Review: Neve 8816 16:2 Summing Mixer

Since SAE acquired AMS-Neve last year, there have been changes in the air. Head SAE honcho, Tom Misner, realised that, while Neve was still able to sell its top-of-the-line mixing consoles at prices quite beyond the budget of mere mortals, the music industry’s overwhelming shift towards modest budget and computer-based recording across the board (err, is that a pun?) meant that Neve was growing distant from the majority of audio users, both in terms of sales and relevance. Meanwhile other boutique brands were cleaning up with products, many of which were clearly based on vintage Neve designs. But was it worth simply re-issuing more of these ‘classics’, or had the moment come to produce some genuinely new Neve products, by combining the expertise and experience of AMS-Neve with some innovative ideas and a few classic touches? With this in mind, Tom put together a team comprising himself, Neve veteran Robin Porter and Australia’s own legendary studio technical whiz, Steve Crane, to design a new range of Neve products – the first fruit of their labours is the 8816 summing mixer.

SUMMING ELSE

In case you’ve been living under a rock for the last few years, a summing mixer is a device used to combine audio signals strictly in the analogue domain. In the grand old days this was standard fare, of course, as digital consoles hadn’t been invented. Nowadays, people are often mixing entire songs either on digital consoles or inside their computer, but due to the limitations of processing power and the accuracy of the summing algorithms, it’s long been apparent that this method has some inherent problems. Sonic separation is often compromised as a mix becomes more complicated and the loss of stereo imaging has become an engineer’s nightmare on digital systems. Another common complaint involves a loss of resolution when more instruments are added to a mix, so when you solo a bass, say, it sounds great, but put the rest of the mix in around it and it seems to lose definition. And then there’s a general lack of punch and presence that many people associate with digital mixes anyway. This has presented manufacturers with an opportunity to produce small-scale analogue mixing consoles – or the summing sections thereof – and since Neve is synonymous with mixing, I guess it seemed an obvious direction for them to take. Of course, they didn’t just make any summing mixer…

ENTER THE NEVE

While there are quite a number of summing mixers around (Dangerous, SPL, Tube-Tech, API, Audient and Folcrom etc), it’s fair to say that none of the competition has packed in as many features as the 8816. At the heart of the design, the Neve 8816 uses transformer mixing (good old 10468 transformers, in case you’re wondering) combined with a signal path architecture that replicates Neve’s flagship 88R console. At its simplest, the box is a 16-channel into two-channel summing mixer. At its most complex it’s the centrepiece of an analogue mixing, recording, and mastering chain, which is partly down to the wealth of unique features the basic 8816 unit offers, and also because the 8816 is highly expandable via an array of options that seem set to become available by about the time you’re reading this (which we’ll touch on in a moment). I was given the first 8816 to arrive in Australia before any of these optional extras existed so let’s just start with the basics… the 8816.

THE BASICS

Sporting the traditional Neve grey, the 8816 is a 2U-high box crammed with knobs, switches and a classy pair of needle meters. For the purposes of this review, it makes sense to break the unit up (metaphorically) into four main sections: the input channels, the cue/solo section, the master section, and finally the monitor panel. Looking at these separately, here’s a quick rundown.

There are 16 basic input channels on the 8816, each comprising rotary level and pan controls as well as a solo/mute button and a separate cue-send button. The cue-send feature is not something typically found on summing mixers and this is the first example of how Neve has really thought outside the square with the 8816. This facility alone makes the 8816 a realistic proposition in recording situations, rather than being a summing-only device, by allowing an entirely separate mix to be tailored to a recording musician’s headphones, for example.

The cue/solo section features a master cue volume control, a cut/solo master mode button (toggles) and a headphone socket with level control. It also has a couple of nice features like a 2TR-to-cue button which allows a reverb or any stereo source to be easily sent to the cue mix – again another useful feature for recording engineers, saving the need to sacrifice channels for monitoring or re-patching for playback of a mix.

The master section also has a few surprises, not least of which is a built-in talkback mic! From the top down, there’s an alt/speaker select button allowing instant switching between two sets of monitor speakers. A mini jack input socket called iMon, which, believe it or not, is designed to plug an iPod into. (I’m sure this will plague musos everywhere as the producer flicks through his 1000-plus album collection looking for that perfect feel that they ‘just need to hear before hitting record’!) There are also three rotary level controls for: 2TR, IMR and MIX. 2TR is simply another stereo source, the same as mentioned before in the cue section. IMR stands for Insert Mix Return and is basically a wet/dry control, which allows you to mix in varying amounts of an inserted effect (say, reverb or compression) onto the main stereo bus – a great feature, perfect for your side-chain compression duties. And Mix is… well, yer main stereo mix.

Finally, the monitor panel controls what feeds your speakers. It has an output pot for monitor level, and several possible input selections including: the main mix, the iMon (iPod) input, the 2TR input and input channels 1 and 2.

BEST RECOLLECTION

It’s way beyond the scope of this review to go into all the features the 8816 possesses, so for more technical detail I’d suggest downloading the manual at www.ams-neve.com. Before we get into the listening tests however, there are several innovative features that deserve special mention. Firstly, though the unit is effectively an analogue device, it also features a USB port, which allows a PC or Mac to run a free download from Neve called Recall. Yes, you guessed it, the 8816 is fully recallable! Recall allows you to save the entire array of settings on the 8816 for recall, in a similar manner to a large-format analogue console – the routine involves manually setting the pots to the positions indicated on screen (the values are saved as a voltage measurement, which is also the main reason behind the lack of a centre detent in either the gain or pan pots). Given the (im)possible number of variations and/or configurations available on the 8816, Neve has hit on a real winner here, allowing your mixes to be fully recalled in the digital domain and the analogue domain – the Recall file can be saved in a folder right alongside the song file. What’s more, all future products in the range will sport Recall too! A fantastic bonus feature for sure.

Secondly, the addition of the aforementioned talkback mic is a stroke of genius. It might seem like such a trivial thing, but it’ll save you a mic, a channel, a preamp, some patching, as well as spare you the horrors of feedback. In use, the mic is great too… alarmingly sensitive. (You may have to watch those sniggers at the back of the control room, as they’ll easily be picked up.) It’s the kind of feature found on expensive mixing boards and a very worthy addition.

Finally the insert options on the stereo master bus are excellent. Having a wet/dry control for mixing in an insert is a winner. Parallel compression is now very quick and easy to set up, and a good balance can be quickly achieved. The fact that the insert can also be configured for sum and difference processing is a great bonus for mastering types, and the addition of a stereo width control should keep guitarists and backing singers happy for decades to come. And listening to the mono component is just a twist of a pot away to boot. Fantastic.