Neve 8078

Custom Neve 8078 in The Way Recording Studio London

The Neve 8078 was the last of the "80 series" hand-wired analogue mixing consoles designed and manufactured by Neve Electronics, founded in 1961 by the English electronics engineer Rupert Neve, for high-end recording studios during the 1970s. Some were custom built for major studios like CBS Sony.

The rarity of these consoles makes them quite valuable. The classic Neve sound has featured on records by artists including Steely Dan, Nirvana, Megs McLean, Pink Floyd, Dire Straits, Quincy Jones, George Clinton, and Chick Corea.

A limited number of these consoles were ever made and there are now only a few select studios who have 8078 consoles still working perfectly after several decades. These include:

• in Mesa, Arizona, owned by record producer, songwriter and musician Bob Hoag^[1]
• Groove Masters Studio in Santa Monica, California (72 inputs)
• in Nashville, Tennessee (72 inputs)^[2]
• in Rhinebeck, New York (8028)
• in Milton, Louisiana (52 input 8058 with automation)
• EastWest Studios in Los Angeles, California
• Electric Lady Studios in New York City
• in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada^[3]
• Vox Recording Studios in Hollywood, California (24-channel 8028)
• ^[4] in Leipers Fork (Nashville) Tennessee owned by producer, writer, engineer, mixer Michael Lattanzi. Console previously owned by Dave Way in Los Angeles
• Long View Studios in North Brookfield, Massachusetts
• Ocean Way Nashville in Nashville, Tennessee (80 inputs)
• Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music^[5] in Brooklyn Oscilloscope Laboratories^[6] in Tribeca (custom modified with 72 Channels of flying faders), formerly housed in ,^[7] with an , which was formerly housed at in Santa Monica, California prior to that.
• in New Orleans, Louisiana^[8]
• Pedernales Country Club in Austin, Texas, Willie Nelson's studio^[9]
• in North Hollywood, California, now owned by songwriter producer Linda Perry^[10]
• The in Marin County, California
• Sonic Ranch^[11] in Tornillo, Texas. Custom console has 80-channels of pres (two consoles combined by Pat Schneider and Bill Dooley) with flying faders, 32 channels of monitor inputs, and 24 buses largest vintage Neve in the world. Originally in , it moved L.A.'s owned by and Madonna, then acquired by Yoshiki from X Japan.
• Sound City Studios in Van Nuys, California (operating one 28-channel 8028^[12] and one 40-channel 8078) (which closed in May 2011 and reopened in early 2017). The board was purchased by Dave Grohl for his personal studio, Studio 606. In 2013 he produced a documentary about it and an album recorded with it with a large panel of rock stars, called Sound City
• Sphere Studios in Los Angeles, California
• The Way Recording Studio in London, England

Removing many of the inadequacies of the 8078 series was a custom-made Neve console A4792, constructed in 1978, at Air Studios recording studio in Montserrat, which was founded by George Martin. Used on such recordings as Dire Straits' award-winning album Brothers in Arms, that A4792 console is now in operation at Subterranean Sound Studios in Toronto, Ontario. Only three of these consoles were ever made with the other two originally installed at Air Studios in London. Air Lyndhurst still has one of the two remaining consoles in operation today while the other is in use at The Warehouse Studio in Vancouver, B.C.

See also[]

• Comparison of analog and digital recording

References[]