[LAU] Neve filters for Linux?

[James Stone]

I read something in tape-op about some "golden eared" guy who detected
something wrong with a neve desk IIRC and when they analysed it, it
turned out there was some problem with the freq response above 60K or
some other equally unbelievable figure. From what I read they are
supposed to have a really transparent sound (whatever that means). I
doubt something similar could be done with digital as the placebo
effect is completely lost!

On 27/03/2010, fons at kokkinizita.net <fons at kokkinizita.net> wrote:
> On Fri, Mar 26, 2010 at 11:04:00PM -0700, Ken Restivo wrote:
>
>> Throughout the decades, I've read various engineers and
>> producers waxing poetically and rapturously about the Neve
>> console filters and how great they sound.
>
> Same about Helios, Cadac, Midas, ...
>
> I worked on big Neve consoles for years, and sure I do
> like the filters. But see below.
>
>> Filters are filters, and there must be some way to measure
>> their their frequency characteristics and emulate it in
>> software. Has anyone done that? In LADSPA on Linux?
>
> We're close to myths and pseudoscience here.
>
> Filters must not add distortion, noise etc. They only change
> the frequency response. Now classic analog filters used in
> audio consoles are (with maybe some rare exceptions) all of
> the 1st and 2nd order minimum phase type. Which means that
> (given the required controls and ranges) they all do the same
> thing.
>
> What makes them different is how they *feel* - the relation
> between feeling the knobs move and the actual response.
> For shelf filters 'gain' and 'frequency' will interact in
> some way, and for parametrics 'gain' and 'bandwidth' will.
> There are different ways to define these interactions, and
> most engineers will prefer one or the other.
>
> Unless Neve (or any of the others) are doing something really
> exceptional (and then we'd know it), I'm pretty sure that if
> you take e.g. the Neve circuit, replace the potentiometers
> with some other brand that have either more or less friction,
> change the type, size and color of the knobs, and modify the
> layout a bit, nobody would recognise it as 'the Neve filter'.
>
> Neve are still in business, you can buy the equalisers. If
> you do it would be interesting to measure them, but I'd be
> surprised if anything special would turn up.
>
> Ciao,
>
> --
> FA
>
> O tu, che porte, correndo si ?
> E guerra e morte !
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