Rupert Neve Designs 5060 Centrepiece 24 x 2 Desktop Mixer

From the father of the recording console comes the 5060 Centerpiece: the Class-A analog heart of your 21st-century studio. Sized for your desktop, the 5060 delivers the tonality and center section features of Rupert’s flagship 5088 console at your fingertips, cementing outboard together with serious custom transformers, flexible monitoring, DAW transport controls, and the raw power of a Rupert Neve-designed 24×2 mix-bus.

Define Your Workflow

With a modular, hybrid analogue/digital mix system built around the 5060, you can outfit your studio with exactly what you need – and nothing that you don’t (see configurations guide here). Utilizing modern DAW control technologies, the 5060 seamlessly integrates stem outputs from the DAW with the rest of your control room, sums the final mix, and provides 2-track outputs, source selection, and speaker feed outputs from the monitor section.

Used in conjunction with 5059 mixers and Portico modules, the 5060 forms the core of a scalable analogue system. In this arrangement, the 5059s provide individual channel control, aux routing, and expandable channel counts, the Portico modules provide preamplification, EQ and dynamics, and the 5060 unites it all. The 5060 brings your dreams of a seamless hybrid workflow to reality.

Define Your Tone

With custom transformers, a class-A mix buss and variable Silk, the 5060 can provide a wide range of tonal flavors. Drive the mix buss hard and crank the Texture knob for a rich, saturated, vintage vibe – or disengage Silk entirely for clear, wide-open sonic beauty.
Silk reduces the negative feedback on the output transformer, adding harmonic content as the texture is increased. Silk red mode accentuates the saturation in the high-mids and highs, while silk blue mode features more saturation in the lows and low mids.

With Silk engaged, the distortion characteristic and harmonic content of the unit are very reminiscent of many of Rupert’s class-A vintage designs. These controls add an unparalleled range of tonal options to the 5060 and should be explored creatively with a variety of different sources for best effect.

Additionally, by using 5059 Satellite Mixers to feed the 5060, you can further control the tone by using different Silk & Texture settings on the dual stereo outputs,and by creating parallel processing on the stems using the insert sends into processors, and then into stereo inputs 9-24.

The New Analogue Standard

While digital technologies come and go, the modular, class-A analog designs Rupert created decades ago have been proven to stand the test of time. Instead of merely cloning these “classics”, Rupert’s team of engineers have crafted new designs – built on the same key principles – that take sonic performance, flexibility and ergonomics to new heights.

These designs embody the high voltage, class-A, discrete and transformer coupled architectures found in the 5088 console, which represent a culmination of Rupert’s vast analogue circuitry knowledge.

With the 5060 Centerpiece, the primary aim is to deliver the extraordinary quality of the 5088 in a compact, modular framework. With an abundance of interconnectivity, exceptional fidelity, and the tonal versatility of Silk, the 5060 is the ideal core of the sound-conscious modern studio.

Reviews

“The 5060 is the centerpiece of my new mix suite, which uses a combination of plug-ins and select outboard gear for easy recall. The sound and ergonomics make me happy as an analogue guy, which allows me to leave the main room open for tracking sessions while I’m mixing now.”
Craig Schumacher (Neko Case, KT Tunstall)

“Our 5060 is really the heart of the studio. Smooth knobs, faders and buttons. Flawless monitor control. Nothing is missing in it. The Centerpiece is the perfect bridge between digital and analog here at Stamha.”
Álvaro R. - Stamha Mastering

Features

MIC GAIN
A 12-way precision rotary switch controls gain from 0 to 66 dB in 6 dB steps.

TRIM
Continuously variable +/-6 dB level control.

+48V
Engages phantom power on the microphone input, as supplied by the 500 series rack.

POLARITY
Push button inverts the polarity of the signal path, and illuminates when engaged. The symbol “Ø” is often used to denote opposite polarity.

HIGH PASS FILTER
The high pass filter is continuously variable from 20-250Hz and engaged by the HPF switch, which illuminates when engaged. It is a valuable aid in any signal chain, but particularly so in a microphone preamplifier. Signals below the selected frequency are attenuated at a rate of 12db / octave, getting rid of proximity effect, building rumble, air handling, motor hum, etc.

SILK / TEXTURE
Pushing the Silk button engages the red Silk circuit, which reduces the negative feedback on the output transformer, adding harmonic content as the texture is increased. Red Silk accentuates the saturation in the mid and high frequencies, similar to that of the red silk mode on the Portico II Channel. By manipulating the Texture control, the amount of Silk can be changed from essentially absent, to roughly 10 times the amount of coloration / distortion found in Silk from the original Portico Series. With Silk / Texture engaged, the distortion characteristic and harmonic content of the unit are very reminiscent of many of Rupert’s class-A vintage designs.

LEVEL METER
An Eight-segment LED bar-graph meter displays output level (pre-Silk). The color range proceeds from green for lower level signals, yellow for intermediate signals, and red for high levels. When the 511 is clipped, the highest red LED will hold longer depending on how far above the clip threshold the signal was.