Reproduced from http://www.ams-neve.com/archive/pwldiary.htm

Artist: Tina Cousins
Track: Killing Time

"The starting point for the re-mix began with a DAT of the vocals. This arrived from London with a manuscript copy of the lyrics and music. The vocals were cut into single phrase lengths and put into a sampler. This gave us more control over the vocal than laying it straight onto tape and writing the arrangement to suit. It was now possible to rearrange the order of the chorus and verses, and even the order in which lines were sung.

The arrangement was decided upon and signal processing was allocated accordingly (the desk needs to be told how to process the signals for each channel). We use Cubase as our sequencing package on a Power Mac as both are reliable mid easy to operate.

About two days were spent oil the percussion - the most important part of any Dance track, with each part given a separate sampler output and channel on the desk. If the drums don't work, then the track won't work. During this programming stage, using the Libra allowed us to place gates, limiters, compressors and EQ on as many tracks as was required without coo much effort. The four band EQ is truly parametric and has to be heard to be believed! Some of the old analogue keyboards especially generate a fair amount of noise, so gating is essential.

The arrangement decided upon and the programming finished, it was now time to put the track onto digital multitrack tape. This was done with flat EQ, no compression and no limiting. This gives the mix engineer the raw track to work from. Having the track on multitrack also enabled us to take advantage of the automation which runs to timecode. On the Libra, everything can be automated from EQ filter sweeps, riding certain vocal phrases and switching auxiliaries in and out, to mutes and panning effects.

The track was then mixed from multitrack onto DAT to be sent to the pressing plant.

The finished track contained 32 tracks - 12 percussion, some of their stereo signals - with another 10 auxiliary returns.

I was a real analogue snob until I realised not only the ease with which the Libra can manipulate and control digital information, but also the absolute precision that a digital desk affords. It goes without saying that the clarity of sound is as perfect as I have ever heard, the desk not colouring the sound as some analogue desks call.

AMS Neve have designed a desk that is eloquent in its simplicity. Anybody with a basic knowledge of Windows NT and sound recording will feel at ease almost immediately once basic operating concepts have been learned. They have designed a desk with operators in amid and a knowledge of what engineers require from a desk. The automation - a stumbling block on many desks - has been reduced to its simple basics enabling valuable time to be spent on creative considerations rather than technical ones. This is not to say the automation is unsophisticated - quite the opposite, in fact. But being digital, the practical operation of it is simplicity itself. It is possible to have the four band EQ creating the oddest filter sweeps and cuts, and each time have it played back exactly as it was intended to be, time after time, every time.

It Is this precision and reliability that makes the desk into a league of its own.

Obviously, being digital, there is no loss of sound quality when transferring between sound sources. In the Tina Cousins re-mix the vocals were taken from DAT to sampler, sampler to multitrack and multitrack back to DAT. With digital there Is a perfect cop every time and no deterioration of quality that occurs with analogue signals. The weakest part of the chain tends to be our own outboard effects that weren't digital - reverbs and delays although this is just faultfinding for its own sake.

With digital sound recording, the sound is manipulated as numbers, to the possibilities are endless. It is possible to place a gate, a compressor and a limiter over each of the 48 tracks. Imagine how big the outboard rack would have to be to contain the equivalent equipment! There is also the question of precision as mentioned earlier. When the screen says -10dB, then that is exactly what it is."