New Software Review: Neve 1084 Preamp & EQ by Universal Audio
Universal Audio unleashes the Neve 1084 Preamp & EQ—can this emulation deliver the authentic 1084 sound to your DAW?
Both Neve and Universal Audio are names that need no introduction.
When you’ve got the authentic sound of recorded music’s most lauded front-end gear, coupled with the power of Universal Audio’s Unison Technology—and the high-end components their Apollo interfaces are loaded with—you’ve got a recipe for some very pleasing sounds.
Though not the first Universal Audio emulation to bear the Neve name, the new Neve 1084 Preamp & EQ is the first and only AMS Neve-endorsed 1084 emulation the world has seen.
This module, originally released in the early 70s on the heels of the massively successful 1073 channel amplifier, featured an expanded three-band EQ which provided producers and engineers with an even more lush palette to further color their tracks.
The “golden unit” that the 1084 Preamp & EQ was modeled after was pulled from an original Neve 80 Series console, along with its original P&G output fader.
Admittedly a bit late to the game, I only recently dove head first into the UA Unison workflow thanks to quarantine. It is truly remarkable the difference in your printed tracks coming out of the UA Console if you’re comfortable committing to some processing on the way in.
With the new 1084 in hand, I have every intention of driving this channel strip deep into its sweet spot and beyond, seeing just how close we can get to that revered, rich, punchy Neve sound.
Features
As mentioned, the key to Universal Audio’s Apollo workflow and sound is Unison Technology.
For the uninitiated, Unison employs the Apollo interface to match the impedance and total gain range of the target hardware unit, along with the same exact gain stage sweet spots, clip points, and unique circuit behaviors—all while offering an equal or better noise floor.
All of this helps create an unprecedented two-way relationship between your hardware while working in the digital realm.
In true UA fashion, they along with Neve have gone to great lengths to ensure the 1084 Preamp & EQ was modeled as painstakingly and accurately as possible, all the way down to the intricacies of its nonlinear behavior and the ten different areas within which the circuit can clip.
There is tactile control available over the Unison plugin’s gain and level parameters using Gain Stage Mode with your Apollo, making the experience all the more authentic. I encourage you to check out the user manual, specifically the “Operational Overview” section, where you’ll gain full insight into just how deep the modeling here goes, and exactly what kind of tactile control your Apollo interface offers over the Unison plugin.
The signal flow for the 1084 plugin begins in the upper left corner of the GUI, with Neve’s unmistakable “Red Knob” dual-transistor preamp control. Chances are if you’ve ever used a Neve preamp you know its controls and numerical values are laid out a bit oddly.
The controls for the mic side are found between roughly noon and 5 o’clock (moving counterclockwise), whereas controls for the line side are found between roughly 2 and 5 o’clock (moving clockwise). The numerical values of -20 dB to -80 dB represent sensitivity rather than gain, meaning if your mic input signal has a sensitivity of, say -40 dB, you’ll set the input at the mic side at -40 dB. The mic input has a range of 60 dB; the line input has a range of 30 dB. Both operate in 5 dB detented increments.
Located to the right of the preamp control are two 2-way switches; one for impedance (Mic Z), and the other a -20 dB pad. When the Hi Z switch is set to “LO”, the mic input impedance is 300 Ohms; when set to “HI”, it depends on the gain setting. At gain values set between -20 dB and -50 dB, the impedance is 1.2K Ohms; when set between -55 dB and -80 dB, the impedance is 600 Ohms.
Moving down from the Red Knob, you’ll find the EQ settings. If you’ve used a Neve EQ before, you’re aware of its dual-concentric inner/outer knob design and the fact that 0 dB is found at 6 o’clock. From there, turning the inner knob clockwise will apply additive EQ, while a counter-clockwise turn will provide subtractive EQ.
The high band of the 1084 is of the shelf variety, and offers +/-20 dB of gain. The available frequencies are 10k, 12k, and 16k. There is also an “off” position in its most counter-clockwise setting—a feature found in each band.
The mid band offers two choices of bandwidth via its “Hi Q” button, which engages a narrower Q for more surgical tweakery. This band also has +/-20 dB of gain, and offers frequencies of .35k, .7k, 1.6k, 3.2k, 4.8k, and 7.2k.
Like the high band, the low band is also a shelf, but this time with a range of +/-15 dB. Frequencies on offer here include 35Hz, 60Hz, 110Hz, and 200Hz.
Finally there is the filter section, which again employs the dual-concentric knob design. The inner knob, which controls the low-pass filter, operates at 6k, 8k, 10k, 14k, and 18k; the outer knob, controlling the high-pass, offers options of 45Hz, 70Hz, 160Hz, and 360Hz.
Below the filters you will find two buttons: EQL and PHASE. PHASE, as you would guess, is a simply a switch for polarity inversion. When EQL is pressed in, the EQ is engaged, however the user manual notes that even when EQL is de-selected, the preamp-only signal is still affected by 1084’s EQ circuitry, therefore still injecting subtle coloration into your sound. This is the kind of stuff I love to hear.
The majority of real estate on the right-hand side of the GUI is claimed by a large vertical fader for output level, which was again modeled after an original Neve console fader. Gain range here is -∞ to +10 dB, with any values above 0 dB capable of causing output amplifier clipping (this depends on your settings earlier in the chain).
Found below the output fader is a small rotary knob which controls the signal level at the output of the plugin; UA notes that this control does not effect the sonic character of the plugin. This is useful for any additional makeup or unity gain staging needed for recording or mixing. And finally, there is a 2-way power switch that acts as a bypass for the entire plugin.
An important thing to note on the whole is that these days, it’s possible for any plugin emulation, made by any company, to be pushed far past the functionality of its original hardware, often adding welcome features long yearned-for by dedicated hardware users. In this regard, UA tends to err on the conservative side with their designs, staying pretty true to the limitations of the gear they are emulating. This is the case here in the 1084 Preamp & EQ; no crazy added functionality or wizardry under the hood… just the authentic Neve sound—or so we’re told.
So is it true? Can we really capture the sound of the 1084 without actually having it racked up in our studio?
In Use
Of all the mixing I’ve done over the years, one tune—which was tracked through a Neve desk—stands out; it is, in my opinion, likely the punchiest, cleanest, most dynamic mix I’ve ever put together. It just… hits. I feel like I can hear every molecule of air moving across each mic capsule in that live room where the basics were tracked. And I would know that sound, because it was me who engineered the session.
In my experience, it’s almost as if, if a production is tracked fully through a Neve desk, the end result is somehow more than the sum of its parts.
So to that point, I do believe that the perceptible presence of the Neve sound (and any other sonic footprint, for that matter), is magnified when compounded—as in, multiple channels of a particular unit used to capture a single performance, like in a full-basics or drums-only session with many tracks. I’ve also done overdubs through a Neve front-end, where its unmistakable sound only sits atop an instrumentation captured through non-Neve or other not-so-distinctive gear. Although overdubs through a Neve front-end can never be a bad thing, there’s a big difference between a session done using exclusively Neve, and one with only a few tracks of it.
The obvious advantage here in using a digital emulation rather than the hardware is that you can have as many channels of 1084 as you’d like—so each channel in my drum tracking session began with an instance of Neve in the UA Console app.
Though I would typically follow the 1084 pre with some form of compression on the way into Pro Tools, I chose to forego that step here for the sake of dissecting the sound of the 1084 emulation with minimal added coloration. That said, I was not shy about pushing the preamp circuit into character territory, taking advantage of that sweet breakup at the input stage before trimming down the output.
As I’d hoped, hitting the input stage of ten 1084’s with drums, cranked hot and trimmed down at the output, with zero EQ (at first), brought me right back to that magical full-Neve session described above. Unlike the sound of almost everything I’ve heard that doesn’t bear the Neve name, it’s almost as if with the 1084 you can peel back the layers of sound in your mind and cross-examine what you’re hearing with great detail. There is a palpable richness, complexity, and depth of color here that is simply not present when using other preamps. And to reiterate, this is without EQ.
My room is bright. And if you set the room mics in the right places, and the drums in the right spot, it’s also got a great heft to its low end. In fact, the last time I recorded drums here, I was apprehensive to commit to any added high-end on the way into Pro Tools. But as bright as my room is, I know I’ll end up giving those overheads some added sheen later on, and those room mics some extra weight down the road, too.
Extending the ends of the frequency spectrum using the 1084’s EQ circuit was like watching Bruce Banner transform into the Hulk. Giving those overheads a bit of 10k, and those room mics a bit of 60Hz, all of a sudden we’ve got 20/20 clarity in the top end with behemoth weight down below. Just the kind of air up top that I remember from that magic Neve-only session—I can hear every little movement of the capsules from the surrounding air.
I am now hitting Pro Tools with a richer, more complex and colorful drum sound I’ve ever been able to conjure while working in the box.
Bass, guitars, and keys of course did not disappoint when put through the 1084. Thanks to Unison, getting the pre right in its sweet spot—and when you do this track upon track—almost makes you feel like the song partially pre-mixes itself as you continue to layer and play back.
1084’s on 1084’s on 1084’s, and so on.
I am a strong believer that with proper use of harmonic saturation, you can tremendously reduce the amount of EQ and compression needed down the line in mixing. Plus, you’re adding character to your productions. The kind of harmonics the 1084 produces are so smooth and so musical that by the time I start dialing in further processing, I find there’s significantly less needed.
Get the right gear, set it right, and it will do its thing. Classics are classics for a reason.
And not being shy with EQ on the way in, it wasn’t difficult get a great working mix with nice separation between instruments as I moved further and further through the tracking process. The 1084’s EQ points are well-thought-out, and if you know where you like your elements to sit, they set you up very nicely for minimal further EQing in mixing.
Giving the bass a goose at 110Hz provided nice added size without eclipsing the kick drum (filtering helped here too), while cutting at .35k left a nice opening for the bottom end of the guitars.
I love EQing midrange in guitars. The 1084 provides a couple nice options here if you’re looking to get guitars to cut; I used mostly the 1.6k and 3.2k EQ points, and did some filtering in the low end to give the bass some room.
Stacking vocals 1084-style is magic. I get wary of applying too much of the same EQ treatment on many tracks of vocals, so I treaded lightly going “to tape” with EQ here. I find that varying the EQ, track to track, to support the register of each part being sung, helps with overall balance of a group vocal—so the midrange EQ points were key here. The end result was an incredibly complex and colorful, “glued” group vocal that instantly sat comfortably in my working mix.
I look forward to seeing if the digital emulation of the 1084 provides the same kind of openness, punchiness, and dynamic depth present in the session done on the actual Neve desk. Although I haven’t gotten to the mix phase with the session conducted for this review, my working mix is palpably exhibiting characteristics of these very same qualities.
To Be Critical
If I wanted to have my cake and eat it too, I’d wish that the 1084 had one more band of midrange EQ. But it would be preposterous to challenge the design of the 1084—and like I said, UA stays pretty true to the original designs they emulate in their plugins. I wish for the added band because selfishly, I would have loved to be able to add a sense of forwardness to the bass, perhaps around its .7 kHz EQ point, and have a little more cut/add flexibility on the way in with guitars. But this is the digital age, and there is always the next insert point, and always another great EQ emulation.
The bottom line is the 1084’s EQ is a sweetener (at least that’s the way I see it), best used to either highlight your source material’s better features or do away with a little bit of ugly. After that, you can always get more surgical.
Summing it Up
If you’re looking for flexibility, character, and coloration—Neve-style or not—on the way into your DAW, and you’re not on the Apollo platform, get on it. If you’re comfortable enough with your engineering chops to commit to sounds on the way in, the UA Console—along with the new LUNA—workflow will revolutionize your perception of recording music digitally. I encourage you to take a deeper look if you haven’t yet.
As for the UA 1084 Preamp & EQ, I now consider this something I cannot go without. Though not cheap at $299, this is an incredibly low price of admission into the lauded Neve sound—and unlimited channels of it, too. And as exciting as the Neve 1084 Preamp & EQ is, it is one of many, many emulations of classic coveted gear available from Universal Audio.
I look forward to committing to further EQ and dynamics processing on the insert points following the 1084 in future sessions. But even if I stopped at the 1084, my raw tracks hitting Pro Tools will never sound the same.
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[…] When you’ve got the authentic sound of recorded music’s most lauded front-end gear, coupled with the power of Universal Audio’s Unison Technology—and the high-end components their Apollo interfaces are loaded with—you’ve got a recipe for some very pleasing sounds. Read more… […]