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Rupert Neve Designs 5059 Satellite Summing Mixer - Shelford Edition Demo

16 x 2+2 Analog Summing Mixer - Shelford Edition
4 Write review Item ID: 5059SatSHd3

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Classic Neve Sound and Impressive Flexibility

Working inside the box? Sweetwater would like to recommend a summing mixer that will seriously up your game: the Rupert Neve Designs 5059 Satellite Shelford Edition. If you record and mix entirely within your DAW, you’re hampered by the inability to leverage the sonic advantages of high-quality analog outboard gear. Enter the 5059 Satellite. The 5059 gives you 16 channels — each with individual level and pan, plus insert and bus-2 send buttons. You get two stereo buses with RND’s proprietary Silk Texture controls, giving you effortless integration with outboard equipment, total control for two separate stem mixes, and the facility to dial in harmonic enhancement in two distinct flavors.

Related Videos: 5059 Satellite Summing Mixer - Shelford Edition

It’s a Neve

In serious audio circles, Rupert Neve needs no introduction. Large-format Neve consoles from the 1970s are considered by many to be the pinnacle of analog mixer design. Boasting the same design heritage and sonic perfectionism that went into the boards used to record countless hit records, the 5059 Satellite Summing Mixer graces your tracks with legendary Rupert Neve warmth, punch, and presence. With 16 channels of Rupert Neve designed Class A alchemy and flexible tonal and routing options, the Rupert Neve Designs 5059 Satellite Summing Mixer will take your DAW-based studio’s sound to a whole new level.

Dial in the Silk

The Rupert Neve Designs’ 5059 Satellite Summing Mixer’s continuously variable Texture controls with Silk and Silk+ modes let you fine-tune the harmonic ratio and tonality of each of 5059’s stereo buses. The Silk mode adds sparkle to your tracks by introducing alluringly airy transformer saturation in the high frequencies. Silk+ mode accentuates saturation in the low frequencies, adding density and thickness to the source — particularly desirable when you’ve got a dry, lackluster mix. Distinctly different sounding from equalization, Texture saturates the output transformers, adding sweet, musical even-order harmonics to your source material for authoritative, radio-ready mixes that blast right out of the speakers.

Flexibility: it’s a beautiful thing

The dual stereo outputs of the Rupert Neve Designs 5059 Satellite Summing Mixer are perfect for creating stem mixes, which you can enhance using the 5059’s Silk/Texture controls, then process through bus compressors or other devices via the inserts, finally feeding into the inputs of another mixer or your interface. You can send any input to stereo bus 1 or 2, and create two very different-sounding mixes from the same 16 channels. These are just some examples of the amazing flexibility you’ll enjoy when integrating the 5059 into your recording rig. Smartly attired in classic Shelford livery, the Rupert Neve Designs 5059 Satellite Summing Mixer is housed in a rugged, fan-cooled 2U steel chassis for dependable, no-compromise professional performance year after year, in the studio or on the road.

The legend continues

Rupert Neve’s 80-series consoles had a huge, punchy, and authoritative sound that defined the sound of ’70s rock. From London to New York to Los Angeles and beyond, top studios were installing Neve boards as fast as they could. By 1977, with the introduction of the NECAM automation system, 80-series boards were the main component of the success formula for any recording studio with world-class aspirations. Mr. Neve’s current company, Rupert Neve Designs, continues to advance the state of the art with cutting-edge products that sound incredible and intelligently address the challenges of the digital age. With your Rupert Neve Designs 5059 Satellite Shelford Edition from Sweetwater, the legend continues.

Rupert Neve Designs 5059 Satellite Summing Mixer Shelford Edition Features:

  • Classic Neve: Class A, all transformer-balanced, and awesome-sounding
  • Zero crossover distortion and unmatched purity
  • Custom transformers provide galvanic isolation and serve up "larger than life" sound
  • Sets a standard for rackmountable summing mixers
  • 16 inputs/channels (with level controls, pans, and inserts); 2 stereo buses
  • Send any input to stereo bus 1 or 2, each with variable Silk/Silk+ Texture
  • Dual Stereo Outputs let you split the input channels into 2 stems for further processing and mixing
  • Stereo buss 1 and 2 each has its own XLR outs
  • DB-25 line input, insert send/return connectors
  • Rugged 2U fan-cooled chassis, clad in classic Shelford livery

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Tech Specs

  • Type: Analog Summing Mixer
  • Channels: 16
  • Faders: 36 x Rotary Pots
  • Inputs - Line: 2 x DB-25 (1-8, 9-16)
  • Outputs - Main: 4 x XLR (stereo 1/2)
  • Send/Return I/O: 2 x DB-25 (send 1-8, 9-16), 2 x DB-25 (return 1-8, 9-16)
  • Busses/Groups: 2 x Stereo Bus
  • Inserts: Channels 1-16
  • Rackmountable: Yes
  • Power Source: Standard IEC AC cable
  • Height: 3.5"
  • Width: 19"
  • Depth: 8"
  • Weight: 23 lbs.
  • Manufacturer Part Number: 5059-S

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Rupert Neve's 5059 is a BEAST!

So everyone and their cousin who knows and uses this incredible mixer touts sending output stems through it for that magical Neve sonic breath of life. Its true, this unit can make ordinary into incredible and may even have the capability of polishing a turd.

What is never discussed about the 5059 is how many other applications and configurations are possible by the old school standard of "more is better". I have a 5059 dedicated to a studio W/D/W guitar rig. It functions to sum each piece of stereo rack gear in parallel, feeding the power amp which feeds the wet cabs. I can get all kinds of crazy in series routing (inserts & returns) as well, but after hearing it functioning as just a standard parallel mixer... GAMECHANGER!

The adjustable blue and red "SILK" accoutrements makes for a total of three distinct flavorings anchored in Neve's pure audio excellence. I recommend anyone tying together multiple synths, keys, pads, digital effects, hi-fi, drum machines, and yes, even bigger than life guitar rigs, employ this unit as the foundational glue in outputting to your live, or in studio stereo rig. No matter what I put through this thing, the 5059 brings it to life.

Devin Cunningham is my rep, and NOBODY has been a better shirpa helping me on my 30 year mission getting to the top of tone mountain.
by Roger Dat on
Music background: All Things Tone

If you know you want the analog color, this is it

I own a hybrid studio with a healthy amount of offboard gear (2xDistressors, an SPL IRON on the mix buss, shelford channel, tube preamps, 2xRND 542's, SPL Big, etc...). If I had the money, my mixes would be run through a 96 channel 5088 loaded with shelford channels and a fully stocked meter bridge (have you heard that before?). Alas, like the rest of us in the in the real music world, I started looking at cheaper options such as the 5059. I should state up front I have never mixed on a Neve board and have always had a hybrid setup, but I have explored sonic palettes as matter of soul searching for years to arrive at the conclusion that the RND analog sound without the hassle of tape among other things was the end state goal for my sound. After some research and overhearing some conversations (third party) from engineers at RND the decisive point for me came in the form of floating point computations in the 5059 vice the 5057 orbit. So, after scouring the youtube "universe" and the gearhead blogs with the "sounds badass" platitudes I came upon enough evidence that this unit would make the difference to the extent of the sound I was looking for. As an aside, several months ago I invested in a pair of RND 542's (after going through a similar due diligence process) and found a stunning sound color that suits my tastes perfectly. This is what got me started on looking seriously at getting the "analog sound" and those units now take permanent residence downstream of my Shelford channel for tracking. Although the 5059 is not exactly the same thing (not a tape emulator per se), the general color imparted by the Neve analog "tapeish" sound brought an eyes closed smile to my face sitting in the mix position….

If you know what I'm referring to and have the resources then read no further and get on it, you're wasting time. This is it and for the cost you won't beat it. No ****.

If you scour the internet there is scant quantitative discussions about the effects of analog summing and you will instead find emotionally charged material on whether it is worth it or not. Before you can understand its worth you have to understand what it will provide. To provide (IMHO) a better description of its effects without actually posting my mixes I will describe my first full day (and a sleep to think) with this unit and my opinions. I am a life long musician turned into sound engineer in my own professional grade studio in the last ten years having been taught by a grammy nominated studio owner who remains my drummer and mastering engineer to this day.

I spent about a 30 min calibrating each pot on the 5059 using a 0 db tone signal at 1K, with the master outputs on the 5059 at 0 and turning each of the 16 pots to get a -6 db signal in the DAW from the 5059. Ill probably end up going lower than -6 in order to give my mastering engineer more headroom for his trade.

Then, I took an advanced mix I have been working on and restructured the I/O in the mix to feed stereo stems into the 5059 and then print the stereo mix back to my mix buss where I had an offboard Hardware SPL IRON on the buss. First learning point is that was not a simple task. Trying to integrate offboard gear into a DAW is usually a simple I/O plugin to route an output to whatever hardware you're using then back into the DAW. You will need to structure your entire mix in a way that it can be fed into the 5059. Therefore, I setup my I/O so that I had 8 stereo busses being fed into the unit. Mine looked something like:

1/2 DRUMS
3/4 ACOUSTIC GUITARS
5/6 STRINGS/PIANO/ORCHESTRAL
7/8 RHYTHYM ELEC GUITARS
9/10 SFX
11/12 BASS
13/14 VOX
15/16 SOLO/LEAD GUITARS

The devil is in the details of doing this if you're mixing. First and foremost, if you're gonna use a summer then you must hear it to mix while using it. E.g. you need to have that setup on the 5059 and in your DAW in such a way that you can execute your normal DAW workflow while simultaneously feeding that to the 5059 and then back into your DAW to hear the effects. I had to change a few fundamental things in my DAW setup to be able to monitor the mix while still being able to do basic things like level changes, plugins and a lot of the other normal mix tasks you may have purely in the DAW. Don't scoff this, you will need to spend some time accommodating this modified I/O and work flow. I have been using LPX with an Avid interface for many years and I spent about an hour adjusting the settings on EUCON to accommodate a slightly altered way of doing things in order to have the stems going to the 5059 and back into the mix realtime to hear what I was doing.

After completing what I felt was a good mix, I printed it (I had about 30% red silk on it from the start) and ended up turning my master output knob on the 5059 down a touch to give my mastering engineer some headroom (and avoid the inevitable bitching about it). I also had the SPL iron on that print for mostly glue (less than 2-2.5 db GR in the VU).

I then took that exact same mix and removed the 5059 entirely from the I/O and printed everything to a mix buss using digital summing using precisely the same SPL IROM settings on the mix buss.

First thing I learned was I had to hard pan the knobs on the 5059 for each stereo stem in order to reflect the pans I had in my DAW mix. Specifically, elements that I had panned +/- 35 in my DAW mix were summed to center in my stereo return from the unit. So, for example on the DRUM stereo stem on fed into 5059 channels 1 and 2, I had to hard pan ch1 to the left and ch2 to the right in order to hear the correct placement of the drum kit that I have always used in my DAW. I felt kinda dirty changing all my pans on the 5059 to hard left and right but the results were true to what I had in LPX (and stunningly so). I actually slept on this thinking about it after doing my first AB to the digital sum thinking "crap, the sound is great but everything is in the center, there is no width…"

Once I figured that out, all of the platitudes that you will read on the internet about analog summing rang true for my ears and it was exactly what I was looking for. The 5059 mix had a fatter bottom end (not louder, just "thicker") and a much more rounded top end. When you hear people on the internet talking about the analog sound this is partly what they are talking about.

More poignantly, the sounds HAVE MORE SPACE between them and are more crystalline. So.....when I first started looking into this stuff years ago I figured it was mostly hype. I can give you a specific example of how that manifested itself in my mix. I have about 10 voices in a gregorian like chant on my song and those voices in the 5059 mix sounded more "individual." I could pick out specific sounds segregated quite clearly in the 5059 mix vice the digital sum mix. The digital mix seemed to blend everything together as it was timed in each track mathematically perfectly (truly) as opposed to the analog mix where Transformer Like Amplifiers imparted a dynamic where the ebb and flow of the sounds had some inertia in them that segregated the perfect digital sum into hills and valleys in a way that is musical with the flow and feeling of the song. That's how I describe the crystalline quality of the analog summed mix. I can hear details of each stem and within each stem vice the blending of the sound that came with the digital mix in a busy spot. If you want something simple to listen to in a mix to AB analog versus digital, listen to your drum kit. I can hear the individual hits on various parts of the kit cleanly compared to the digital sum. That's half the battle with critical listening – knowing where to focus your ears when listening to a mix print.

So, a fairly apples to apples comparison of the mixes showed the 5059 to provide all of those buzz words you read online. A fatter or thicker bottom end, a rounded top end with no harshness and a clarity of tracks that you just cannot get anywhere else (my opinion). The people that came up with the terms "digital harshness" were no doubt talking about this comparison. But that doesnt necessarily make it right depending on your tastes as a sound engineer.

If you're buying this because someone convinced you digital summing is imperfect, or is sub-par, you are flat wrong. To be blunt, this isnt the panacea to a crappy mix. This type of thing will only make your mixing MORE difficult if you're used to doing everything in the box. Your mix process in the hybrid world is NOT the same as it is in the purely digital. That said, if you understand the sounds you want to hear and further understand WHY this unit gives you the sound it does then you will find a sonic nirvana that makes the additional effort worth it. There is no "analog is better than digital," or vice versa, just what you as the artist and creator want to hear at the end of your work. For me, this summing unit makes a significant difference in my perceived quality of the sound. Well done RND, I am a fan.

cheers
Erik
by Sweetwater Customer on

This thing is great!

Grupo Love Secreto used to mix inside the box, but now that I bought this, I regret not buying it earlier. This mixer makes ur mixes sound bigger and gives the music a special Touch. It's unbelievable.
by Francisco R. Lopez from Chicago Illinois on
Music background: music producer, music director, engineer

Magic in a bottle - or in this case a "RAF Blue Grey" Box

Ok, Everyone is looking for that magic button. The thing that just makes it better. You know you still have to do the heavy lifting and deliver a good mix - but once you do that, what can you use to take it over the top? The Neve Shelford 5059 has captured that enviable magic in the bottle.

This is a first impression review. I know its still the honeymoon with a new product, and no I haven't used it long enough to know what its like after the honeymoon. But man what a honeymoon.

First: its a crystal clean, crisp and gorgeous mixer with miles and miles of headroom. Even just that - a tank of a mixer with no sonic blemishes - is a worthy goal and one that the 5059 achieves with aplomb. Build is impeccable. Knobs are clean and sharp and precise. Sound is pristine. You could stop there and be happy.

But oh, it doesn't stop there. Just dialing your mix in, the staging is just a bit deeper and the sound just a bit wider. At this point you have gotten a champ of a summing mixer. And then you add the silk - and a whole new world opens up. Its not overkill - you won't push the button and suddenly all your mix problems go away. But if you've done your work - the next level is now available to you.

And if you really want to push on the gas and open it up, do it with a little routing. Drive your summing mix into Stereo 1 with some Red Silk, out to a Sonic Maximizer and back in another channel to Stereo 2 with some Blue Silk seasoned to taste. The staging literally explodes open like someone knocked the walls down.

Like anything, its only a tool. You still have to use it well and know your craft - but ohh, what a tool it is... pure RAF Blue Grey Magic.
by Kevin from Peterborough, NH on
Music background: Composer, Mixing, Mastering
See also: Summing, Rupert Neve Designs, Rupert Neve Designs Summing Mixers
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