Rupert Neve Designs 511

The Neve Designs Portico 511 is a great microphone preamp, capable of everything from clear and uncolored to thick and vibey sounds. The adjustable amount of silk introduces 3rd order harmonics that can be just what the doctor ordered on certain voices and other sound sources. The sweepable highpass filter is a great feature to have on any preamp to reduce unwanted rumble or lowend sounds from fans, traffic and many other sources. Tip: Record just the ambient noise of your room with the highpass off, and then bring up the signal high in your DAW and check what's going on at the bottom. All the unwanted lowfrequency energy will steal headroom when hitting your AD converters and to get rid of it before the converters is so much better than to highpass inside your DAW later. Trust me on this. This preamp is capable of truly professional recordings and at this price it is a steal. I put 4 stars on quality because one of my knobs are a little looser than the others, which I think is intended because I have 2 units and both act the same. Still, I would have preferred if they had the same smooth solid feel as the fourth knob.

Well, coming from a built in audio interface preamp from RME Babyface, the difference is mostly in the interaction with the device, being able to adjust the trim, gain, silk (which is subtle) and HPF without looking at the screen, helps one concentrate solely on the sound. To my ears the sound difference was not really huge as both preamps are clean. I really love the HPF on this device, works really well as you can get rid of some low end before recording. Not bad for the money.

First of all, if you are expecting the old Neve sound you are at the wrong address. This is is not an entirely transparent preamp; it is a bit on the bright side but there is nothing harsh about it. It works with basically anything you put in it (vocals, acoustic guitars, digital pianos...). The silk function adds some texture and can be really useful thing on keyboards and synthesizers. It is a great preamp for the price.