Studio Mini-Doc: The Air Montserrat Neve

[@grantmarshall1636]

Hurricane Hugo in 1985 was responsible for AIR Studio’s demise. The volcano eruption in 1997 had nothing to do with it.

[@imperialashes4478]

Thanks for the clarification. Another commenter also pointed that out. Our apologies for any inaccuracies as this video was admittedly not planned out or researched. We were just kind of flying by the seat of our pants and decided it would be cool to share after having filmed the clips.

[@asor8037]

They say 89 in the "under the volcano" documentary. Stings 1987 album Nothing Like the Sun was recorded there.

[@pdlegend6829]

This is SO AWESOME! I visited Montserrat with my parents as a kid in the early 80s, they eventually moved there just after the first major volcano eruption.. I have a few artifacts from Air Studios like a blank receipt book to book studio time and some blank air studios cassette tape inserts! I have so many fond memories about Montserrat and knowing the HUGE history of Air Studios brings me so much joy knowing this board is alive and working!!

[@imperialashes4478]

Very cool! Thanks for sharing!!

[@lapercusion]

Andy Summers danced on that console 🤣

[@imperialashes4478]

Indeed he did. We were not so bold.

[@jimrogers7425]

Rupert Neve’s basic intent in designing his consoles was to support a frequency bandwidth 3 times to range of human hearing, or from roughly 20Hz to 60 kHz so that the upper harmonics (those harmonics that give one a sense of openness and air in the signal) would be recorded. Even though George Martin’s hearing was pretty much shot by the time this console was designed and built, he probably moved the high end spec up to 100 kHz because of good reason, even though the tape machines couldn’t record that high. While Rupert Neve was a genius designer in England, the US had it’s own version of him in Saul Walker who founded API and was THEIR genius designer. While Neve was based on Class A discrete designs, API was based on Class AB and Class A designs as API had their own discrete op amp… the 2520. Just an FYI. A great deal of the 60s and 70s singer/songwriter records were cut on an API/Studer combo… they have a lot of balls and air. Neve consoles weren’t as ‘popular’ in the states because of import tariffs.

[@herbieus]

Also Faces by Earth, Wind & Fire was recorded on that console!!

[@imperialashes4478]

Ah cool, I did not know that! I think Scott, the house engineer actually has a somewhat comprehensive list somewhere...

[@autocrossstar17]

That’s so awesome this console still exists! I knew the control room equipment had been removed but I didn’t know it was in use somewhere. So there is still hope for great sounding records :)

[@voccsaycee30]

Great to see a studio not only with a real Neve, but also real 1176s, LA2As, Pultecs, the Fairchild obviously, AMS digital stuff...all the classic standards, not vibeless modern clones. You can make an album properly there.

[@MusicFan1987]

Cool that the board survived! One thing though as far as Air Studios is concerned you mentioned the volcano destroyed it. It's the other way around Hurricane Hugo damaged Air Studios significantly in 1989 which is when George Martin closed it. The volcano erupted in the 90s. The building still stands but it's become derelict now.

[@imperialashes4478]

Ah, good to know - thanks for the correction! The filming of this was pretty spontaneous, and we only later decided to turn it into a documentary, so we didn't have the opportunity to double check all the details beforehand. I tried to add an annotation to the video, but apparently you can no longer do that. :-/

[@peterraguseo2874]

When I was about four yrs old, my family had a house on Montserrat next to the Vue Pointe Hotel. My family walked next door to the hotel restaurant one night where the Rolling Stones had set up to play an impromptu set. This was late April of 1989. They were working the Steel Wheels album on this very board!

[@imperialashes4478]

Woah. What an awesome memory to have. Thanks for sharing!!

[@Pacer416]

Hi Peter, Sorry for jumping in so late. This console was sold to A&M and moved to LA in '86. So, this Neve was not used on Steel Wheels. I believe AIR got an SSL. One engineer commented, "We traded a Rolls Royce for a Toyota." : ) Don't get upset anyone. I'm just parroting what I was told. Not sure if it's true or not.

[@craigmontserrat1919]

@@Pacer416 It's true. Rolling Stones didn't use this board, but after moving to A&M it was used by Don Henley and U2.

[@Pacer416]

@@craigmontserrat1919 Correct. We did know that. In fact, The Edge came to the studio to visit the console during the Joshua Tree Anniversary Tour. (Funny, I can't see someone visiting a Mac Computer and Pro Tools 30 years after recording on it. : )

[@pdlegend6829]

Wow. Cool.. My parents lived there too.. I went as a kid to the Vue Pointe also... years after the studio was ruined we rummaged through it and I have actual Air Studios Cassette folds and a Pad they Book Studio Time with.. all blanks though.. Really cool stuff.. I wish I grabbed more when it was still there!!

[@nicolatorri6325]

absoute the best mixer console on entire world

[@mallorga1965]

Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe!

[@bigjohnson7415]

The first album recorded in the console was Jimmy Buffett's Volcano. Kinda a foreboding, don't ya think?🤔

[@imperialashes4478]

Ha, no kidding!

[@preciseaudioblog]

Oh wow... how much is the day of mixing there?

[@caminglis53]

Amazing ! And all IC based What a sound!🙌

[@imperialashes4478]

Thanks Cam! Yes the board definitely sounds incredible! Our engineer, Mike described the raw drums as sounding "three dimensional". There's a definitely a quality to it that is hard to describe.

[@caminglis53]

@@imperialashes4478 just unbelievable! I actually have a small 8 channel 5422 Neve console also ic based on the same NE5534 and transformer I/O. I’ve recently added L01166 output transformers to every channel direct out and the channels now sound like 1073s yet it’s ic based actually made same year as the air Ive just this week added sparkolabs 33601 discrete class A op-amps into the each channel amplifier instead of the NE5534 and it sounds like you’re in the room with the artist, and has more separation even then the Neve 1073 I’m testing A/B next to it! The 33601 has a true class A output current and unlike almost everything else in discrete op-amp, it doesn’t add anything to the sound it’s just 100% pure 👍👍

[@imperialashes4478]

@@caminglis53 Wow! How cool that you can do all of those mods yourself!

[@caminglis53]

@@imperialashes4478 the chips are easy to change as Neve had them on pcb stands so it’s plug & play. But yes the 33601 class a op-amps are a win win there! I think the air would sound outstanding with them instead of the NE5534 because of the frequency range the board already has. A real unicorn it is, even just on the video it seems that there’s something extra going on with it! It’s a real treasure! And only 3 ever made 🙌 I wonder if the other 2 are still alive...

[@imperialashes4478]

@@caminglis53 interesting idea! I will mention it to Scott, the in-house engineer next time I chat with him. The other two are indeed operational AFAIK. One is at Air Lyndhurst, and the other is at The Warehouse in Vancouver.

[@fabsquil]

00:54 😂😂😂🙏🏼👌🏼

[@zoltanvarga9248]

As far as I know Neve founded Focusrite just because of a refurbishment (or expansion) project of this desk. In fact this console left Montserrat around ‘85 well before hurricane Hugo - they exchanged it to an SSL. I know and understand the reasons, however at that point the studio lost the magic.

[@phuzbrain]

McCartney and Wonder recorded Ebony and Ivory in Montserrat.

[@imperialashes4478]

Amazing!

[@Yvabien]

Steel Wheels not Voodoo Lounge :)

[@adrienjenot2379]

Jimmy Buffet as well...