4 ‘A583’
86c| Advision, Gosfield Street, London W1P – Neve 20-16
86d| Sounds Interchange, Willowdale, Toronto – Neve 24-8
86e| Studio Tempo, 707 rue Charlevoix, Montreal – Neve 24-16
87| André Perry Studio, Montreal – Neve 24-Channel 8-Group
88| BBC Northern Ireland OB Vehicle CMCR14 – Neve 20-4
89| 1972: “The Beginnings of Neve’s biggest contract” – South African Broadcast Corporation’s 8-channel Stereo Radio Consoles –Neve’s ‘A428 to A436’
89a| Neve 1290 mic Pre-Amps
90| 1971/3: ‘The console that disappeared’ – PYE Studio 1’s 26-channel 16-Group Neve –‘A617’
91| 1973: South African Broadcasting Corporation – Neve 24-channel 4-Group Free Grouping Television Console –‘A618’, and Neve Mono Drama Radio Consoles -‘A619 and A620’,
and Neve Stereo Drama / Music Consoles-‘A621, A623 and A623’
92| 1973: South African Broadcasting Corporation – 12-Channel Free-grouping TV OB Consoles- Neve’s ‘A909 and A910’.
93| 1973: Audiofilm, Madrid’s 24-channel 8-group 16-monitor console – Neve ‘A641’
94| The Neve 1082 Mic-Amp Module
95| The Neve 1083 Mic-Amp Module
96| 1973: “The Bright Lights of Paris” – Studio Barclay’s ‘extravagant’ 36-channel 16-Group – Neve ‘A646’
97| 1973: Twickenham Films 36-Channel 6-Group Neve – ‘A676’
98| 1973: Another for ‘AIR’ Studio 2 – the 32-Channel 24-Group – Neve ‘A725’

86| Neve’s standard 8014 and 8016 consoles sell around the world.

Neve consoles started going further afield by 1972/3, and it wasn’t just the ‘bespoke’ consoles, as many clients were now buying the ‘standard’ 8014’s and 8016’s.
Here’s a look at a few of these ‘standard consoles’:

86a| Supraphon Records Mozarteum Studio, Prague – Neve 16-8 –‘A398‘

Supraphon Records, Mozarteum Studio, Jungmannova Street, Prague

The Czech record label Supraphon added to their two existing Neve’s when they order a further Neve, a 16-Channel 8-Group for their studio ‘Mozarteum’, which despite the name was more pop orientated. This was‘A398’ which replaced a smaller Lyrec console and is a fairly typical 16-8 Neve and has seventeen monitor channels, four 2254 comp/limiters, two EMT140 remotes plus an AKG BX20 Spring remote and it also has a lightbeam-style phase meter.

86b| Covent Garden Opera House, London – Neve 16-4 ‘A583’

Covent Garden Opera House, Bow Street, London

Covent Garden’s 8014 ‘A583’ featured in a Neve Ad from March 1973.

86c| Advision, London – Neve 20-16

Advision, Gosfield Street, London W1P

In June 1971 Advision in London advertised this Neve, a 20 into 16, in their new Studio 2, which was their ‘re-mix’ room. Note the two NTP lightbeam meters on the upstand. They were the UK agents for JB Lansing speakers, so the studio has a pair of JBL 4320’s fitted.
At this time Studio 1 at Advision still had a mixer built by Dag Feldner, whose Feldner Audio had introduced 8-Track mixing to the UK by bringing in a Scully 280. Another UK first for Advision was when Roger Cameron, the studio manager fitted a 34-channel American QUAD 8 console, complete with fader automation into Studio 1 in 1975.

86d| Sounds Interchange,Toronto – Neve 24-8

Sounds Interchange, Willowdale, Toronto

In 1972 Neve’s Canadian sales were however doing well, and this is at another Toronto Studio, Sounds Interchange’s Neve 24-8.

In 1974 Sound Interchange went for a 32-channel 24-output Neve, sourrounded by the ‘stonewall’ facing of a Westlake acoustic treatment in new premises in East Toronto.

86e| Studio Tempo, Montreal – Neve 24-16

Studio Tempo, 707 rue Charlevoix, Montreal

Across Canada in Montreal, another studio put in a 24-channel Neve:

MUSÉE DES ONDES EMIL BERLINER:
“When Studio Tempo opened its doors in 1972, it became Montreal’s second state-of-the-art installation, designed by Tom Hidley of the world-famous Westlake Audio of Los Angeles.  It boasted custom Westlake monitoring and a 24 input Neve console from England.  It was also equipped with an MCI 16-track recorder and Dolby Noise Reduction.  In the first years, under the leadership of Technical director Tom Montgomery and chief engineer Michel Lachance, and later on Ian Terry, it was dedicated to staying at the forefront of technological advances.  Studio Tempo was owned by three partners – musicians Yves Lapierre, Bernard Scott, and François Cousineau, and was on the top floor of a building at 1422 McGill College.  To keep up with technological demands of the internationally famous artists who recorded there, Studio Tempo became in 1974 the first 24-track facility in Montreal, with an MCI recorder.  In 1976, it moved to a new location in a disused cinema at 0707 Charlevoix in Pointe-Saint-Charles and, a year later, purchased a new automated Helios console from England. “

87| André Perry Studio, Montreal – Neve 24-Channel 8-Group

Les Studios Andre Perry, 1135 Amhurst Square, Montreal

In 1972 Neve now had two US offices, at Bethel in Connecticut and Hollywood, plus a Canadian office and they were obviously particularly pleased with the speed at which they fulfilled this Canadian order:

André Perry’s Neve was installed in an ex-church in Montreal.

The amazing interior of ‘The Church’ Studio A. I wish this one was in colour.
Photos from André Perry website.

Note the minimal screening of the rhythm, piano, woodwind / brass and strings in this session. Despite the wall panels, the acoustic in the ex-church would still have been ‘nice and live’ I imagine.

In 1972, André Perry with engineer Nick Blagona (ex-Wessex Studios) built a big new studio outside Montreal in Morin Heights and sold the existing studio in Amhurst Square.

MUSÉE DES ONDES EMIL BERLINER:
“In November of 1972, after less than 2 years in operation, André Perry sold his new studio at 1135 Amherst Square to André Bruneau, a financier and amateur musician, and record producer Gilles Talbot.  The studio’s name was changed to Les Studios de Son Québec and Bernard Dubost was appointed General Manager.  The equipment remained essentially the same as in Perry’s time – Neve recording consoles, Ampex 8 and 16-track recorders.  The complex housed 3 studios, including a very large one which could hold up to 50 musicians. In 1974-75 the studio was equipped for 24-track recording. “

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88| 1972/3: BBC Northern Ireland OB Vehicle CMCR14 – Neve 20-4 ‘A787’

This a purpose-built 20-channel 4-group Neve, believed to be ‘A787’ in the Belfast based BBC Northern Ireland OB ‘Scanner’. The vehicle was built as a demo unit by Link Electronics in 1972 with coachwork by Dell, and joined the BBC in 1973.
This is still like a typical 4-group Neve console with 1073 modules, but has the usual ‘BBC reversed faders’ that pulled towards the operator to fade up, and has a sliding script rack that hooks over the top, but without a lower guide rail. It is fitted, of course with BBC PPM meters. The window in front of the console looks over the Production Gallery towards the main TV monitor stack.

At this time in 1972/3, the UK company Marconi were also purchasing Neve’s for the OB Vehicles they were building for overseas clients.

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89| 1972: “The Beginnings of Neve’s biggest contract” –South African Broadcast Corporation’s 8-channel Stereo Radio Consoles –Neve’s ‘A428 to A436’

In the early 1970’s the South African Broadcasting Corporation began re-housing their radio studios from Broadcasting House in Johannesburg to a new purpose-built complex at Adelaide Park. Considerable further expansion then continued once the political decision was finally made to start a TV service for South Africa.
This was the start of a very large contract for consoles of many different types from Neve and it would become the biggest single contract Neve received, at least in the 70’s. Providing products for the Apartheid South African government was certainly frowned on in the UK at that time and Neve certainly didn’t promote the consoles in any advertising, which will be why there is a lack of photos of most of these desks.

The first consoles comprised Nine Stereo Radio consoles ‘A428 to A436’.

The row of Mic / Line / Osc selector switches above the channel modules allow for a variable number of Mic and Line inputs and the first 4 here have 1290 mic pre-amps in the upstand and but all have 2074 EQ units on the channel strip, then come 4 minus the 1290 mic-amps for line-input turntables or tapes, plus 2 for Reverb Returns and 2 fitted with 2074/2 modules, which in addition to the EQ, have a gain pot for a line amp at the top of the module. These last two have no faders and above them are a pair of 1762 EMT 140 Plate reverb controls and to the left a 1461 Tone Oscillator.
Beneath the EQ units, the channel strips have new designed 1940 Switching Units, which are 2 Group, 2 Echo and PFL, and the last two have 1941 Switching units with Group and PFL only.
The main metering is with a large NTP stereo bargraph and the 2 small Ernest Turner PPM’s are for Rev1 and 2.

Console drawings first started on 29/12/71 and the Silk Screening for lettering was done during Jan and Feb’ 72.

The centre monitor section shows the Afrikaans lettering that was on these SABC Radio Consoles, along with just symbols used in some places. The two visible 2074/2 EQ. modules also use symbols instead of letters on the selection buttons.
The consoles have a pair of 2254/A Comp/Lims and 8 remote controls. The first 3 in the upper row are new type 1774 Remotes, most probably for record capable NAB Cartridge machines, along with two type 1775 1/4″ tape machine controls. the bottom row are Type 1776 ‘PU Remotes’, presumably for turntables.
The main Group output faders on the lower panel have an interesting selector just above them for combining the two together for a single Main Output. Radio was still mono usually of course, although Neve supplied stereo radio desks to SABC subsequently and the Neve registers record that 1783 Stereo Width Control units were for ‘A428 to A436’, but none are visible in these photos.
Beside the faders are monitor selectors for two separate studios.

On the Producer’s desk is a the handset for a UK type ‘Trim Phone’, popular in the ’70’s.

The SABC contract grew to some 50 consoles to equip both Radio and Television, along with 5 Recording Studio consoles was delivered between 1973 and 1975 and we will look at these others in detail in a later part of these articles.

89a| 1971 – Neve 1290 mic Pre-Amp

The Neve 1290 mic amp was first fitted to ‘A428-A436’ for the SABC and was a mic pre-amp with a continuous 20dB to 80dB gain with a mic input impedance switch labelled LZ for 300Ω and Hz for 1200Ω plus a symbol ‘∿’ for an ‘Oscillator’ input position. The low 300Ω was to suit ribbon mics. SABC Radio speech studios most probably were using the STC 4038 ribbon mic, still favoured at this time by the BBC. A low output mic, for ‘speech’ it would often require the high gain that Neve mic amps had and the accurate matching of 300Ohms helped.

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90| 1971/3: ‘The console that disappeared’ – PYE Studio 1’s 26-channel 16-Group Neve –‘A617’

Pye Studios in London had been supplied with a Neve 24-channel 8-Group console in 1968 for their largest Studio 1, and then had the mixdown console‘2096’ in 1969. Their ‘PYE Mobile’ recording truck was also built around a 3-section Neve in 1970 and that same year a 16-channel 16-track Neve‘A138’ went into the ‘pop’ Studio 2 replacing a home-built valve console.
So at the end of 1971, when multitrack recording was evolving fast, Pye needed to replace their first 24-channel 8-group Neve in Studio 1, so they moved it into a mixdown room and once again they came to Neve and placed an order for a 26-Channel console, still keeping to 16-Track with 24-monitors and this became ‘A617’.
The Neve Project Engineer was Robin Ireland:

ROBIN IRELAND:
“It was one of my first “custom” consoles as a Project Engineer and I remember meeting Ray Prickett, going for lunch with him and Les Lewis at that ranch-style restaurant at Flint Cross (long gone/demolished!) and him talking about radio interference problems from the Chinese legation building close to the studio in Cumberland Place!”

Subsequently Ray Prickett, Pye’s chief engineer, came to the Melbourn factory to accept the new console.

The Neve colour photo of the console in Studio 1 is captioned “24/16 with 24-Track Monitors having sliding faders”. In fact previous consoles, such as Whitney’s ‘A94’ had been fitted with P&G faders on the Monitors before.

The other side of the console shows that the groups were split into two sections of 8. The channel’s had standard 1903 Group Routing Modules allowing selection to all 16 Groups, but Groups 9-16 could also be re-routed again via their own 1903 Modules, with a separate Sub-Group Output.
Beneath the Group controls are 4 tape remote controls and on the flat section are switches for the 16-Track with its own remote and a vari-speed pot.
Between the 1073 mic-amps and the Groups are the Echo Sends for Echo’s 1, 3, 5 and 7 with VU’s and 2076 EQ’s (like 1077’s with a mixing amp) and 6 Quad Pan-Pots connected to the first 4 groups for re-mixing in Quad. The Echo’s 2, 4, 6 and 8 are on the Monitors with simple 2074 Hp/Lp EQ’s.

I mentioned in Part Four that when ordering the first 8-track Neve for Pye Studios, Ray Prickett had ‘a thing’ about coloured inserts in the EQ modules, and at some stage after delivery to Pye, ‘A617’ took it to its limits and had different coloured knob caps fitted throughout, as shown below on the 1073 mic amps.

Afterlife:“The console that disappeared” – ‘A617’ turns up in New York

John Turner has a story to tell about ‘A617’ after its days at Pye:

JOHN TURNER:
“A617′ remained in Studio 1 until it was was rebuilt by Eastlake audio, in 1977, when they installed a Cadac console. At some point after 1977, this console was purchased by Pete Waterman who wanted it re-furbished. The console was returned to Neve at Melbourn and stood outside the studio in factory number 1, where the necessary work was assessed, I think by Tech services. This proved to be rather expensive; a quotation was sent for this work. However no re-furbishment order was forthcoming. Nothing happened and I’m not sure exactly what happened next. I think the re-furbishment was delayed a long time and the console put into storage somewhere locally with the customer being invoiced for the storage.  I think these were old apple storage units on local farms, payment for storage stopped and I don’t know what happened next
In 1992 Neve moved to the new purpose built facility at Littlington, and operations ceased at the Melbourn site.  Six months later the merger with AMS took place and all operations were moved north to Burnley, with only a handful of the staff choosing to make the move. In all this change I suspect that this console still in storage just got forgotten about, there were much more important things to sort out.
A couple of years later Pete Waterman contacted Tim Hamill in the London office to find out where his console was. No records existed and no one knew anything about what had happened to ‘A617’. It had seemingly just disappeared.
Some years later, in 2013, I was searching the internet and came across my picture with Ray Prickett on the Mission Sound Recording website.
The mysterious story as to how they came to get hold of the console is also published on their site.” [1]

OLIVER STRAUS – OWNER MISSION SOUND:
“On a cold, snowy January night in 1995 I received this picture via fax. There, sitting among file cabinets and boxes was what appeared to be an 80 series Neve console. Across the top I could clearly make out at least four 2254 compressors, but when I saw the tell tale red mic pre knobs, I new that this might be the one. I enlisted the aid of Fluxivity owner and genius tech guy Nat Priest to go to England the next day to “vet” the desk. 14 long hours later he called. “It’s a 1073 desk. Buy it now” he said. So started Neve 617’s journey from its English home at AIR and PYE studios to it’s new home at Mission Sound in Brooklyn, New York.”  [1]

JOHN TURNER:
“In 2021 I realised that it had been my friend, US engineer Nat Priest, who had been contracted to fly over to the UK and assess a 45 series console. I asked him what he remembered.”

NAT PRIEST:
“I do know a little bit about the Mission Sound console, and I just now went and checked their website and saw the photo of you there.
The console was for sale and at the premises of a broker in the UK, the name escapes me at the moment but I could probably find a contact in an old computer. A US broker was offering the console and Oliver Strauss found out about it. I think the US broker was David Malekpour, and he may have been operating under the name of Pro Audio Design then. I saw the date of 1995 on the Mission Sound website so that is probably right.
Oliver asked me to travel to the UK and look the console over to see if it was something he might want for his studio. I got on an airplane, went and looked at the console, put signal through it and checked it out. All that he had asked for was a thumbs up or down, I liked what I saw and told him so over the telephone and Oliver went ahead with the transaction. I didn’t generate a paper report; we were operating pretty informally back then.I had the idea that I would like to get the job fixing whatever faults there might have been, doing whatever updates he wanted and commissioning the console but that job went to PAD, and the console traveled to the Boston area for that work. Speaking with Oliver about it quite a bit later, he told me that the time frame for the work expanded, and it took a while for Oliver to receive the console. Once it was delivered it was a great success, has been there since and working well, by all accounts. Oliver had a technician he was working with already so he had someone to work on the console at his studio, I don’t recall ever working on it at his place. I did visit his studio in Williamsburg many years later and saw the console there”.

JOHN TURNER:
So ‘A617’ is no longer lost and still making music some 50 years later! I’ve no idea if Pete Waterman ever did find out what had happened and I would be very interested if anyone who reads this can add to or correct any of this story.

The Monitor Speakers Selection buttons are labelled ‘FF and RF, or ‘FR and RR’; a hang-over from the days when every studio felt the need to adapt to Quadraphonic mixing. As mentioned ‘A617’ also came with Quad Pan Pots with outputs linked to the first 4 Groups, to be used when re-mixing. These will have beeen long since gone, as Quad was so short lived with no viable high-quality domestic playback except the rather poor SQ and QS matrix disc systems.

Just about every large Neve existing today has under gone some changes as new technology requires and a few have taken place on ‘A617’. The P&G monitor faders were in 3 groups of 8 and are now there are 24 faders sitting in one row. The left side upstand panel has some new meters and also on the left, the 16 rotary pots above the monitor section, have now slipped over a bit. Now a Lexicon 480 remote sits where the Quad Pan-pots were. Visible in one of the upper photos are also a row of faders now on the right side, and these differ from the photo of the console in the UK Dealers warehouse as well.

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91| 1973: South African Broadcasting Corporation – Neve 24-channel 4-Group Free Grouping Television Console –‘A618’, and Neve Mono Drama Radio Consoles -‘A619 and A620’,
and Neve Stereo Drama / Music Consoles-‘A621, A623 and A623’.

Although the Government in South Africa announced in April 1971 that SABC was to provide a brand new television service, the introduction of television had been heavily debated in South Africa for many years prior, with concerns about its social impact, before finally being approved under Prime Minister John Vorster. It continued being a source of debate and therefore took some years to finally get on air. The first test broadcast began in May 1975 and regular service was introduced on 5 January 1976.

The first Neve that was definately a ‘TV Console’ and not for ‘Radio’ was ‘A618’, a 24-channel 4-Group desk in a ‘Free Grouping’ design’ that was started with drawings on the 3rd October 1972.

The console above is a 24 -Channel ‘Free-Grouping’ one. It could be ‘A618’ or one of the desks from the next batch for SABC.

‘A618’ is obviously similar to the UK’s Thames TV and Southern TV ‘Free grouping’ consoles [2], and has the newly designed 1944/A Switching Module, a 4 Group , 4 Auxiliary with ‘Pre-S’ and ‘AFL’ buttons at the bottom, and as the photo below of the bare front panels shows, the 1944 had the ‘flat paddle’ type of controls that had become standard on the ‘free-grouping’ TV consoles (See ‘A909 and A910’ detailed further below).

Along with ‘A618’ detailed above, in the first 1973 batch of Neve’s for SABC were a pair of Mono ‘Drama’ consoles ‘A619 and A623’, plus three Stereo ‘Drama / Music Consoles ‘A621 to A623’. These would therefore appear to be ‘radio’ consoles with Neve 1066 or 1073 mic amp modules, and this note from John Turner reveals a few different details:

JOHN TURNER:
“SABC consoles ‘A618, A619, A620, A621, A622 & A623’ from 1973.
Although I have very little information and I don’t have any pictures, from the attached analysis of the
drawing registers we can draw some conclusions:-
 These consoles had three individual mechanical parts lists.
 ‘A618’ is a somewhat different console to the others in this group. It was fitted with Switching Module 1944/A.
 ‘A619 & A620’ had the same mechanical parts list, used the same Channel and Group Switching unit (1950)
and the same two wire drawing and probably were identical.
 ‘A621, A622 & A623’ again had the same mechanical parts list, used the same Channel, Group and Rev Rtn Switching unit (1951) plus a 1779 Phase Meter and the same two wire drawing and probably were almost identical.
 New Modules were required for machine remote controls fitted to all consoles, these were 1780, 1782 ( both for Tape) and 1783 (Gram PU)
 Probably delivered mid-1973.”

Below is a preview of a console from the next batch of SABC consoles, and this one has remotely operated Group Switching, a first for Neve consoles. It has a set of indicator LED’s on each channel strip and a separate centre mounted Master Panel Selection. With the help of Tony Male, who oversaw the SABC contracts, we’ll look at this interesting development from 1974 in more detail in the next article.

92| 1973: South African Broadcasting Corporation – 12-Channel Free-grouping TV OB Consoles- Neve’s ‘A909 and A910’.

The next Neve consoles for the new South African TV service were for a pair of small TV Outside Broadcast vans made by the German company Fernseh GMBH in 1973. One vehicle was fitted with a 12-channel console, and the other with a 6-channel one. Neve also supplied all the communications panels between each part of the technical areas on board under Neve works orders ‘A953 and A954’.

Here’s the Neve desk layout drawing:

This is ‘A909′, a 12-channel 2-Group console.

‘A909’ has 1070 Mic-amps and uses a variation on the Neve standard TV design of Switching Module originally designed by Derek Stoddart using ‘flat paddle’ Aux switches, in this case they are 1971 modules which have 2 Group selection buttons at the top, then 3 auxiliary ‘paddles’, giving ‘Pre / Off / Post’ selection and PFL to a small speaker, and Solo (here called ‘Listen’) buttons at the bottom. A pair of 2254/E Comp/Lims are fitted. The sound level monitoring was with BBC Type PPM’s and sound monitoring in this small OB vehicle was with Telefunken 086 speakers and it had the ability to record to an Ampex 1200 Quadruplex (2″) VTR machine.

The Neve ‘2-Wire’ drawing:

Groups ‘A’ or ‘B’ had no dedicated ‘group fader’ but route to the Main Mono Output, unless a ‘group fader’ is made by patching the 3405 Group Mix-Amp Output back into a Channel Fader. This means you lose a ‘channel’ but can have a ‘Group Fader’ wherever you wish. This ‘free Grouping’ on TV desks was mainly of use in complex productions requiring many more channels than these 12 of course!
A 2080 ‘Tele-Fx’ Module is fitted that allowed a ‘Tele-distort’ FX to be switched in, controlled by the switching signal from any of the 4-Cameras coming from the Production Galleries Vision Mixing Panel. This was a unit used in TV Dramas, but it did have a use in fast moving sports like golf or motor racing, where switching cameras by the Director could simultaneously switch a sound effects mic on the Neve console.
Like many broadcast mixers used in live programmes, it has a ‘Standby Main Output’, which is relay switched in event of the failure of the ‘Main Output’.
It’s interesting to note that the revisions to this 2-Wire drawing for ‘A909’ run from Dec ’72 to Apr ’74.

The second Fernseh built TV OB Van was a smaller 2-camera vehicle equipped with Neve ‘A910’, which was a 6-channel 2 Free Grouping version of ‘A909’. Drawings for it were started a few days after ‘A909’ on 28th September 1973.

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93| 1973: Audiofilm, Madrid’s 24-channel 8-group 16-monitor console – Neve ‘A641’

Audiofilm, Calle Alonso Cano 68, Madrid 3.

Audiofilm in Madrid had first purchased a small Neve 6-channel ‘PSM’ console in 1966, and then another Neve 16-4 in 1969, like so many studios the constant increasing of ‘track counts’ now required upgrading their main studio to a 16-Track with this 24-channel Neve ‘A641’.

‘A641’ is a standard specification ‘8026’, with 1073 Mic-amps and 1943 Switching Modules, and has only 8-groups but 16-Track monitoring. Beneath the VU’s are additional indicators showing the track play/recording status. It’s interesting that Audiofilm have chosen to still put in EMT faders, instead of the P&G ones that Neve changed over to in 1969. The previous two Audiofilm Neve’s having had EMT faders.

94| The Neve 1082 Mic-Amp Module

The first use of a Neve 1082 Mic-Amp Module was on the second Neve console for Whitney Studios in California, Neve ‘A1085’, which was described in the Billboard Directory as a a 24 input, 24 output console, but it was in fact just 8-Group.
The 1082 mic amp is described as “a 1085 with 30Hz position”.

As can be seen in the above photo, on the 1082, the bottom High-Pass filter dual-concentric control has a 30Hz positiuon instead of the 45 Hz on the 1084 and 1085.

95| The Neve 1083 Mic-Amp Module

Just for completeness, I’ll mention the Neve 1083 Mic-Amp Module, although I have no photo of one.
It’s the same as the well known 1081, but with ‘stepped controls’; so that’s indented pots instead of continous ones on the ‘boost and cut’ controls..

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96| 1973: “The Bright Lights of Paris” – Studio Barclay’s ‘extravagant’ 36-channel 16-Group – Neve ‘A646’

Barclay Hoche Studios, 9 Avenue Hoche, Paris 8.

The shear size of Neve ‘A646‘ can been seen through the control room window, at the far end of this photo.

GEOFF TANNER – ‘ex-Head of the Electrical Drawing Office, Custom Sales Engineer, Special Orders Manager, Spares Orders Manager, and Special Projects Manager of Neve’:
“Let’s start with what I believe to be the largest Neve console produced.
By largest I don’t refer to the number of channels, I mean the sheer damn bulk of the beast and man, this one was huge!
The console in question was ‘A646’ Studio Barclay, built for a prestigious studio in Paris. If you can imagine the era in the early 70’s when Neve were hand wiring classic 8048 and similar 45mm module width consoles, it will come as a surprise to many that this console had 40mm wide modules.
Talk about custom built!
The console had 36 channels of 4102 equalisers (specially adapted 1081’s), 16 groups, 6 Sub groups and 32 track monitoring. It was built in an “L” configuration with the wedge between the channels and monitor section filled with six joystick quad pan pots and two Astronic graphic
equalisers. The console was extremely tall because, in addition to the 12″ high equalizer and 8.75″ tall 4704 Aux Routing and 4708 Group Routing modules, the meter section had two rows of large meters and there were rows of large illuminated push buttons above and below the faders. I’m 6′ 2″ tall and had considerable difficulty reaching the group routing buttons when standing in front of the console. The task would require orangutan arms for a seated engineer!
The other unusual feature of the console was that every push button switch was illuminated. This looked most impressive in a darkened control room but you tech’s out there will probably be having nightmares about the effort required when replacing the 1,000+ bulbs and Neve did not make
many consoles in this era that required three 20 amp power supplies!”

GEOFF TANNER:
“The illuminated Britec switches used for the Group assign and other functions started falling apart not long after the console was installed. The switches were sectional in construction by having contact blocks that snapped together and they were suspended from inter panels a la regular Isostat switches.
The switches were really designed to be PCB mounted and the unsupported sections were popping apart in use.
The repair was to make custom PCB’s for each module’s switches and this restored the reliability of the console.”

As Geoff Tanner tells us, the 4102 Mic-amps were 1081’s in a 40mm module. The other 40mm modules designed specifically for ‘A646‘ along with the 4704 Auxiliary Routing, the 4708 Group Routing Modules were the 4201 and 4202.

Afterlife: ‘A646’ at La Frette Studios

Here’s how the Barclay ‘A646’ ended up in a small studio in the small town of La-Frette-sur-Seine, just 15 minutes outside the centre of Paris.

OLIVER BLOCH-LAINÉ – Musician, composer and owner of La Frette Studios:
“Eddie Barclay’s place was a great-sounding, big studio complex where we did many sessions, it was like our Abbey Road in Paris. The studio was closing and selling all its gear. I did not have any plans or money to buy anything, and I never went to that kind of auction sale before, so I came in with my friend just for the fun. Once in the place, still for the fun, as a joke, I raised my hand at the very first bid on the main studio’s Neve desk, but: big surprise — nobody followed, and suddenly a voice said: ‘Going, going, gone!’ Five minutes before, I was walking in the street with no idea of anything, and suddenly I became the owner of the biggest desk custom-made by Neve in 1973. I was shocked and totally confused, because I did not know what to do with it, and although it was not expensive, I could not pay for it. I had to stay in the place all night until I had finally borrowed enough money so they let me go.”

Oliver Bloch-Lainé lives in a beautiful late 19th-century mansion and the studio is housed in a basement.

SOUND ON SOUND – December 2015:
“It took almost two years to convert the house into a fully operational recording venue. At first, a control room was installed in the garage for Bloch-Lainé’s film work, and subsequently the 180-square-metre basement of the main house was remodelled. The ceiling height was lifted to 3.5 metres, and then a room-within-a-room construction was installed on floating concrete floors, with space enough for the control room and several live areas. “We turned the original wine cellar into a clear-sounding stone vault, and the rain water tank into a drum booth,” recalls Bloch-Lainé. Later, the large living rooms upstairs as well as the tiled staircase were tuned and wired up, and today they are connected to the control room with 48 mic tie lines.

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97| 1973: Twickenham Films 36-Channel 6-Group Neve – ‘A676’

Twickenham Film Studios, The Barons, Twickenham, TW1 2AW.

After Pinewood and EMI-MGM, the third large UK Film Studio to purchase a comprehensive Neve console was Twickenham, where the dubbing mixer was Gerry Humphries.

Like the other large film consoles, ‘A676’ was designed to be operated by a team, splitting the music, FX and dialogue components of a sound track between them.

The Mic-amp Modules on ‘A676’ are 12″ones, and are a mix of 1064’s and the more comprehensive dual-concentric EQ 1081 modules.

The Switching Modules are 1955, selecting 6 Sub-groups with ‘Pre/Post’ switch, 6 Main Output Groups plus the 4 Rev Groups. At the bottom is a toggle switch giving ‘On/Cut/FV’, with a large ‘Insertion’ Isostat switch. The ‘FV’ label is similar to the ‘PV’ used on other film consoles…..probably a ‘pre-hear’ facility on to a small loudspeaker, as you need to know when a new track is arriving during a film mix.

The 1955 has no pan-pots on the channels for panning between Sub or Main Groups, but we know the console has a very ‘interesting’ design of pan-pot; the ‘Film Rotary 3-Way Pan-Pots’ shown in the circuit above. I assume they are the six large rotary knobs in the panel just above the Group Faders between the two operators.
The drawing shows that there was a relay changing from ‘Wide Pan’ to ‘Narrow Pan’, which presumably explains the reason for this design.

JOHN TURNER:
“Centre Tapped potentiometers would have been used with three gangs to enable special Law shaping modified by the relays – probably 3 per pan pot as Neve generally used a Siemens 4-pole gold contact hermetically sealed relay.”

There are also patchable 2257 Noise Suppressors. These have ‘Threshold’, ‘Attenuation Depth’ and ‘Decay Time’ switches. Kepex and Drawmer produced the first studio ‘noise gates’ around this time, which operated more like like compressors but attenuating signals below the threshold.

On the left hand side of ‘A676’ are two pairs of Astronic 8-band Parametric Eq units, useful in notching out problem frequencies, although some also used them to EQ monitoring-probably not the way to takle that problem though!
The film dubbing console for EMI-MGM has PPM meters, but this Twickenham console. like the Pinewood one has VU meters.

STUDIO SOUND – June 1974:
“Just before Christmas, two particularly interesting films were in the course of production at the Twickenham Dubbing Theatre. A ‘first’ in more ways than one was a Rolling Stones film ‘Ladies and Gentlemen the Rolling Stones’ which had been directed by Roland Binzer and Marshall Chess. I was shown round by Gerry Humphreys, the director of sound, who warned me that the volume of sound would be rather high. This proved to be the understatement of the year, for we were assaulted by some 110 dB of Brown Sugar. During a lull in the proceedings (the sound level had dropped to a mere 70 dB) Roland Binzer explained that they had decided to dub at Twickenham because of the facilities and the co- operation they knew they would receive from the company. In view of the very high standard that the Rolling Stones set, for them to come back from the USA to do the dubbing of this -the first full length feature in quadraphony – was a tremendous recommendation.
Later I was to have the pleasure of watching Gerry Humphreys driving the 36 channel Neve desk during a dubbing session of Tito -The Fifth Offensive. For this film a total of some 1,000 effects were used, including 50 different machine gun tracks. Chris Greenham, the dubbing editor -who won the first sound editing `Oscar’ for The Guns of Navarone- explained that he had done a lot of research among all sorts of library stack to find the effects that he wanted. `We will spend about 160 hours dubbing this film which will run for two hours 14 minutes.’ I could understand why when he pointed out that the reel they were working on included 130 effects which had been premixed to a more conventional six tracks. During the session, Gerry Humphreys was assisted by Robin O’Donaghue.
Gerry took over the dubbing mixer’s chair in 1965 and in 1966 was appointed to his present position of director of sound.
Since the dubbing theatre opened in 1960, the list of films dubbed there reads like a resume of box -office `top ten’: Tom Jones, Cul -de -Sac, Accident, Up The Junction, Charge of the Light Brigade, Lion in Winter, The Beatles films A Hard Day’s Night and Help, and more recently The Italian Job and Oh What a Lovely War. Even more recent productions have included Nicholas and Alexandra, Sunday Bloody Sunday, The Ruling Class, Brother Sun Sister Moon, The Black Windmill and The Three Musketeers. That award -winning films of this calibre have been produced via the Twickenham Dubbing Theatre speaks volumes for Gerry Humphreys and his backroom staff,”

Afterlife: Where did ‘A676’ meet its end?

Here’s a photo of a sad looking ‘A676’ in a dealers warehouse awaiting ‘the end’.

Instagram post by ‘rvguy46’:
“I worked on the design of A676 Twickenham film studio, and that had pan pots that selected L-LC-C-RC-R panning using center tapped potentiometers…. I have a circuit somewhere on how it was done, back in 1974. The console had 1081 channel amps and was sold, by a broker, to a USA studio.
It was a 36 channel console but only 6 bus and I was asked to quote to convert it to 24T. That was a Hell of a modification, not the least being the 36 custom routing units and extra 1272s that had to find a home somewhere.
I put a lot of thought into making an accurate quote but it was turned down and the console scrapped for its parts value.”

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98| 1973: Another for ‘AIR’ Studio 2 – the 32-Channel 24-Group – Neve ‘A725’

George Martin’s AIR Studios continued to be a big recording studio customer for Neve’s in the ’70s.

In the above picture we can see that ‘A725’; a 32-channel console, has 24-groups with narrow group faders on the sloping surface. To their right are the Rev Sends and Return controls. The console has 4 Quad pan-pots, which seem to have become obligitory on large studio desks at this time.

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CREDITS and REFERENCES

[1] Thanks to Oliver Straus of Mission Sound for additional details and photos of the ex-Pye Studios ‘A617’ and to New York Neve specialist Nat Priest.

[2] I’ve explained ‘Free Grouping’ before, but it was a console design in which no dedicated Group Faders were provided. However the Group Buses on the console could be accessed on the patchbay and patched back into any High-Level Channel input on the console. This therefore provided a ‘Group Fader’ wherever the operator required it to be and a TV Sound Balancer therefore ‘built’ his desk layout for easy of access to important Groups. This was a god-send on complicated TV programmes, as a Group Fader could now be provided next to for instance, the ‘Band’ mic channels, or the ‘Vocals mics’, ‘Audience mics’ or ‘High-Level’ playback channels.

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