Bae dirty audio genesis12/17/2023 ![]() ![]() For mine, the output control is the key feature here as you can choose how hard to drive the input (clean at lower levels and thick and dirty at higher levels) while making up or attenuating gain at the output stage. There’s also a DI input on the front for ease of access. Between these are the large push-buttons for Hi-Z input, phase reverse and phantom power selection. The front panel is simplicity itself, with one large stepped rotary control for preamp input and another smaller knob for output control. The 73MPL can function as a line-level driver and also features a switchable impedance of 1200 or 300Ω to optimise for various microphone sources. Up to 71dB of gain is available making the preamp capable of driving even very soft ribbon and dynamic microphone sources. The module utilises original Marconi knobs for the look, and a fully Class A signal path with sought-after Carnhill transformers and point-to-point wiring for the sound. The 73MPL is essentially the preamplifier stage of the Neve 1073 circuit, optimised as a compact 500 series module with a few mod-cons such as DI and impedance switching thrown in. Their reputation as ‘the next best thing’ to the originals has been earned on the back of consistently excellent build quality, parts sourcing and circuit design. There were a lot of knobs begging to be fiddled with and plenty of things that needed recording and mixing in the studio so it was a pleasure to roll up my sleeves and get stuck into a steady diet of Neve for the month or so I had possession of the rack.īAE (Once Brent Averill Enterprises, now British Audio Engineering) has been racking and recreating vintage Neve circuits longer than just about anyone else in the game. All these modules share a similar grey palette that gave the whole rack a very military-grade look. As well as a pair of BAE’s tidy single rack-space 73MPL preamps, BAE’s mighty three-space 1023L preamp/EQ shared centre stage with two large offerings from AML - the ez1073-500 preamp/EQ and the 54F50 compressor/limiter. These are, however, merely a pair of bite-sized snacks compared to the five-course banquet of 500 series Neve recreations that arrived from Musos Corner one afternoon in a lovely 10-slot lunchbox. Just to be clear, I’ve got a couple of preamps in my studio built around vintage 1272 Neve cards and I would be very unhappy to lose them, especially given how good they sound on loud electric guitar cabinets. There’s no fighting it! Indeed BAE and AML are two companies (American and British respectively) that wouldn’t dream of putting up any resistance and are delighted to go with the flow and give the people what they want: accurate yet modernised Neve recreations at more attainable prices in everybody’s snack pack favourite, the 500 series format. It’s gluey, thick, musical, undeniably satisfying, even culturally significant, and nothing else out there quite does the same trick. In any case I can’t help feeling like the whole Neve thing is way overblown… and yet every time I track through Neve preamps, mix on a Neve console or run something through a Neve compressor there’s that sound again: the sound of countless great records and doubtless many more great records to come. I’m not sure whether it’s the online frothing of nerdy engineers and producers, the dewy-eyed look the Neve name elicits from young up-and-comers, or the increasingly obscene asking prices of genuine vintage items offered up on Ebay and. I don’t know about everyone else, but I’m getting a little tired of the extremely tall pedestal that Neve’s vintage recording equipment sits upon these days.
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