Sony Music Adds Neve 88R for Surround SACD Releases [HFR]

Sony Music announced that it has added the new 84-channel Neve 88R analog console in their studios in New York (one 84 channel console) and Tokyo (three 72 channel consoles). The new console at Sony Music Studios in New York will be used for surround mixing for upcoming SACD releases, music recording and feature film mixing.

Sony Music Studios in New York also plans to use the new 88R to remix their archives of existing catalog material from its current analog form to DSD. This will facilitate archival storage as well as future releases of some of this material in SACD.

Sony Music Officials Comment on the Neve 88R Console
“The Neve 88R has been optimized for surround from its initial design phase,” said David Smith, vice president engineering, Sony Music Studios. “It has a great versatility of operation in surround – with subgroup capability, stem management, surround panning, routing and monitoring capabilities. We’ve always had great experiences with our Neve VR console, and this one (the 88R) is a sonically improved VR. I’m confident of its future success at Sony Music Studios.”

Over at Sony Music Entertainment in Tokyo, Chief Technical Engineer Mr. Watanabe says “Sony Music Entertainment in Japan needs a large studio complex to allow for a comprehensive and continuous operation including recording, mastering, archiving and up to date on-line music distribution. Sony has paid special attention to the studio environment such as habitability for the artists and also hardware factors.”

Mr. Watanabe adds that “The reaction to the studio design has been very favorable and everyone is amazed by the total sound created with all the equipment – it has been very well accepted for its clarity. We chose analog consoles for this new facility because digital consoles would not have been suitable because of the bandwidth. Following a series of sound quality tests we chose the Neve 88Rs because the console is exclusively designed for recording applications which is very desirable. The sound quality on the 88R is very clear.”

Neve Comments on the Sony Music Announcement
AMS Neve Eastern regional sales manager Gerard Fiocca says that “The 88R has already been very positively received in the U.S. market, where it has proven its sophistication and sonic brilliance at premier studios like Conway Recording and The Village. With the 88R now headed for Sony Music Studios in New York, our A-list clientele will continue to grow, not only on the East Coast, but worldwide. This console joins our roster of fully booked 88Rs already mixing at Plus XXX Studios in Paris, Sony Music Entertainment in Tokyo, Sphere Studios in London and Studios 301 in Sydney.”