Review

Reviews

By George Shilling and Russell Cottier

Eventide DSP 7000 Ultra Harmonizer
Dec 23 2008 Ultra Harmonizer
Eventide DSP 7000

Eventide's Orville is a Rolls-Royce effects processor, with 96kHz/24-Bit capability and multiple audio connections enabling surround-sound usage. But it will be some time until we all work exclusively in a surround format: for many, two-channel stereo is adequate, preferred, stipulated or more cost-effective.

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Eventide H7600 Ultra Harmonizer
Dec 23 2008 Ultra Harmonizer
Eventide H7600

This new Harmonizer is not quite the top-of-the-range model, that honour goes to the H8000FW, an eight channel unit featuring 5.1 presets. But the H7600 is now the top stereo unit in the range, replacing the DSP7000 series.

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Daking 52270 Mic Pre/EQ and 91579 Compressor/Limiter Geoffrey Daking pro audio
Dec 23 2008 Geoffrey Daking pro audio
Daking 52270 Mic Pre/EQ and 91579 Compressor/Limiter

I suspect that many readers outside the US have never heard of Geoffrey Daking. I hadn't. The man himself is a studio owner and 'audio tinkerer'.

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Mutronics Mutator Stereo analogue filter, modulation and envelope follower
Dec 23 2008 Stereo analogue filter, modulation and envelope follower
Mutronics Mutator

It is not uncommon these days for record producers to have ProTools systems with software plug-ins to digitally emulate analogue effects.

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Neve 8801 88R console channel strip
Dec 23 2008 88R console channel strip
Neve 8801

This is a product that now seems obvious, and although there have been board room and financial shenanigans, one might wonder why it has taken Neve so long to produce it.

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Neve 8803 Dual channel equalizer and filter
Dec 23 2008 Dual channel equalizer and filter
Neve 8803

The 8803 features comprehensive four band EQ, plus high and low filtering. The case is fairly shallow, and while the colour scheme is very Neve, the build quality is not quite as reassuring as chunky 1073s and 1081s.

EQ
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Presonus ADL 600 Dual channel mic, line, instrument pre
Dec 23 2008 Dual channel mic, line, instrument pre
Presonus ADL 600

The story of Italian-American designer of boutique outboard Antony DeMaria meeting up with PreSonus president Jim Odom at the New York AES Show will be familiar to some readers from press releases.

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Purple Audio MC76 Mono FET compressor
Dec 23 2008 Mono FET compressor
Purple Audio MC76

I have yet to meet a recording engineer who dislikes or actively avoids using Urei 1176 limiters . Every commercial music recording studio worth its salt usually has two or more of these mono units in the rack as standard.

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Roll Music RMS755 Super Stereo Compressor
Dec 23 2008 Super Stereo Compressor
Roll Music RMS755

Minneapolis-based Roll Music… (which is a different company from Rolls Corp in Utah, here ‘Roll’ is derived from the difference between ‘Rock’ and ‘Rock and Roll’ music) …claim that the RMS755 is designed to squeeze life into your mix, not out of it.

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Rupert Neve Designs 5088 Discrete Analogue Mixer
Dec 23 2008 Discrete Analogue Mixer
Rupert Neve Designs 5088

At 80, Rupert Neve can look back proudly at a career of console design, his CV including numerous models which pushed the boundaries of audio quality and ergonomics.

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Rupert Neve Designs Portico 5033 Five Band EQ
Dec 23 2008 Five Band EQ
Rupert Neve Designs Portico 5033

George Shilling walks through another doorway to find out whether this EQ provides the entrance for classic Neve sounds... The pro-audio industry is littered with remnants of Mr Rupert Neve’s distinguished - if disjointed - career.

EQ
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Rupert Neve Designs Portico 5043 Compressor / limiter duo
Dec 23 2008 Compressor / limiter duo
Rupert Neve Designs Portico 5043

Industry legend Rupert Neve adds a compressor to the Portico series, George Shilling finds the way in. Rupert Neve founded the famous Neve console company many decades ago, and it is many years since connections were severed with what is now AMS-Neve.

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Sonnox Oxford SuprEsser De-esser plugin
Dec 23 2008 De-esser plugin
Sonnox Oxford SuprEsser

New from Sonnox is the Oxford SuprEsser, designed to be “the last word” in De-Essing.

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SSL Alpha Channel Pre-amp and EQ with digital conversation
Dec 23 2008 Pre-amp and EQ with digital conversation
SSL Alpha Channel

SSL seems an increasingly go-ahead and dynamic company, especially since the last change of ownership.

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SSL Duende DSP powered plugins
Dec 23 2008 DSP powered plugins
SSL Duende

Duende is a Spanish word – “A mysterious power that all may feel and no philosophy can explain.” But I’m going to try anyway… Duende comes as a 1U rackmount box which houses a board with 40-bit floating point DSP processing engine chips.

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SSL X-Rack Mixer Modular rack system
Dec 23 2008 Modular rack system
SSL X-Rack Mixer

I took a look at the SSL X-Rack a while back but back then the only module available was a Dynamics processor.

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