Neve Limiter Compressor Modules, Ancient and modern !

[phoeni...@earthlink.net]

Classic Neve Consoles 1961 to date (Story #7)

Neve Limiter Compressors, Ancient and modern !

After my revelations about the background concerning the design of the
Neve 2254 Limiter Compressor I’ve had a few emails asking for details of
other Limiter Compressors produced by Neve so here’s a brief run down. .
. some of them are a rare as mermaid’s tears, chicken’s teeth, rocking
horse ****, etc. !

2262 This was basically a derivative of the 2254 using a motherboard
construction but repackaged into a case that matched the dimensions,
fixings, and McMurdo two row connector of the Pye Limiter Compressor
produced around the same period. Not that many were made and, ironically,
I’ve seen more Pye compressors in Studios than 2262’s!

2264 (and its derivatives) was further derivative of the 2254 and, like
the 2262, using a motherboard system of assembly and no more B183/283
Class A Output or transformer buffering the diode bridge. It was designed
to slot into the space occupied by a standard 8.75" Neve correction unit
and was the only 45 series module that I can recall that used an extruded
aluminum top and bottom panel. The motherboard wedged into a slot inside
this extrusion, trapped by steel expanding pins. The 2264 used an Ernest
Turner Gain Reduction Meter that had to have the edges of its clear
plastic bezel milled down to fit the module width. This in turn meant
that the side edges of the meter were less than one millimeter thick and
VERY prone to breaking when inserting the module into a console or rack!
Ernest Turner are long gone but there are other meters that fit better to
these modules.

(It’s worth mentioning that special versions of both the 2254 and 2264
were made with switchable frequency compensation added to the side chains
to enable their use as a De-Esser).

3314 was a 35mm wide derivative of the 2264 for the 53 range of Broadcast
Consoles and their custom derivatives. The gain reduction meter was
remote mounted.

The next three units are down to me, as Special Orders Manager, in terms
of their design heritage (along with all the other hard working techs who
assembled them!)

The 33609 (and its 33610, 11, and 12 derivatives) was two 3314
motherboards mounted in a substantial 19" x 2U rack housing along with
the PSU card and 2N3055 from the 1777 power supply. It used the aluminum
machine turned knobs from the 35mm range of Neve modules and a (legal at
the time) EP4 mains connector. A mono version was available in the same
case size (a waste of space I corrected later!) and stereo and mono
versions were made without the mains PSU for operation on 24 volts. A
later version was adapted to fit in the top of 8108/8128 consoles, strung
across the complementary power rails. I tried steadfastly to have these
units upgraded with a mains neon rocker switch to replace the expensive
locking toggle switch and an IC regulator to replace the expensive 1777
PSU but the changes (including Sifam Collet Knobs) took place much later,
after I had left to firm.

33615 was a 19" x 1U Limiter Compressor made from a 3314 mother board
inside a 12" module case. I used a LM3914 LED bar graph display module
in lieu of an analogue gain reduction meter and an IC regulator based
mains power supply. These units were sold to independent television
companies in the UK.

Although not given a "legal" module type number, I designed the ancestor
of the Prism rack based on the dynamics unit from the 51 series console
in a 19" x 5.25" rack and sold to a very small number of customers due to
opposition from the Neve MD (Laci Nester Smith). He was concerned that
"competitive" console users would buy them instead of purchasing a Neve
console. . . but just cause was found for selling the similar "V" based
Prism rack after I had left!

There were also a number of small limiters produced that were designed to
fit in the center of a line amplifier (unbalanced inputs and outputs) and
normally used as talkback limiters. The 3300 had separate input and
output level pots which made precise level setting a bit hit or miss. The
3310 addressed this problem by having a threshold control similar to its
expensive siblings. There was also an obscure limiter fitted to one of
the many versions of the PSM portable sub mixer (so rare I’ve forgotten
its type number!) and a simple limiter fitted to the BA350 talkback
amplifier.

On the subject of custom modules produced by the Special Orders
Department, I designed a 19" x 1U tele-distort unit which produced a very
convincing telephone simulation, not just because of the precise filter
slopes, but because of the distortion generating circuit which could be
swept from around 0.01% to 99%. . . and, probably, like me, you were
curious why 99% distortion was necessary as I anticipated very low orders
of distortion would be used for tele-effects. It turn out that the
customer used the 99% to generate background (and unintelligible!) crowd
noises.

Much later on (post Neve!) I redesigned this effects unit onto a single
printed circuit board with a mains power supply, electronically (or
transformer) balanced inputs and outputs, and sweepable filter slopes and
distortion range. Besides making a brilliant tele effects module it would
make a mind numbing instrument effects unit. If anyone wants further
information on this unusual effect please drop me an email and I’ll spill
the beans!

Geoff Tanner

(former Head of the Electrical Drawing Office, Custom Sales Engineer,
Special Orders Manager, Spares Orders Manager, and Special Projects
Manager of Neve Electronics International)

15 August, 1997

Phoenix Audio International
Hollywood, USA and Stevenage, UK
Email = phoeni...@earthlink.net

ps. We acknowledge that references to Neve refer to Rupert Neve & Company
Ltd. and Neve Electronics International at the time of the occurrences
detailed and the company is now called AMS Neve plc.

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