do you really know about NEVE

[ThatHitSound]

Born in 1926 in Newton Abbot, Devonshire, England. Family moved to Buenos Aires that same year where his father was agent for the British and Foreign Bible Society. From age 13, which was during the 1939 - 45 war years, he designed and built audio amplifiers and radio receivers. Attended St. Alban’s College in Lomas de Zamora, Buenos Aires. Married Evelyn in 1951 and has 5 children, and six grandsons and one granddaughter. He volunteered straight from school in the second world war and returned to England to serve in his Majesty’s Royal Signals.

Peace time found him running a Public Address and (Disc) Recording business in England. (Before the days of tape recorders!) Met Evelyn and concluded that to provide for a wife and family, he had better find a safer career. He worked in London at the REDIFFUSION design labs where he took charge of transformer design (which is a black art, as every engineer knows - nobody else wanted the job!), he then went to FERGUSON RADIO and, eventually became Chief (and only!) Engineer to a small transformer manufacturer. But the spirit of independence was strong. He designed one of the first “bookcase” high quality loudspeakers and was invited to lecture on it at the Royal Society of Arts in London in 1958. For four years he designed and manufactured HI FI equipment. (Using valves, of course... there were virtually no reliable transistors)

The first step into the “professional” audio field came in 1961 when Leo Pollini of Recorded Sound Ltd., commissioned a mixer with EQ, echo and foldback on every channel and with two output groups. This was all valve (tube) equipment and was distinguished for its sound quality. But the dreaded transistor was encroaching fast and a “portable” (it took four men to carry it!) sixteen channel, three group mixer was built for Philips Records Ltd. in 1964. This was all with germanium transistors. It was built in ignorance, fear and trembling! Surprisingly the sound quality was actually better than with valves! Its reputation soon spread and lead to further orders.

RUPERT NEVE & COMPANY Ltd. was started in 1961 and from 1964 operated out of the coach house of The Old Rectory in a village near Cambridge, England. The flow of custom equipment for the Recording, T.V., Film and Broadcasting industries grew rapidly until in 1969 the operation burst into a new factory at Melbourn, where the present Company continued until 1992. Manufacturing Plants and Sales depots were established in Kelso, Scotland, Bethel Connecticut, Toronto, and Hollywood. In 1975 Rupert sold control of Neve Companies and by 1978 had ceased active design input. With the later sale of the Neve Companies to Siemens in 1985, Rupert’s involvement terminated and he recognized that the market was ready for something fresh.

The FOCUSRITE ISA modules were introduced and highly acclaimed, but the pressure was on to build a new console. To resist such a challenge was not in Rupert’s nature and within a 12 month period the first FOCUSRITE console was designed and built. Failure to find a commercial partner led to the liquidation of FOCUSRITE LTD. A new company, FOCUSRITE AUDIO ENGINEERING LTD. took over the assets and now manufactures some of the old Focusrite products.

Rupert Neve is now long term design consultant for AMEK LTD. whose expertise in the audio sound control and manufacturing fields is partnered by Rupert’s innovative approach to the sound path. New modules have been introduced and a new major console, the 9098i has just been announced which embodies features and performance which, whilst retaining Rupert’s transformer and EQ traditions, incorporates innovative circuitry to take account on new discoveries about the way we hear music.

In 1997, Rupert Neve is granted the Technical Grammy Award, being one of three professionals to ever receive one.

[Soliloquay]

Thanks for the info


solioquay [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]
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