Rupert Neve 5060 Mixer - A Chocolate Teapot? 

For those of us who would research the bejeezus out of a purchase an order of magnitude less expensive than this, this prompts me to make my first negative comment on any Spitfire/CH video: I have to say, not having done such basic research on an 8 grand piece of kit comes across as sloppy if I'm being generous, and irresponsibly frivolous and profligate if I'm being less so. There will likely be people watching this for whom $8,000 would represent the most substantial purchase they may ever make outside of their home, so to make such purchases apparently with such abandon, leaves a sour taste, at least for this avid watcher and consumer of everything else you do. Rant over.

I own a 5060 and absolutely love it. It’s a baby 5088. It has been a game changer for my sound and workflow. One of the best purchases I have made to date. Rupert Neve is The Godfather of recording.

5060 product page on RND web site shows three different use cases for this unit. If you use it for what it was designed for it’s great. I own one and love it. Best summing mixer on the market.

If you want to get an idea of what the 4 mono channels are all about, you have to imagine plugging in up to two of the "Rupert Neve 5059 Satellites>>. By this you should be able to mix 32 channels of mono paths in total, with separate Pan for each of them. Each 5059 Satellite consumes 2 Mono Channels on the 5060 Centerpiece then. So you get two times two Faders to sum the satellites, plus you get an additional of 8 stereo channels for your synths and other stuff. And all that for approximately around 15 thousand dollars, modularly customized to your needs, and in a desktop friendly box. Take some low latency Dante Audio Interfaces plus some Vintage Plugins from Universal Audio for example, and you fully brought your Vintage High End Studio into the digital world of the 21st century. Does that sound amazing? If not, compare it to the prices and form-factors of big consoles and ask yourself why you would need all the expensive and space consuming and heavy-weight EQs, Dynamics, channel strips in a modern DAW Setup, if you would use this in the end most of the time only for summing, monitoring, etc..

"you don't know what you got until it's gone" - pan pot

I enjoyed watching the delivery trucks drive by in the background and I half imagined them bringing more modular goodies.

In my composing studio I've got the Tascam model 24 mixer. May I use the Neve 5059 summing mixer, Portico II Master with Shadow Hills compressor along side my Tascam 24 "out of the box" rig?

Hi Christian. Would you mind doing a follow up video on this please? I'm really interested in your feelings now that you've had it for a while. I am planning to include it in my workflow and would love to hear your latest on it. Thanks!

I think this unit was really made for summing stereo tracks from a DAW where you would do all your panning. That being said, why would there be mono capable inputs (switch on the back) with no way to pan them (unless I misunderstood that) ?

You should look at Rupert Neve 5059 Satellite, which complements the 5060. It does what you look for.

Hi Christian, Any chance you could try this out on your ITB mixes? I would love to know if this gave any advantage to the Spitfire sounds that you use?

RLeaguer2 - Is that you Mrs Henson? 😍

I had a quick look at this when you first showed it on the live show clip but the price tag made me jump up and run for cover. Considering the DAW controls I guess they expect this to be used post-DAW and the stereo config is there to retain a stereo input signal where panning is already applied?

Glad you made this video. When you said you bought this "Because I needed a way of muting one track and unmuting another" in your Inside no9 video I did laugh, although I understand you want something you can trust

I've been trying to understand what this unit really is and it seems most obvious now that it is essentially NOT a mixer. It's more simply a summing mixer. It's not a desk. It's a way to monitor and do final balancing with pristine analog hardware.

Appreciate this type of honesty! We've all been there done that. At least you did it and your box still says "Neve" on it--Could be worse Thanks for being fearless (and rather funny) in admitting the learning curve mistakes most of us make in secret and putting it out in the public eye for others to learn from. Keep your modular journey content coming!

The "no pan" design is actually a feature. Panning is simply a sum of a mono signal sent to both A and B out puts. When you use stereo mic techniques, the stereo image includes things like room reflections, which will differ from side to side, and which any competent engineer/producer will want to preserve. This is done by keeping the lines and outputs discrete. Line 1, Output A, Line 2 Output B. These lines can be effectively "panned" by lowering the level of one in comparison to the other. This is not a "summed" pan. It is a discrete side A vs side B comparison, which keeps the stereo reflections intact. I haven't got one of these wonderful Neves, but I use an old broadcast mixer that also has no pan pots. When you learn that what we know as panning is just a summed form of A v B, outputs you realize there is nothing wrong with the "no-pan" design. In many cases, it is a superior design, because it will prevent you from panning away the stereo room reflections that give a stereo image a sense of space.

A nice review. Thank you so much

SSL XL desk .a bit larger footprint but has pans and also 500 series slots

I know the video and channel is about audio/music, but WHAT A SHOT in the beginning. Beautiful location and image.

Hi Christian, what do you make of the new Mac Mini release?

I'm really glad it has a off and on button that's pretty rare these days

Thanks Christian for sharing this, I guess all of us has these purchases when we have a very clear idea in our head about how the new toy will fit into the great picture and there is the occasional "7:20" moment captured here very authentically :-) You're an inspiration, as always, I don't know how many of my musician friends have been reduced to "modular tinkerers", being totally consumed by the idea of making music with just their modular setup and I have always thought I will not fall into that trap, but maybe I will give it a try.

Hi Christian, great video. How does it compare to the other neve summing mixer?

I have the 5060 in my recording studio. I am not using the mono feature but considered it a way of saving some I/O channels for use on bass, kick/snare, vocals which are pretty much straight up the middle in most music. Maybe in composition you vary that more. For recall and automation anyway I want all volume and pan in the box. This may be confirmation bias but wow does it sound great! I will say though that you have to mix into it so I am not expecting any stunning revelations in the shootout with the Neve summing box.

Isn't going to be a pain to use all that outboard when you have re-writes and recalls and if you need to travel? Just asking? I love it though!

Thanks Christian, I can't tell you how many times I've looked at this and thought, only 4 channels? Really handy revue. Now if they could just make it 5.1 with 8 stereo faders and under 5k....

Pretty much all of my synth have PAN and automation/animation of it via LFO's on board... plus you would be standing at the synth not the mixer during a performance.. Its a summing mixer not mixer-mixer.

What device are you using to record and playback? The Mixpre?

The manual mentions 1-8 "channels can be either stereo or center-panned mono" not left biased. Or you can buy an add on that gives pan control . . . . more big dosh!

Christian, what camera and lens are you using?

Being the nerd I am, neve just seems like the ultimate engineers brand. I’ve always wondered about this particular unit but I’m a bit underwhelmed. I would however love to get a neve preamp

was the second video released?

It might not be the best episode of modular mondays, but that skit at 6:48 is the funniest one though. :P

Would love a comparison between this and the behringer Xenyx 1002B. Thanks!

i can plug in all 3 of my VCR's??

Sorry, I am slow to the take. So channels 1 to 8 are summed on the faders. 9 to 24 operate via knobs at the top, same function but cheaper and uses less space. Other than that the 4 faders and the knobs serve the same purpose? I thought they were pan knobs till I looked the labels heh. I thought you must activate a switch to use the faders for the other channels, and the top would be panning. I'd prefer that.

Yep! .... we have all been there... or will go there :D It still should sound amazing :D

Its funny Christian, I was looking into this box a while back for my small setup but changed course. Its an interesting box for sure but its not designed to be anything but a summing box. I ended up with an Apollo 8p. If I ever need more i/o, its expandable.

not sure, but I think you suppose to drive those stereo channels with your DAW stereo subgroups outs, that is why it has that usb there, and midi input is for connecting your midi controller (keyboard) so it is a sound card and sum mixer. no need for panoramas.

Thanks Christian, I was looking into this one some time ago but decided no on the buy very much because of the reasons you mention. It's probably a beast but for the price they should have focused a bit more on the core use of a summing mixer. For me that would be 8 stereo channels on 8 faders, and I wouldn't mind the faders to be closer to keep the small foot print. Also wouldn't mind a Neve EQ but that would put it into a completely different price range.

Maybe the idea is that you feed the output from the computer system to one stereo channel, and that leaves you with three channels for three hardware workstations; or a deck into one channel; and a load of outboard inserts. And maybe all the mono stuff is just there if you want to something with this product that actually is not what it was created for, if you see what I mean. In that case, it is far too expansive; could there not be a separate unit just for adding colour to a live mix?

This is how I know what day of the week it is... LOL!

I think the eight channels are supposed to represent the group stage before summing. So why would they include a mono switch? Maybe people use it for other purposes like applying outboard to channels and rerecording to the daw. But yes, pan pots would have been a brilliant addition. I have seen a few illustrations where they encourage the use of two 5059 satellites before the 5060, which do have pan pots and individual inserts. But, there's another $10K for two 5059 satellites.

This is a great review. Can you do one for Neve 8816 + 8804? Thanks :)

At last, a mixer for my 8 Juno-6s!!

Some men have their cars, Christian Henson has his Modular Mondays

Well... it's designed as a final summing mixer for your DAW outputs into a master recorder (back into the DAW, a tape machine, 1-bit DSD, whatever). In this context the mono tracks would be used for dry main vocal mix, bass guitar, kick drum etc where the engineer wants to be ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN that they are dead centre. A lot of engineers would never bother using it this way but this is a top end piece of kit and some some superstar engineers can be completely anal about this sort of thing. It's quite a common facility on summing mixers. As a general purpose mixer for synths and modular etc. this would not have been my recommendation - awesome though it is.

The whole outboard thing really isn't for me but MM is never anything less than a fascinating watch so I'll always be tuning in

I am reminded of an ancient string machine which I bought thirty five years ago. It looked the biz and had everything I needed in a string machine (it was the 80's... don't laugh). Then it nearly burned the house down. Only a barking dog saved the day. Moral of the tale: investigate fully before purchasing. And after.

Is this also an audio interface? or just a controller?

love to hear a song done on this teapot.... do u have any songs u did :)

Can’t you set your pans in the DAW?

I like Christian's honesty on this. That is why his channel is so good to watch. You will never make a good impression on other people until you stop thinking about what sort of impression you are making.

And why not getting an API The Box 2 instead of Rupert Neve 5060 Mixer?

His "elephant in the room" problem is a non-issue. As he said, if you want something panned a certain way then just bring it in as a stereo buss, panned from the DAW, or a 5059 and keep it in stereo mode. I only use the mono setting on channels I don't want panned left or right (hence mono), like kick, snare, bass, lead vocal. Otherwise, just use it for summing and adding inserts on stereo busses as it was intended. The mono option is just their as a useful bonus feature, but the 5059 is a great addition or substitute if you want inserts and panning for more channels.

I've been wondering about the 5060 so I'll be looking forward to seeing more videos in the future. I bought a BMW 325i wagon and didn't realize it doesn't have a spare tire, making it a rather poor car for my usage. Fortunately I bought it from a used dealer who offered a 3 day trial period so I could take it back and get something more suitable. It just never occurred to me that I might need to check to see if a car had a spare tire. It's not just that there wasn't a spare tire -- there is no place to put one! So I understand your frustration.

Looks beautifully made, but to me, it looks like a huge work flow speed bump compared to the system you currently have with the Apogee Symphony. Recall is something that’s very hard to live without in 2018, because clients expect you to quickly make tweaks on work in progress. You can’t do that with non-programmable gear. Also, what’s the deal with the fan in that thing? Why would you want a fan making noise so close to your mix position? Looks like you’ve got lots of delivery trucks in the neighborhood. Pack it up and get it on one of those. ;)

They need to update with (at least) 8 faders, pans and better I/O, not just DSUBs. They can lose the transport control section. Maybe even a send or two. Can price it like the API Box.

It's mad how a lot of gear just doesn't do quite what we want it to do. I was recently frustrated when I found that I can't assign the pitch wheel on the native instruments s61 keyboard to control expression. It begs the question. Is there a PERFECT piece of gear? or are we doomed to have to keep buying more gear to do what our other gear doesn't do? Thanks for all the videos too. I stay at the back of Crow Hill so it's cool surprise to see this content filmed up there!

I think the shifty character in the park outside may have stolen your pan pots when you weren't looking :)

What are 'panpots'?

Nearest I’ve got to that is buying “stereo” effects processors that are stereo pass through but summed mono processing - which just sounds weird to my ears (like the effect has been dolloped on top of the original sound rather than becoming part of it). Most annoying and very “d’oh !”, but not as expensive in cash terms...! (Probably just as bad in terms of time cost though, which is in some ways worse)

Interesting stuff! - I hope you're being compensated by the council (I presume) for the studio downtime! Also - do you know CaVa studios in Glasgow? I'm going to be M&M'ing a score of mine with then early next year and would love to know if you've had any dealings with them or stories to tell. I know they're up there with Gorbal & their track record of clients is rather incredible.

Does seem bizarre not to have a pan, even the first basic 4 track tape machines I recorded on 25 years ago had them. I understand why you missed it because I'd assume any mixer would have them. Unless it was built for another specific purpose that doesn't require them?

I believe the people on the interwebs refer to what I'm doing now as "necroposting..." but I am wondering if you've made peace with your RND 5060? Is it serving you well, even if it didn't quite do what you were expecting?

Do your paning in the modular then send it to the mixer that is what i do. Also more fun and alive to have lfo ect doing that

The "Silk" is a Neve design harmonic saturation. It comes in 2 flavors, blue and red for bottom or top end enhancement, I'm sure your manual will tell you exactly. Fussing about pan pots for this mixer is like getting upset because your Lambo doesn't have a trailer hitch. This was designed to be a summing mixer for DAW output, I assume the idea is that you can pan in the box. A true analog mono for bass is much better than mono ITB in my opinion. Most importantly HOW DOES IT SOUND??? It is a NEVE!!!

I hope you can get the electrics sorted in your house as painlessly as possible

I, fucking, love, the scenery in your videos. It's perfect.

dude...if you want a fully featured mixer, get one. the point of this thing is to have analog summing with easy recall. the more continuous controls you have in the path the more impossible recall becomes.

channel strip plugin for panning . . . .

If you’re not using the controller... why are you using this?

9:09

Dude, you buy all the exact same stuff I want. Are we twins separated at birth by 10 years?

£???

As others have said - i think it would have been very difficult to make this basic error about the purpose of the 5060 if you actually looked at their own "example setup" charts They make very clear that, if you want analog submixing capability prior to summing, it should be paired w/ the 8059 (or some similar box) rupertneve.com/static/media/2015/01/5059s-into-5060-config.jpg The "Lone 8060" setup expects users to pairing directly w/ DAW, rather than hardware. rupertneve.com/static/media/2015/01/5060-configuration-lone-5060.jpg

You're (clearly) tossing your pearls before a very broad spectrum of potential users, including musical artists who like to track, mix & master their work in order to offer tracks, and CDs, to their regional followers. Thus, if you make a graph line spanning the extremes from 'pure artist' at one end, to 'pure audio engineer' at the other, a good number of us fall in the middle, or leaning a bit more to the artist end of the spectrum. Those of us of an age, have worked with (or are at least familiar with) Rupert Neve's amazing toys, but have our ludite twinges, nathelees. At present, I'm planning a new home/project facility, during which I stumbled upon the 5060 online, and eventually, this page. That was, incidentally, a great (if brief) topological view of simple out board routing. The 'panning' issue not withstanding (and I'm not complaining here...), after viewing your vid, I'm temporarily left with more questions than those with which I arrived. Regardless, thanks for what you did provide! We await further observations of the yeas and nays you uncover w/ this wee Nevian beast... Cheers, Lachlan

07:30 - when all else fails, RTFM...

You went through everything: a website or specifications sheet would give me, but the one thing you did not review is the sound! That's all we care about in any reviews. Since you have the hardware before we do and before we buy, we want to hear it, every other effort to review is just noise to blah... You underestimate your viewers. The vitality of a review is in its utility and in audio, that's its sound. Everything else falls away. Sweetwater was the only site that did that, but it was way too short. I am thankful, but your effort fell short of a vital attribute.

For 8k you would get 4 stereo channels of this: www.zaehl.com/products/am1-mixing-console. No summing, but pan, insert, send, superb eq and fully expandable...

I think you're kind of, sort of, supposed to think of this as a summing insert. You simply want to route your sound through this device so as to lay on that Neve color. I repeat: "That Neve Color". And all those pre-amps and other electronic thing-a-ma-bobs inside that constitute that Neve sound, imo, is worth $8000... well, new anyway, I guess.. and you got it for less? Score!! Use it for awhile and then return to your previous method (without the device) and I think you'll be lofting your head with a bit of a "Ahh Ha!!", and the thought: "I'm so glad I didn't sell it off.." I do speak with a shade of experience with that device. Not as an operator, but as an observer of how it was used on one of my mixes. And, since I don't have one here at home, I now think all my new work without that device sounds thin... oh dear... what's a boy to do?

Dear Sir, you are buying an equipment with 4 faders, and you become upset, when you can 't find pan pots... So if the company would put the pan pots, you would have only 4... The engineers who produced this big sounding summing mixer, I think they had the philosophy of being well prepared before sending the tracks to this unit and the user could set specialy the dynamic and sound quality of Neve, tocuhing 4 faders.

Why would you spend 8k on something that just isn't quite it... If you go, go all the way IMO

"only" $8k! Calls it "rudimentary", Only 1 headphone jack. This review hardly seems positive to my naive mind...

It’s got no fucking pan pots! Lol I’ll buy the 5059

Does it matter? On Christian's last vid about the move to Spitfire 3.0 HQ, he asked Paul 'How many full-timer's do we now have?' Paul answered 'around 55-60'. I did the maths based on a meagre salary of £2000 per month per employee (a pittance to survive in London these days). It worked out at an annual salary bill I think of £1.2M....take rent and other business overheads....you must be talking at least of £2M, I can only think turnover this year must be heading towards £15-25M (find out from Companies House if you can be arsed). I can only think they're really tapping into educational budgets around the world as there can't be that many budding film composers able to stump up £10K a year on samples.....can there? I take my hat off to both of them on the rise of Spitfire.......no doubt a fair modicum of talent, vision and the balls to do it. This purchase? Mere pennies that can be written off in four years anyhow. That said........I'm not sure these days how important 'quality' (as in sonics) is. I think gear that offers creativity through its tactile nature / ergonomics, whether it be hardware of software is much more important to me personally than 'quality' . It has to be of sufficient quality 'no hum, low noise etc) but most of that is easily achieved these days.......and even digital sounds good these days. Anybody want to buy a Fostex G24S with brand new heads?

Strangely, I'm starting to understand the need for DAW-less composing less and less. I mean, just based on the amount of equipment you seem to need, it appears so convoluted at times. Cumbersome. Wouldn't composing in this way end up really slowing you down? Or is that part of the reason for doing it in the first place? (A slower process means you make choices differently) Though if that really is the primary driving force behind going DAW-less, it seems an awefully expensive way to change habits when discipline gives you direct access to the brain that created those habits in the first place.

As I watched this I was thinking of another video I had viewed a few months back about an engineer who made the same purchasing oversight. I’m not sure he was as calm about it if memory serves. I checked in YT recommendations after watching and sure enough, there is Brad Wood’s video right near the top. I find it incredible a company like Neve can put something out into the market with such an obviously glaring omission in it’s signal chain. I guess pigs must really be able to fly after all.

Interesting piece of kit, but pricey. For the money you will get neve sound and neve quality (many, many, many years of service), but still overpriced. Essentially its a mixer, daw controller, interface , monitor controller. All might be separate pieces, each costing less, but require setup, fiddling , your time basically. My list is: 1. Mixer - spirit folio sx. I find that sound of spirit's preamps and eqs barks nicely. Good for agreasive dance music or rock, where sound on/off sounds dominate. Not that good for ppp strings (noise floor). 2. Interface. Pick whatever you like, or better the best you can afford. Good pieces will last you a lifetime, but cost accordingly. Apollo or UAD for lifetime. Scarlett or behringer for lowenders and upgrade in couple years. 3. Daw controller. Toxic topic. Bcf2000 or bcr 2000 as cheapest motorized faders/rotaries. I suggest using ableton push/2. I know its limited to ableton, but I really think its worth it. The only piece of hw/sw integration era that left me wanting to get back to it and fiddle some more. 4. Monitor controller. Mackie big knob is a classic. Behringer control2 is cheaper knockoff. Presonus monitor station is alternative. Again, if all the elements are up to standart, you buy mogami cabling, you buy furniture/racks to house everything you're easily 5-6k in. In the end it might make sense to use neve 5060 if it fits your studio and you use like 95% of features. If you're working everyday, buying lowend stuff is reality, but you keep repairing stuff over and over and over... low end is not robust for pro use, unfortunately.

One word - Bloodrush

"its got no fucking pan pots" i think the engineers got lazy

I bought two of these babies. It is a stunning sound within the reach of homestudio owners. My 11-years old boy, doesn't like the sound of his.- Strange thing.

I do not understand. your discomfort ....? did you understand anything about the summing mixer? I use shadow hills equinox and there is no PAN !! it's not a sound console! it's a summing mixer. you have 8 mono input for ... kick bass, vocal ... and the rest of the input in stereo 90% of summing mixer is like that? I think he's doing your duty gentleman .... You have not understood anything about the product. go see 2bus dangerous music one of the best summing without PAN ....

Faders aside, you can accomplish the same thing with quality gear for a couple grand. I can think of so much better gear purchases for $8k too.

hahahahaha)

Sorry dude. Couldn't make it past 0:48.

Soo it no a sound card

The F word...really?

Omg, so funny, £8k and no f**ing pan pots. Genius. I would honestly have assumed they had them too, don't beat yourself up about it.