A 5088 Finds a Home at FIVETHIRTEEN Recording
Designed and built in 2006 by Catherine Vericolli and Jeff Harris, FIVETHIRTEEN’s initial intention was to provide a professional and affordable space for local bands and musicians to make records. The B Room mixing suite was added on in 2010 to accommodate session overflow, and the flagship A Room is now home to a 32-channel Rupert Neve Designs 5088 loaded with Portico 5012s, 5033s, 5043s, and Shelford 5051s.
The decision to acquire a new board was based not just on the desire for something new & exciting, but also something robust that wouldn’t require much maintenance. Before committing to a console, the team “decided to do as much physical seeing and touching as we could…which led us to a get-together at a beautiful studio in Wimberley,” says Vericolli.
One of the people they met was Mr. Rupert Neve himself, there to answer their questions. “Rupert Neve is at the top of the list of guys that don’t need to sell their own gear. So when he took the time to chat with a couple of young punks from Phoenix about the desk, his philosophy, why he chose to build it the way he did…we were shocked and humbled to say the least.” Hearing the console and seeing the dedication of the team behind it was all they needed. “We left Wimberley and didn’t even bother to look at any other consoles. We were sold – by the desk, sure, but so much more by the people who represented it.”
Vericolli says, “Upon installing the 5088, we found that it wasn’t cold and without character like many modern consoles, nor was it trying to sound like the vintage designs of the past. Even as an analog mixing desk, unloaded and lacking preamps and EQs that traditionally give a console its ‘sound’, it was noticeably warm, full, and accurate.”
FIVETHIRTEEN discovered that over time, the most noticeable attribute to them was that the 5088 wasn’t leaving anything out. “Every frequency was present with the same robustness. It just sounded complete,” said Vericolli. “There is an absoluteness about everything this console does…it has an incomparable tactility. When you engage any part of the console, you are engaging over 50 years of trustworthy and unprecedented electronic pedigree. The craziest thing is that it literally ‘feels’ that way.”
