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@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <fons@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> 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 ! > _______________________________________________ > Linux-audio-user mailing list > Linux-audio-user@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > http://lists.linuxaudio.org/listinfo/linux-audio-user > -- Sent from my mobile device _______________________________________________ Linux-audio-user mailing list Linux-audio-user@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://lists.linuxaudio.org/listinfo/linux-audio-user
