Rupert Neve Designs’ Newton Channel might be the best studio investment you could ever make£1,979, rupertneve.com
The late Rupert Neve was a true legend in the pro audio world. Mixing consoles he designed can be heard on thousands of recordings from the nineteen sixties to the present day. His most legendary preamp design from 1970 has been emulated countless times and will, no doubt, continue to be a basis for inspiration. British brand AMS Neve continues to offer the official original design.

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But here, we have a new channel strip from Rupert Neve Designs (RND), comprising a mic preamp, equaliser and compressor. A 1U, single rack space design, the Newton isn’t merely a scaled-down version of the company’s flagship Shelford Channel, but an all-new design featuring Class-A solid state technology in its signal paths.
As an analogue front-end, the Newton provides enough gain for any type of microphone, along with powerful, easy-to-use tone and dynamic control.
While the unit is primarily designed for processing sources heading into your DAW (or tape recorder if you’re proper old-school), it needn’t sit idle during mixing sessions since the EQ and compressor can be used together or independently to process previously recorded audio. You can even decide whether the compressor is placed before or after the equaliser in the signal path.
Rupert Neve’s signature on the Newton Channel
The mic pre offers a healthy 72dB of gain in 6dB steps from a 12-position rotary switch, plus you get +/- 6dB of fine gain control from the continuously variable Trim pot, so precise gain settings can be made. A 48v phantom power switch is provided for use with condenser mics and another switch engages the high-pass-filter. This filter allows accurate filtering of frequencies between 20Hz and 250Hz via a 31-detent HPF pot.
While the mic pre offers exceptionally clean and modern-sounding gain, there is also RND’s unique Silk mode, which adds harmonic content to audio for a more vintage flavour. It’s a wonderful feature, based upon the warmth, glow and sheen characteristics from the Amek 9098 range of the 1990s, though here we have two distinct types of colourisation. Silk Red adds harmonic enhancement to high-mid and high frequencies, whereas Silk Blue does the same for the bottom end from the low-mids downwards; the level of enhancement is controlled with the unit’s Texture pot.
The Newton’s EQ section offers both low and high frequency shelving controls along with a mid-band peaking EQ covering the 220Hz to 7kHz range. Bass frequencies can be boosted or cut at either 60Hz or 150Hz, while the top end shelf operates at either 8kHz or 16kHz. All of these available frequency points are controlled with 31-detent pots, operating within a range of +/- 12dB.
Rupert Neve Designs’ Newton Channel mic preamp
Dynamic range control comes courtesy of RND’s updated VCA compressor, a smooth, intuitive design with simple controls. A soft knee compression type kicks in with a 2:1 ratio, with attack time fixed at 20ms. Release times are user-adjustable, from a fairly fast 50ms to 500ms, controllable (like the threshold and make-up gain controls) with a 31-detent pot. Gain reduction is shown on an eight-segment LED meter, which doubles as an output meter.
Rear panel connectivity features a balanced XLR-1/4 inch TRS combo jack input along with a main balanced XLR output and a -6dB balanced XLR output. The main output uses a custom RND transformer while the -6dB output makes use of the centre tap of the transformer and enables the input to be driven harder without clipping the signal into your DAW. Along with power and ground-lift switches, the unit features a link socket to allow the connection of other Newton Channels.
On first listen, with an acoustic guitar recorded with an AKG C-414 B-ULS, it’s crystal clear that this is a first-class front end, offering an abundance of clean preamp gain. This is with gain set to moderate levels and no harmonic enhancement added. Here, the natural woody character of the C-414 is heard in all its glory, with a pure yet tonally vibrant presentation.
Rupert Neve Designs’ Newton Channel front panel
Experimenting with the Silk Red control is a blast, adding an airy openness that traditional EQ cannot provide. In some ways it’s reminiscent of the type of harmonic enhancement you might get with an aural exciter device, adding a beautiful top-end sheen to the sound.
At lower settings – and this is true of the Silk Blue control too – the harmonic enhancement is quite subtle, however when the wick is cranked-up, the guitar tone positively drips with rich harmonics.
Using both high-pass and the parametric mid-band EQ to cut low-end rumble and low-mid muddiness creates a brilliant tone, which is perfected with just a hint of added 16kHz super-top. A mild taming of dynamics, using the VCA compressor before the EQ in the signal path produces a final sound easily equal to our studio’s best outboard gear. As much as we love our valve mic preamps, Overstayer VCA compressor and EQP-1A equaliser, there’s a lot to be said for having this type of control at your fingertips, especially when you need to dial in a killer sound quickly. This is especially useful when you want to get a great performance – from vocalists particularly – without messing around with endless parameters on multiple units and losing the moment.
Recording a Fender bass guitar through a Bassman amp and cab shows the Newton to be a serious full-range unit, with none of the weak-kneed, low-end flub of many budget preamp designs. Once again the Silk control (Blue this time) provides extra strength in the lows to create a fabulously fat tone.
Rupert Neve Designs’ Newton Channel rear panel
There is no DI input on the front panel, although the rear panel input connector allows line-level equipment to be connected. Sure, a direct input for instruments would be nice, but this would add to the cost of the unit and, at this level, we feel most potential buyers will have a DI box already.
We award full marks to Rupert Neve Designs for this exceptionally capable and versatile channel strip, which not only sounds fantastic, but is also well laid out and boasts excellent build quality. The Newton isn’t a bargain basement design by any means, yet it could be the best hardware investment you ever make.
Key features

72dB mic preamp gain
Fine gain trim
Silk harmonic enhancement
3-band EQ with parametric midrange
VCA compressor
Choice of signal path order
Stereo link available

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Robotics funding saw another dip in 2023In 2021, robotics startups were flying high. Unlike other categories that had buckled under the strains of a global pandemic, interest in automation was at an all-time high, as companies attempted to navigate supply chain issues and ongoing labor shortages. Robotics and automation were insulated from broader investment slowdowns, but eventually, they, too, were impacted. […]
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Shakey Graves at the Ryman AuditoriumNashville was rocked by the triumphant return of Shakey Graves to the Ryman Auditorium. The Americana musician graced the stage on his latest tour, drawing in an enthusiastic crowd to one of the nation’s most iconic venues. 

Believe it or not, the man wasn’t born with the name “Shakey.” Alejandro Rose-Garcia adopted the stage name “Shakey Graves” in 2007 and hasn’t looked back since. The curious choice of name oddly suits his art. It’s a mish-mash of everything from folk to country, rock and roll to blues. The personification of Nashville. Yet, it’s somehow woven together to create a near seamless set leaving audiences in awe. 

Backed by a crew of musicians he’d been eager to tour with, Shakey Graves took to the stage to open the night with “Unlucky Sin.” The audience whooped and hollered as he made his way through the performance, throwing in a hefty serving of humor between songs. His personality shone through not only his musicianship, but also in his storytelling. In the middle of his set came the beloved “Tomorrow,” a song crowned by many in the crowd as a favorite.

He described some of his songs as “the soundtrack to a movie that doesn’t yet exist” and even did a selection of pieces as a one-man-band armed with everything he needed at his fingertips. And, perhaps… toetips? The show had a little something for everyone and checked all the boxes for a perfect Nashville night out. A raucous encore shook the house and had fans singing “Dearly Departed” all the way home. 

Don’t miss your chance! Find out where you can catch Shakey Graves on tour at https://www.shakeygraves.com/tour. 

SETLIST 

Unlucky Sin

Look Alive

Big in the World

Play Where it Lies

Playing Along

Hard Wired

Tomorrow

Limbo

Evergreen

Century City

Counting Sheep

Panzy Waltz

Blue Jay Way (cover)

If Not For You

Roll the Bones

Ready or Not

Family and Genus

Dearly Departed

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Fave’s new FanFinder feature lets artists identify and connect to their superfansFan-centric social platform Fave has introduced a new FanFinder feature to help artists and their teams discover and communicate with their biggest fans.

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Supported by proprietary AI, FanFinder makes use of key insights from Fave’s library of data about fans’ activities to help artists “pinpoint and recognise their most ardent superfans”.
With the new feature, artists will be privy to information like who has been listening to their music nonstop; who has been making fan art; who is going to every show on the tour; who is producing their own merch; who is organising support for their new release and has influence on other fans, among “dozens of other specific and authentic fan activities”.
Similar to the way you would with AI systems like ChatGPT, artists can use natural language to pose questions like “Who are my most active fans in San Diego from the past three months and what are they doing?”
Once superfans have been identified, artists and their team can message those fans with anything from a ticket offer, to a VIP meetup, to a chance to weigh in on new or unreleased music, to participation in creating the next lyric video.
According to Fave, all communication stays within the app, and fans can opt out of the feature if they wish to stay off the radar, protecting fan privacy.
At the end of the day, “The direct connection means the artist team isn’t at the mercy of algorithmically-driven social feeds that reach only 2% of followers when the artist is trying to reach their dedicated fans.”
“We made Fave a place for fans where they can be fully empowered, find each other, and immerse in their passions,” Fave founder and CEO Jacquelle Amankonah Horton said in a statement.
“Now, we’re bringing creators into the mix, so that they can finally have a much more clear picture about who their fans actually are through real-time insights they’ve never been able to see at this level of detail and authenticity. They can easily find deserving fans they want to engage for cool experiences and opportunities they have that will now multiply the power of their efforts in seconds.”
To learn more, head to Fave.
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“If you like that s**tty song that’s viral on TikTok, get out of this group right now”: Bad Bunny rants about AI track using his voiceA TikTok song which uses AI generated vocals based on Bad Bunny’s voice has gone viral, and the Puerto Rican singer and rapper is not in the least bit happy about it.
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“You don’t deserve to be my friends and that’s why I made the new album, to get rid of people like that. I don’t want them on the tour either.”
The track in question is titled Nostalgia, and also features AI-generated vocals replicating the voices of Justin Bieber and Daddy Yankee. It was first uploaded by a user named flowgptmusic, although there’s no evidence this person is linked to FlowGPT, a visual chatbot tool comparable to ChatGPT.

AI-generated songs using the vocal likenesses of famous artists are becoming a rising issue. And while some – like Grimes – have endorsed the practice, even encouraging their fans to create songs using their voice, others haven’t taken too kindly to their name being attached to projects they have no involvement in.
Back in April, Heart on My Sleeve, a track using AI-generated Drake and The Weeknd vocals, was released by TikTok user ghostwriter977.
It reached a whopping 13 million views on TikTok alone, before it was eventually banned by Universal Music Group.
Due to its success on the platform, the song was even submitted for Grammy consideration, but the Recording Academy, perhaps inevitably, deemed it ineligible, as it uses illegally obtained vocals.
The post “If you like that s**tty song that’s viral on TikTok, get out of this group right now”: Bad Bunny rants about AI track using his voice appeared first on MusicTech.

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