8078
1978 – 1979
Notable users
Blackbird Studio A, Nashville, The Way Recording Studio, London, AIR Studios Montserrat (custom A4792)
Technical specs
| Channels | 32 – 80 |
| Layout | Split monitor |
| Groups | 24 |
| EQ | 4-band sweepable (1073/1084) |
| Modules | 1073 preamp, 1084 EQ, 2254 compressor |
| Transformers | Marinair (input + output, every channel) |
| Topology | Class A discrete |
| Year built | 1978 – 1979 (short run, hand-assembled) |
The 8078 was the last of the hardwired "production" 80-series consoles — and unlike the inline 8058 and 8068 that preceded it (1976), the 8078 returned to a split monitor architecture. Rupert Neve had already left the company he founded by the time the 8078 debuted in 1978, but his fingerprints were unmistakable: 1073 preamps, 1084 EQ, 2254 compressor, Marinair transformers — the 80-series modules that defined the British studio sound for a generation. To sit behind an 8078 was to sit at the centre of what recording had become.
Photos: The Way Studio / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Greenkal / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0) · The Blackbird Academy / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
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Notable Recordings
- Dire Straits — Brothers in Arms (1984–85, AIR Studios Montserrat, custom Neve A4792)
- Various major-label productions, late 1970s and 1980s
Studios
- AIR Studios Montserrat (custom Neve A4792, built 1978)
- Blackbird Studio A, Nashville
- The Way Recording Studio, London