The authentic Neve preamp sound, right at your fingertips.
The Neve mic preamp is an undisputed audio masterpiece, adding genuine Neve sheen, richness, and thick musical detail to any signal that passes through it. The pinnacle of Neve preamp design is the classic 1073 module with EQ, but Neve also briefly produced the 1290 module — a rare, preamp-only version of the 1073.
Now, you can get the clarity, grit, and harmonically complex class-A saturation of this amazing mic preamplifier in a simple two-knob plug-in that's perfect for UA Audio Interface owners.
- Get the world's only authentic plug-in emulation of the legendary class-A, Neve mic preamp
- Record "through" the iconic Neve preamp in real time using UA Audio Interfaces, with low DSP use
- Color your tracks with musical saturation and complex nonlinear circuit behaviors
- Control UA Audio Interface mic preamp gain staging and impedance directly from the Neve Preamp plug-in via Unison™ technology
Neve Preamp
Technical Overview
Neve Preamp emulates the standalone Neve 1290 microphone preamplifier module, combined with attributes of the Neve 1073 console modules. The goal of Neve Preamp is simple: Provide an easy to use, low-DSP preamp-only tool for Unison recording and mixing. Until recently, the 1290 was the only standalone mic preamp developed by Neve that was identical in design to those found on the original class-A modules. The 1290 was developed for and limited to the Australian broadcast market, so few were made.
Unlike the mic and line gain system in the 1073, the original 1290 only has a microphone input. However, when mounted in custom racks for aftermarket use, line input functionality is often provided by adding a pad to the mic input. This arrangement is emulated in the Neve Preamp plug-in. Neve Preamp borrows the same 80 Hz cut filter that is offered as an option on the 1073. Neve Preamp also "locks down" the switchable impedance to the most commonly used "Hi" value, which means the -80 to -55 "single amp" range adopts a 600 ohm impedance, while the -50 to -20 range adopts a 1200 ohm "dual amp" range, just like on both the 1290 and 1073.
Furthermore, the nonlinear behaviors in Neve Preamp differ slightly from the 1073 due to the absence of the EQ and it's electronic loading between the input and output amps, but the overall linear system filtering is maintained from the 1073. For these reasons, you'll see the the name on the GUI is "1290A" which indicates UA made a "digital amalgam" that didn't exist before, in hardware.
Unison Integration |
Neve Preamp features Unison technology for integration with the mic preamp hardware in Universal Audio's Apollo audio interfaces. With Unison interfaces, the ultra-transparent mic preamps inherit all of the unique sonics, input characteristics, and features of the modeled Neve hardware preamp.
Note: Unison is active only when Neve Preamp is placed in the dedicated Unison insert within UAD Console or LUNA. For complete details, see Unison.
With Unison, the hardware preamp adapts to the modeled preamp's physical input impedance. Combined with UA's transparent analog amplification, this provides the Neve Preamp's full gain and tone range from clean to clipped — with broad, musical sweet spots in-between.
Realistic Tandem Control
Unison facilitates seamless interactive control of Neve Preamp plug-in settings using both the digitally-controlled panel hardware on the UA audio interface and the UAD plug-in interface. All equivalent preamp controls (gain, cut filter, polarity) are mirrored and bidirectional. The preamp controls respond to adjustments with precisely the same interplay behavior as the Neve hardware, including gain levels and clipping points.
Hardware Input Impedance
All Unison mic preamps feature variable input impedance in the analog hardware that can be physically changed by Unison-enabled UAD plug-ins for physical, microphone- to-preamp resistive interaction. This impedance switching enables Unison preamps to match the input impedance of the emulated hardware, which can significantly impact the sound of a microphone. Because the electrical loading occurs on input, prior to A/D conversion, the realism is faithful to the original hardware preamp.
Tactile Gain Staging
The hardware preamp knob on the UA audio interface can independently adjust the gain and level parameters available within the Unison plug-in via Gain Stage Mode. The gain stage being adjusted can be remotely switched via the interface hardware, so the gain levels and their associated colorations can be tuned from the hardware knob for precise physical tactile control, all without using the Unison plug-in's software interface.Neve Preamp Controls
Input Select
The Input Select switch determines which input (mic or line) is being controlled by the Gain knob.
Tip: Click the text labels to jump between Input Select modes.
Important: Use caution when switching from LINE to MIC, as output levels can increase significantly (as they would with any hardware preamp).
MIC
When set to MIC, the preamp is in mic input mode. Like the hardware, the Neve Preamp plug-in easily facilitates sending line level signal through the "virtual" mic input, which allows creative use of distortion to color signals.
LINE
When set to LINE, the preamp is in line input mode. Unlike the 1073, the 1290 has only mic preamp inputs by design. This mode utilizes the same circuitry as the mic input (including transformer emulation), but applies 30.7 dB of attenuation to compensate for the greater amplitude of line-level signals.
Unison Interaction |
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Gain
The Gain switch specifies the level of gain applied by the preamp. It offers settings from -20 dB to -80 dB, in 5 dB increments.
Note: The unusual "negative value" numbering originally used by Neve are based on sensitivity instead of gain. For example, if an input has a sensitivity of -80 dB, the input sensitivity knob on the 1073 would be set to -80 dB to match.
Tip: Input Select can also be switched by clicking any of the "dots" or gain value labels in the range for the input type.
Unison Interactions |
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Phase (Ø)
The Phase button inverts the polarity of the signal. When the button is engaged, the signal is inverted.
Unison Interaction |
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High Pass Filter (HPF)
The High Pass Filter button controls an 18 dB per octave high-pass filter with a cutoff frequency of 80 Hz. When the button is engaged, the filter is applied. This filter is equivalent to the 80 Hz HPF setting in the Neve 1073 plug-in.
Unison Interaction |
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OUTPUT
The OUTPUT control sets the final output level of the plug-in. Up to 24 dB of attenuation or 12 dB of boost are available. As the last component in the signal path, OUTPUT offers clean, uncolored level changes.
Tip: Click the "0" text label to return the OUTPUT control to its unity gain position.
Unison Interaction |
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Tip: For details on how to enter and exit Gain Stage Mode, see Unison. |
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PWR (Power)
The PWR button bypasses the plug-in, which is useful for comparing the processed settings to the original signal. When the button is engaged, emulation processing is disabled and DSP usage is reduced.
Neve 1290 preamp module
All visual and aural references to the Neve® Preamp, 1073, 1084, 1081, 31102, 88RS, 2254, and 33609 products and all use of AMS-Neve's trademarks are being made with written permission from AMS-Neve Limited.