Mr. Rupert Neve Achieves a New Milestone
Mr. Rupert Neve, a pioneer of analogue mixing console design, Technical GRAMMY winner and founder of Rupert Neve Designs Inc. achieved yet another milestone on July 31st when he celebrated his 80th birthday. Mr. Neve and his wife, Evelyn, who have been U.S. citizens since 2002, reside in Wimberley, Texas, where the Rupert Neve Designs Inc. is headquartered.
Many of Mr. Rupert Neve’s previous designs, including the Neve 80 Series Consoles (8048, 8068, 8078 etc), the 1073 and 1081 modules as well as the original Focusrite ISA series hardware have become some of the most highly prized analogue recording equipment in the business. Rupert Neve Designs Inc., established in 2004, continues to add to that legacy, manufacturing products that embody the principles of very high musical quality that have become synonymous with Mr. Rupert Neve’s name over the years. Early in October of this year, Mr. Rupert Neve will introduce his first new analogue modular mixing console design – the fully discrete, transformer-balanced 5088 – since his return to manufacturing.
The current Portico range manufactured by Rupert Neve Designs Inc. includes the 5012 Mic Preamp, 5032 Mic Pre/EQ, 5033 5-Band EQ, 5042 ‘True Tape’ Emulation and Line Driver, and 5043 Compressor/Limiter. The company will shortly add the 5014 Stereofield Editor and the 5016 Mic Pre/DI to the range of half-rack-space units. The modular 5088 mixing console, available in spring 2007, offers buss/line/tape input selection, transformer-coupled direct outputs and a 100mm fader on each input, with 8 busses and 8 aux sends, and a comprehensive master/monitor section. The 5082 eight-channel vertical format mixer will also be added to the product line-up in 2007.
Born in Newton Abbot in the county of Devonshire in southwestern England, Mr. Rupert Neve’s early years were spent in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where his father was an agent for the British and Foreign Bible Society. He began designing audio amplifiers and radio receivers from age 13, and, having returned to England in the late stages of WWII, volunteered to serve in His Majesty’s Royal Signals.
After the war he ran a public address and disc recording business in Plymouth, England, designing and building his own audio equipment, followed by several years of transformer design work for various manufacturers. He founded the Neve Companies in 1961, designing and manufacturing custom equipment for the recording, TV, film and broadcast industries worldwide, including the now legendary Neve consoles and module designs. In 1985, the Neve Companies were acquired by Siemens of Austria. Mr. Rupert Neve subsequently founded Focusrite and continued to design and manufacture consoles and modules. Since 1989, working under the ARN Consultants LLC moniker, Mr. Rupert Neve has put his audio design talents to work as a consultant for a number of U.K. and U.S. manufacturers, including Amek, Legendary Audio Masterpiece Mastering, Summit Audio and Taylor Guitars.
In 1989, Mr. Rupert Neve was inducted into the MIX Tech Awards Hall of Fame in recognition of his lifetime contribution to excellence in recording and sound. In 1997 he was awarded a Technical GRAMMY by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences for his contributions of outstanding technical significance to the recording field and in the Millennium issue of the U.K. publication Studio Sound he was voted the #1 Audio Personality of the Century, ahead of Ray Dolby and Sir George Martin, by his peers.
