How do these sound pre and eq compared to other vintage neve's? Or other vintage console strips racked these days? Searching forums doesn't turn up that much, oddly. What about 8101?

33135 all day long

Make sure it’s correctly racked and has the T1801 marinairre output transformer or you’re kidding yourself.


Wiggy

Ok, thanks for the input. I did a lot of searching the web yesterday, finally found a similar answer (took forever to figure out which came from which consoles and how good each supposedly was!), but great to hear a confirmation. nothing like first hand knowledge! It says it has these transformers, but it doesn't specify input or output. If memory serves its only marinair t1801 on the output, so I'm guessing that means it does.

On a scale of 1-10 (10 being neve bliss) where does 33135 fall? I'm more into the eq, fwiw.

7.5

1081 does more for me but 1073 is richer tonally in terms of the class A tone.

But a Shep SN8 and get the time and a 4 band EQ.. boom!

Wiggyo

Hmm. With tax it is 3150 usd. For 4k can get a used curge bender. Which has more vintage-izing power on a mix I wonder.

Are you mixing and want something for stereo bus then a curvebender is gona get you much farther with that money.

Tracking is Shep as the sound farking ace both the preamp and eq!

My situation is a bit unusual. I'm getting ready to start tracking my next album. Will be recording to DAW, dumping tracks back and forth to Ampex AG440c (with both 440 and 351 tube preamps and playback head, both options), both tracking, sub-groups, and then mixdown. The music is all vintage synths, virtual drummer, and bass guitar. This means I'm not using any microphones! I've got most of the vintage tone from tape and preamps above. I also have a pair of nice AML Pultec clones. But I like the sound of solid state neve-style eq for tracking. Currently have a Stam 1073eq clone, but figured a more vintage racked console eq would finish out this chain for tracking. But I also want something that can be useful on mixing sub-groups and groups, and potentially mixbus along the way. So its got to serve a bunch of purposes.

This is why I'm having trouble deciding. I could get the Neve 33135 rack for 3k (eek). Much more flexible curve bender for like 4k (seems the going price for these lately, though none currently listed for that price). Or get something simple for tracking, like an ADM 1540 rack eq for 1k (w/o preamp, and really I have preamps covered, though I've never tried a real marinair neve!).

Thoughts?

Remember that these are broadcast class A/B modules so are a bit leaner in Girth and hair.

Great sounding but not the 1073 vibe but I guess you have that covered with the stam which bb all accounts.

Can you try before buying?

I love my calrec 1061 which are infinitely more flexible and better sounding imho !

those are broadcast, didn't realize. no, other side of the country. yeah, I'm more interested in the eq than the pre, as unusual as that is. I've heard good things about the calrec, but also heard its rather clean. I'm looking for character. any advice on what unit would be good for that?

Non transformer Calrec are on the cleaner side but any of the Calrec PQ1061/1161/14/15 are just like the Neve broadcast modulesbur so much better imho.

The 33135 is a broadcast module with belclere transformers yet has no output balancing transformer as this was often in the body of the console itself not in the module like a 1073 etc. Many many racking jobs butcher the Fark out of these and leave the outputs unbalanced. It’s here that the T1801 comes in to balance it up aonir thinks it’s seeing the correct load and output as if it was in a console.

Do a bit of googling on the 1061 and you’ll see that it’s very much more flexible than the neves. I bought nyvrack from Paul G here and he has some PQ modules still and we both LOVE ours as they have a very nice tone, distort beautifully and sound ace on drums.

If you want PM and I’ll run a few short wavs through mine if you want ?

Which transformers did you terminate your Calrec's with?POM used 70's Lundahl LL1517's on my PQ1161's I have nine,and they are indeed v. nice.

Original sowters