Santa Barbara, CA (December 6, 2010)–Santa Barbara Sound Design has integrated a 32-input Rupert Neve Designs 5088 analog mixing console with vintage Neve modules.
Santa Barbara Sound Design, a music recording and post production studio that was established in the mid-1970s, replaced a digital worksurface in Studio A with the 5088. The console, which has recently been fitted with Martinsound Flying Faders automation, is used in combination with the studio’s collection of custom rack-mounted vintage Neve preamp and EQ modules.
Studio owner Dominic Camardella, noting that the facility has housed a vintage Neve console for majority of its years of operation, says of the 5088 desk, “The board is wonderful. It’s modern sounding and yet looks back to the vintage past without any of the flaws that the vintage consoles had. The vintage consoles tended to be noisier; the noise floor on the new Neve is just impeccable. The vintage consoles, although they had enormous headroom, would dull over on the top end and you’d lose low-level signals. They would get puffy and thick around the waist. None of those issues are present in this Neve 5088 console.”
Camardella, who is also an adjunct professor in the Music Department at Santa Barbara City College, says, “What’s really refreshing is how sonically diverse it can present. It’s a little SSL-like at times, and a little vintage Neve-like at times, and never to the detriment of the sound.”
One of the first projects to use the studio’s new 5088 was Robert Cray’s Grammy-nominated album, This Time, which was recorded by the late Don Smith. Subsequent projects using the 5088 have included tracking sessions for eight new Rascal Flatts songs; blues guitarist Stu Heydon’s 3rd Degree album; Lawson Rollins’ Espirito album; mix sessions for MTV act Loomis and the Lust; and overdubs with the Jackson family for an A&E special that aired earlier this year.
Rupert Neve Designs
www.rupertneve.com
