For this video James Ivey of Pro Tools Expert traveled to Burnley, Lancashire, UK, to visit the head office of AMS Neve to find out more about their range of high end professional mixing consoles.  In this video (part 1 of 2) James Townend of Neve introduces the new Neve Genesys Black console. He takes us around the console and shows off some of its key features and workflow tricks when partnered with Pro Tools. 

Including legendary microphone preamplifiers and highly revered analogue circuit design, the extensive digital control and connectivity could put the Genesys Black at the creative heart of your studio.

To start with, the AMS Neve Genesys Black offers 8 channels of 1073 mic/line preamps, 16-channels DAW/Tape monitoring, hands-on DAW control for Pro Tools, Nuendo and more, 8 channels of Neve digitally controlled analogue 4-band EQ,  (optional) 8 channels of Neve digitally controlled analogue VCA dynamics and channel A/D/D/A conversion via MADI, AES and FireWire formats.

A central touch screen, 6 auxiliary buses, 8 group buses, 2 main outputs, 4 effects returns, comprehensive metering, 5.1 monitoring, 2 cue mixes, talkback services and an integrated footprint with internal power supply provides all the power you need.

Genesys Black, is hand-built in their UK factory, which we had a tour of, and AMS Neve have designed it to combine the classic Neve analogue design and preamp circuitry with hands-on DAW control and connectivity for Pro Tools, etc. And it’s modular, meaning you don’t have to wait until you can afford the full 32-fader system to get a Neve desk into your studio. In its basic 8-channel configuration you get 8 channels of mic/line preamps plus 16 channels of DAW control and 16-channel analogue summing at mixdown with eight auxiliary buses, and eight group buses and 5.1 monitoring too.

There’s a ‘classic Neve’ look and feel to the controls, but take a closer look and you’ll see they’re ultra modern too: every switch is ‘soft’. The benefits go far beyond letting you customise your setup to suit the way you work. It also means every routing decision and every switch setting can be saved and instantaneously reset. Add the legendary sounding Neve analogue EQ and optional dynamics modules and you can instantly recall those settings too. 

We had a great time at AMS Neve and they made us very welcome and we were especially impressed with their attention to detail. More to come...