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The Rupert Neve Designs Portico 542 500 Series Tape Emulator is the ultimate "color box." In addition to the 100% analog tape emulation circuitry – great for bringing out 3rd-order harmonics – the 542 incorporates a soft-clip circuit that tames the harshest sources and enhances 2nd-order harmonics, variable Silk Red & Blue for an infinite variety of transformer tones, and a blend control to dial in in the perfect amount of saturation.
Unlike digital emulations, the “True Tape” drive circuit works by feeding a custom-designed interstage transformer acting as a “record head”, which in turn is coupled to a correctly-equalized replay amplifier. As the voltage rises on the “record head”, saturation increases, and a soft clip circuit engages at higher levels to round off peak transients. The sound of the tape circuit can be further modified with selectable 15 / 30 IPS modes and a pre/post-tape blend control.
In addition to the tape circuit, the continuously variable Texture control with Silk Red and Silk Blue modes provides a whole other level of control over the harmonic density and tonality of your tracks & mixes. The Silk Red mode accentuates transformer saturation in the high and high-mid frequencies to amplify the vibrant midrange harmonics associated with Rupert’s vintage equipment, while Silk Blue accentuates saturation of the lows and low-mids to add thickness and weight to any source – especially useful for “thin-sounding” tracks or mixes. Unlike EQ, these Silk & Texture controls saturate the output transformers, and add highly musical harmonics to the source material according to the amount of Texture applied.
Drive the 542 hard, choose your Silk flavor, and crank the Texture knob for a rich, saturated, vintage vibe – or disengage Silk entirely for a more purist, hi-fi tape effect. The choice is yours.
Very nice
True saturation! There is NOTHING like it on the market. Period! You can spend a few grand on some other saturation boxes and not come close to what this 500 series module can do. I WON'T say I use it in every mix. But when I need to tame high frequencies, or add (real) punch to a mix, I don't hesitate to drop a pair of these in my mix bus. Do yourself a favor and stop looking at other boxes at 3 times the price. A word of advice: RTFM! Read The f*&^%$ Manual and learn how to use this properly to get the most out of it. You will be happy you invested the time to do so, because when you truly learn how to use this instead of just turning knobs.....MIND BLOWING results! Best module Rupert Neve has ever produced!
Loved the first one so much, I came back for a 2nd one so I can now process my stems and masters. The saturation is perfect and the silk is extremely useful at varying levels depending on what I'm processing.
This does outstanding things to my 2 bus. Great saturation.
If you have a 500 series rack a pair of these are a must have amazing on everything you run through it drums vocals whole mix ect
Got my pair of Shelford Channels running into a pair of 542’s out here in Hawaii. Life is good!
Great
This pair will forever live on my 2 bus. Without the silk channels engaged, the saturation pushed right up to the last green LED, and the mix knob at 50%, at least on my mixes, these bring an excitement and forwardness to everything, but especially the low end. In a very controllable and musical way. Turn it off while playing your mix back and that is when you will realize that these things are staying put. Red silk is nice but on the 2 bus, it’s a little too nice. I usually need to dial it in and then run a low pass at the end of the master to tame it. I’m not using these for tracking at all, but can see plenty of use case for it on individual instruments or busses. Blue channel, I am still trying to wrap my head around. I honestly can not hear much going on between dry and blue engaged. Maybe a slight high roll off. Maybe a slight low mid bump. I plan to do some freq response tests with it on and off so that I know for sure what’s happening. Maybe if I can see it with my eyes, then I’ll be able to hear the blue channel better. For what it’s worth, I’m working with rock/punk/metal/hardcore. I wish that I had these back when I actually did this for a “living”. There’s no tape plug-in that quite does this. Not to my ears. And I have them all. TLDR: for my purposes, this is color, body and excitement for my 2 bus that I am very pleased with. In case it matters to you regarding my review, I’m running my mixes out from DAW to 16 (or 24) outs to a dangerous summing mixer, and back into DAW through the 500 box where these live.
Can be subtle or sizzle but you definitely notice the difference when you hit the bypass. Everything sounds better through these. I bought a pair.
I love it I want to remix everything I've done and add mr NEVE to it
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