
Justin Weiss, a technician at the
Vintage King Tech Shop, has been hard at work restoring and modding 16 vintage
Neve 31102 modules. These input modules were designed and intended for use in Neve's large-format recording and mixing consoles, including the 8058 and 8068. These were the first "in-line monitor" desks on the market and gave the engineer tracking and monitoring options at each channel. We'll let Justin explain his review:"Think of a quad summing mixer with a small fader and extended mixdown capabilities and a global Mic/Line input switching option. This is the main reason a 31102 is different from all other 10-series (1066,
1073,
1084, etc) modules. The module, on its own, was built with a 10468 Mic input transformer inside and sensitivity switch (gain) setup for only mic levels. The line input signal comes from a companion 32430 Mixdown Switching Module (Line or Tape Returns) located directly below the 31102 in the 8058/68 desk. The switching module gives the user a Line trim missing from the sensitivity of the 31102 gain switch. So, again, the 31102 module was designed around the 8058/68 signal flow. It is worth realizing the purpose of the BA106 board being a buffer between the output of the line input switching module and the EQ built within the 31102 circuits.
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