Neve 8816 Summing Mixer

The AMS Neve 8816 Summing Mixer proved to me that an analogue summing mixer genuinely does create a warmer, glued mixdown. I did wonder whether it was a case of The Emperor's New Clothes, but I genuinely believe that sound of the mixdown is better when passed through the 8816.

They have crammed a lot into a small box here and there are some compromises in doing that. All the knobs are really close together and some of them wobble a little. Not whatI would expect for the price - though it did not have any adverse effect on the sound (no crackle with the movement).

The width control is great. It's a bit of a mystery what it does. Maybe a little bit of M/S control and maybe a little compression(?) somewhere, but just adding the tiniest little width makes a Stereo mix-down sound magically better. Some might say, if I knew how to I could do that inside the box with digital tools. Maybe so. But I don't know how to make it sound just like that with just a little tweak of the knob.

Other than the wobbliness in some of the knobs the only other thing I got frustrated with was the USB-based recall software. I've had to flash the firmware in the 8816 a number of times because it loses contact with the computer. I don't know whether other people have experienced this or whether it is my setup, but the software side feels a little Heath Robinson. A chinagraph pencil could however probably be adequate to mark levels on the knobs for recall later.

Great summing mixer!

So, I put up with a lot of crap from this old machine, but I still use it on all my mixes because it just does such a good job.
The PAN and Gain pots don’t zero out perfectly. No indent.
The software hardly works.
BUT..... holy carp Batman this this sounds so amazing!

I wish AMS Neve would simply update the software to help implement all the features I’m missing. That would be fine. Let me setup my own profile by entering the values I need, and then load it into the the console using the manual recall system. I’ve told them. I even offered to do the programming. They don’t seem interested, which is sad considering how great and timeless this product is and how friggin’ expensive. But, I still can’t finish a mix without it.