AMS Neve 1081 Mic Preamp & Equalizer

Daft Punk recorded bass guitar DI, via the Neve 1081.

[This article on the making of Marr's 2018 *Call the Comet* album by MixOnline.com](https://www.mixonline.com/recording/johnny-marr-finds-his-voice-on-call-the-comet) touches on some of the gear used during the recording process. "The Shure SM58 is the preferred microphone for his vocals for its grittiness, run through the 1081 into a Tube-Tech CL 1B with low compression ratios to even everything out." (While the engineer is providing this feedback, the gear is housed in Marr's own Crazy Face studios, which contains gear he's collected over his decades in the music industry.)

Mix engineer Tommaso Colliva on recording Drones : “We had the bass cabs in the basement, which meant quite a long cable run, and for this reason we also had the mic pres in the basement, which usually were Neve 1081s, going into an [Teletronix] LA2A or [Empirical Labs] Distressor for compression, and then into insert returns on the desk, where we could apply some final level and EQ while bypassing the line amp on the desk.”

Accoridng to this *Sound on Sound* interview with producer Al Schmitt, Young used an Neve 1081 for his vocals on *Storytone*. > "Neil stood right next to the conductor, and sang into the same Neumann M49 that Barbra Streisand used. I figured that mic would work well on his voice, and it did. (...) I used my Neve 1081 mic pre on Neil’s voice, though I did not use compression in his case."

In the photo that starts with "Studio A.." you can see the Neve 1081 preamps on the left of the photo in the rack mount

In this artcle Noah 40 Shebib states "a Neumann U87, and his scratch vocals. I'll use either a Sony C800G on him or, if he's in the control room, a Shure SM57. The mics go through a Neve 1073 or 1081, and I'll have an Teletronix LA2A on his voice, not hitting that too hard. These sketches will sometimes make it to the record. I'll sometimes sample them." on recording Drake. This was for the Take Care era

Much of the writing and recording of Vulnicura took place at Björk’s New York home, where she has the ultimate 21st Century studio. The total music–tech content consists of an Avid Pro Tools HD Native Thunderbolt system, Genelec 1032 monitors (“I like them a lot, they sound very creamy. But they can be deceptive, because everything sounds good in them. So you have to be a little careful.”), an M–Audio controller, a Telefunken ELAM 251 microphone and Neve 1081 mic preamp.

Used on the bass for "Sex on Fire", stated by *Only by the Night* producer Jacques King in this December 2008 *Sound on Sound* interview. > "With regards to 'Sex On Fire', the bass was recorded with a DI and a Neumann U47 on the SVT cabinet, close but not right up to the speaker. The microphone on the bass is usually at its upper range of ability, and because the U47 is a tube microphone you get a little bit of tube squash, with the harmonics nearly going into distortion. A lot of times in rock & roll, the bass is really clean and you have to fuzz it up. Both the DI and the 47 went through a Neve 1081 preamp and then an [Teletronix] LA2A compressor, plus an old Dbx 160 on the DI. I also used a very old subharmonic synthesizer, the Dbx Disco Boombox, on the DI. Jared plays a lot of melodic stuff very high up the neck of his bass, and to be able to keep the weight of the track I synthesized some additional low end."

In [this article](http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jan11/articles/it-0111.htm) Yvan Bing, sound engineer on Phil Collins' album, Going Back, says, "I used rackmounted Neve 1081R mic preamps for all recordings — they're based on the 1081, and I drove them pretty hard, with the meters always going into the red, to get some analogue distortion and saturation before going into the digital world."

Used for lead vocals on *Raising Sand*, as stated by engineer Mike Piersante in this December 1, 2007 *Mix Online* interview. > As for the all-important vocal mics, Piersante says, “I actually bought a mic, as I'll sometimes do, just for this project. I had Allison singing through a Blue Cactus, which is sort of their retro mic that's like an old [Neumann] M49 or something. Blue got it right with this — it has a real thick quality to it and it's not too bright. Alison can be a fairly bright singer and I wanted something to complement that and not accentuate it. So I chose this mic to try on her and it ended up sounding very good; very old tube-sounding. I probably had her through an LA2, as well. Robert sang on one of T Bone's [Neumann] U47s, and I probably had an LA2 or LA3 limiter on him. > "So I had the idea of that classic chain I described, and then I thought, ‘I'm going to make a super-retro chain for both of them,’ and hang these RCA 44s right under their mics and they'll be kind of singing into both of them at the same time and I'll have my options. Well, the magnets in those things created the biggest hum you can imagine, so I ended up getting rid of all that and going with the classic tube mic sound and limiter. For preamps, I had Neve 1073s and some 1081s.”

Used on the overhead mics for *Only by the Night*, as stated by producer Jacques King in this December 2008 *Sound on Sound* interview. > "The overheads were recorded with a Telefunken Elam 251 going through a Neve 1081 preamp/EQ, then an Urei 1176, and then to tape."

> For vocals, the idea was to get Jonathan to fit and hold his own against a really intense wall of sound. I had consistently used Neve 1073's, but Frank Filipetti suggested we try a Tube Tech MP1A. We did a shoot out with every pre in the room and subsequently, I never went back to Neve's again. After the MP1A, we had a Rev D 1176 LN, then a MASSENBURG 8200 and, I'm pretty sure an inline1081 from the console at Village Recorder. Later, we added a DBX160SL on the back end of that chain because it seemed to add nice presence and top end.

"'Some songs were to a new Telefunken USA U47, a lot of songs were to the Blue Bottle, and some were to an old Neumann U 47,' Chiccarelli says. 'The preamp was always either a Neve 1073 or a Neve 1081; the limiter was a Tube-Tech CL1B, and then there was also a Tube-Tech EQ as well.'"

spotted in the video

"I usually record John through a Telefunken U47 from the late 40s. That’s usually my go-to mic on John — I found that I really like him through the classic U47. It’s just such a fantastic mic, it has a lot of great clarity and body for him. John’s a pretty strong singer, and that mic seems to take it pretty well. It’s worth noting that I’ve recorded all his vocals on the album to tape. That adds some nice upper harmonics, and it has a very nice saturation and character to it. This vocal has a dark slap-back delay. Mostly, the signal path would be a U47 going to a Universal Audio 1176, or sometimes an LA2A compressor. Preamp-wise mostly we went through Neve 1073’s or 1081’s. I’m going for character, that’s the main thing. I don’t want neutral, I want character. The 1176 or the Neve impart character on it." — Dave Tozer, executive producer of *Love in the Future*

In addition to Paramount’s SSL consoles, Hyde brought in Neve preamps of every description, including a Neve sidecar with 1065s, 1055s, 1073s, and 1081s

Used for lead vocals on *Raising Sand*, as stated by engineer Mike Piersante in this December 1, 2007 *Mix Online* interview. > As for the all-important vocal mics, Piersante says, “I actually bought a mic, as I'll sometimes do, just for this project. I had Allison singing through a Blue Cactus, which is sort of their retro mic that's like an old [Neumann] M49 or something. Blue got it right with this — it has a real thick quality to it and it's not too bright. Alison can be a fairly bright singer and I wanted something to complement that and not accentuate it. So I chose this mic to try on her and it ended up sounding very good; very old tube-sounding. I probably had her through an LA2, as well. Robert sang on one of T Bone's [Neumann] U47s, and I probably had an LA2 or LA3 limiter on him. > "So I had the idea of that classic chain I described, and then I thought, ‘I'm going to make a super-retro chain for both of them,’ and hang these RCA 44s right under their mics and they'll be kind of singing into both of them at the same time and I'll have my options. Well, the magnets in those things created the biggest hum you can imagine, so I ended up getting rid of all that and going with the classic tube mic sound and limiter. For preamps, I had Neve 1073s and some 1081s.”