What do you think of this video comparison by James Lugo who made an A/B comparison between his vintage Neve 1073 VS BAE 1073 MPF. 3 different singers. I think you first hear that through his mini-torboxes and then when he exported the recorded sources, probably as wave files, the recorded sources were a little clearer at the end of this video. I have to honestly say that I was quite impressed by the BAE MPF, I mean that shootout. James says that his BAE is a bit more open in the upper range, which I could also hear. But this video showed me, based on the 3 different vocals (which went through the vintage Neve 1073 and then the same again through his BAE 1073 MPF), how close the BAE MPF comes to the vintage NEVE 1073 in terms of sound.
In my DAW I had cut almost every other word from the recorded vocal sources and strung both the Vintage Neve and the BAE MPF together so I could quickly switch between NEVE and MPF so I could hear the differences straight away and I have to be honest laughing at how close they are, which is what James says in his video. I think there is a marginal difference between the two, but it's such that it's ridiculous to worry about the fact that one or the other doesn't own a vintage Neve and has to spend $8,000 on it.
So honestly because some people claim that BAE is miles away from the Neve. I hear what? 8000 I don't hear a $500 difference.


I do think that this shooting is real and that James isn't advertising for BAE.
What do you think about this comparison? I'm looking forward to your opinion.

Here the link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPMjMwsDmXE

So AMS' Marinair branded trannys are actually Carnhill?

I'm 10 years into my BAE 1073 and will be buried with it.
So far I've found no reason not to love it. It gets used every day.

how come you dont need a de-esser? i am going to buy the shelford and i would assume you need to de-esser vocal since its going through a processing chain so the vocal doesnt sound harsh? you mean there is a way to de-ess on the shelford? i was also thinking of adding the LINDELL AUDIO 1176 into my chain. so bascially SHELFORD-->LIN76--->APOLLO QUAD. could you give me your thoughts?

could you hypothetically have a physical clone of the 1176 --->into your apollo conosle, emualting the 2A-LA? SO real 1176 and digital 2a? is that a thing?

so far ive only tried a few pre amps in my own "Studio" but the bae 1073 seems to win over just about everything.

I had a UA610 which is a completely different flavor but just didn't feel as top notch compared to the bae so I sold it and felt very happy with the 1073 as my only preamp.

I had a BAE 1066 and the Shelford in my studio and tracked guitars and vocals with a splitter and used them as hardware inserts during mixing. I loved them both. The can get close so that I would only pass 70% of blind tests and fail 30%. The Shelford sounds slightly more open and tighter. Both sound smooth. I liked the BAE better 50% of the time and thought it reminded me more on heavy guitars on my favorite records. I liked the Shelford better the other 50% and it was a draw to my taste and ears. I keep the shelford as I liked the usability and its interface more and it had less noise. The 1066 mid band with the 2,4khz and 3,5khz is the best sounding mid band on guitars and vocals I ever heard.

You chose usability and interface over the best mid band for guitar and vocals you ever heard?

Yes because the shelford came close enough for me at this moment. The low band is so much tighter and the high band is very unique as well. Almost a SSL-Neve or Maag-Neve hybrid. Maybe one day I will get another 1066 or even 1081

Is it the frequency choice that makes the difference, or the circuitry, do you think?

Thats a question that bothers me all the time, both perhaps? In general I did like the BAE filters better than the AMS Neve which are grainier.

The Shelford I think are in general more subtle and while they do something to the signal when switched in but just flat, the BAE and AMS filter do more.

Typically between 2400-2800 most male singers will have their singers formant or "squillo" if they have a more classically inspired resonating strategy.

Since the shelfords shelf (pun intended) on the high band reaches down very far into the upper mids I can get a nice boost in the 2-4k region by using the 1,8 kHz band and the high band together, but only if I add quite a bit of the 8k shelf or the bell. The bell reaches down even further. I could also choose to boost 3,5k and cut in the high band and get a similar effect in the 2-3k range but again only as long as I am willing to alter the top end of the signal significantly.