How much did you pay for them?

Coming soon!

Do you ever use two on stereo buss for EQ’ing or compressing?

Where do you buy them?

at Sweetwater few yers back they are hard to get now

just yesterday I put a mix through two Porticos before mastring the mixes@@onethousandtwonortheast8848

The 551 is three band eq if I’m not mistaken and the Portico II channel is 4 band and most importantly is a “mastering grade” level piece of gear. I think that means the Portico II channel has detents on the eq for precision. Does your 551 have detents? The 543 is the same type of VCA compression as the Portico II channel. Now the 511 is not the same, close, but not the same. One reason its different is the voltage rails of the Portico II channel are the same as the 5088 console. The voltage rails in the 511 is lower and i believe the transformer is different, too. I called Rupert Neve Designs and they feel the 511 is really very close to that of the vintage 1073/1066/1064 sound.

How much?

I know exactly what you’re talking about. The great thing with Neve is it can sound amazing on everything - you can’t mess things up! This is not true for many other brands and processors. Neve is CREAM ! If you want an emulation you really should check the Neve plugins from Steinberg. Hidden Gem. I’ve shown them on several videos - they are really close to the hardware!

@@DomSigalas Thanks, yeah I looked into them when they came out recently or maybe I had just seen them for the first time, it was last year sometime I think, but I was all hyped up until I saw the were like $300 each and only had the eq and comp...plus you have to use an iLok with them :( I have an old iLok but I doubt it would work so after getting that too it would be over $500 which is just too much for me right now. If they had the portico 2 master bus I would make it happen some how tho haha!!!! If I was to invest that much I would prolly just try to get the little 543 Limiter Compressor and or an EQ or the Tape FX module they have that's the same size rack mount as the 543. I have been keeping an eye on the big dawg master bus 2 on eBay and the prices haven't budged and if anything have gone up. SMH But I am in the market for a solid master bus comp/limiter (hardware) if you or anyone else know of a similar less expensive one. For the right one I feel like I would spend anywhere from $2,000-$3,000 but if would have to be THE one cause I'm hoping it will be the last one I need for 20+ years! If I can't find a comparable one I will most likely ended up shelling out the $4,500 but I'm prolly about a year away from breaking down and doing that at the moment...plus I kinda wanna wait and see if the make a plug in version of the MB2 even tho deep down I know it won't be the same or what Im trying to get haha! What I might do in the meantime now that Im thinking about it tho is see if the Neve plug ins have a free trial... Cause hey if they sound good they could do the trick, just hard to risk it for some in the box FX I already have 10 of... Great Advice tho!

@@DomSigalas out of the 500-1000s and even 5000s series channel strips, EQs, compressors, and limiters is there one you would suggest or one you've heard that stands out to you? I saw the Tape FX thing they have too...a Mic pre would be great but what I'm really trying to get is the comp/limiter for doing outboard master bus FX. When I lived in Atlanta I worked at a studio that had a 5043 I think it was, not def tho, but I would take my mixes up there when I was almost done and run all my songs thru that and a few other things as like a cheap mastering kinda thing. Like I would take 5+ songs and bounce em out and back and do a little comp and sparkle, then bounce em back and save that as my mix, sometimes I think used to even do like a parallel thing. But now I dream of being able to do that whenever I want...

I just looked up the 5043 and not sure if thats what I used to use or not cause the one I used to use was def black and was a full rack but not as thick as the Master Bus 2 it was a dual channel, thin, full rack. Black and it had a compressor and limiter can't remember if it had eq tho, it was actually the same unit they used on a lot of the original Outcast ATaliens album which is what drew me to it originally. It barely got used tho I might see if they will sell it to me now... Everybody just used the Avalon pre's and then the SSL eqs from the board. The Avalon 737 is what I used to want but now I'm thinking if I spend the money I wanna try to get something with some FX cause I have a few good pre amps now. Sorry Kinda brain storming here lol

Thank you so much my friend! Groove on!!!! :)

@Dom Sigalas ❤️❤️❤️❤️

So good right?

@@DomSigalas Yes, i bought mine maybe 7 years ago.

@@DomSigalas maybe you can do a similar review on RND MBP :). Not many good deep reviews of that.

@@MR_Cellarpop it’s coming! I am also comparing it to the SSL Fusion- that’s gonna be a good one ;)

@@DomSigalas great😀

I use the Portico II MBP for mastering- video coming soon!

They have different use cases. The Portico and any other outboard channel strip helps you get a great sound on your way into your DAW :) this is a very important aspect when you’re recording and producing your music and you can ensure a great quality recording. Then, the channel strip helps you shape and mix your recordings- they work in synergy :)

I second this :)

About more than a year now Chris :)

wow are those drums one mic sound abs killer

External plugin feature, exactly :)

@@DomSigalas have you a walkthrough vid on how to do this dom, many rhanks

Thank you! The compressor seems to be the same (even though I am not sure if the topology is identical). But in the channel it’s missing the high pass filter sidechain, the limiter and of course the most important thing is driving the SFE to the compressor. I would love to have a second Portico Channel II for processing busses because the EQ is beautiful. How do you like the Shelford Channel Compressor? Sounds like a tasty piece of gear!

@@DomSigalas Thanks for replying. I love the shelfords and my chain. I have not pushed them that hard to see everything it does. I still play it a little safe when tracking. I use a REDD mic so with the built in pre I don't use the Shelford pre amp that high. I have a pair of Shcoepps sdc stereo so maybe I might play with pushing the shelfords with those. It doe's have a -6BD output that I need to try so I can push it a bit more. I keep watching this portico channel when I get breaks and just called Sweetwater to put to on hold for me when the come in August. I think it's the last shipment they are receiving before they are no longer available. My rep said it was no problem putting 2 aside so maybe they are getting a fair amount for this last shipment? I'm pretty much selling all my other channel strips and pre amps and will choose between porticos and Shelford. It should be more than enough variety within them to cover everything I want. I hope you can get a Shelford even just to do a demo like this one. It's very informative to get another persons perspective. You do a great job with this. Thanks Again.

I think it is worth it.

No idea! I realised it was discontinued after I released the video. I guess it was very expensive to produce (and they were not selling enough units?) and I can tell why. But I am just speculating 🤔

@@DomSigalas what do you think why they were not selling enough units? The price point is maybe one reason. But an Avalon or voxbox are also in the same price range. Maybe more people prefer tube sound?🤔

​​ Neve support said they discontinued it because new environmental regulations would have required them to redesign newly sold units with sonically inferior components. They didn't think they could achieve the same result with the available compliant components and so they decided to let the Portico II Channel remain as is without a revised version.

I just found out a few days ago! Seems like it's now vintage and rare hahaha

@@DomSigalas They are still selling them at Sweetwater.

@@marc8vino Grab one while you can then hahaha

Did you see the imitation CL1B piece by WARM audio? Its not a perfect clone of the original but for 75% savings its pretty close.

Aaaah lucky you! The Shelford is also very very nice- very characterful. I use GIK acoustics panels- really nice and look good. I think for this one I used a Sony a6600 to shoot the Portico :)

@@DomSigalas Appreciate the video. I really learned a lot. Keep doing ya thing.

Why do you think the portico is better than your shelford?

​@@barneyrubble8255it's far more versatile

Too expensive for RND to keep making (and parts compliance costs in California I believe). If they were still making it now, with the exact same quality parts it would be more expensive than the Shelford probably around or over 4k. It's a great front end channel strip and holds its value used (actually due to rarity it's going up in price)

@@SpacehotelMusic Well it’s good too know they are holding their value, I did opt for 2 Shelford Channel Strips I could’ve got by with 1 and an API strip but I was thinking 2 buss mix They sound really, really good better than I anticipated so I’m not regretting the purchase But def not cheap

Hahahaha

Whot whot whot? For real???

@@DomSigalas "As of March 2021, the Portico II Channel has been discontinued, but it will be supported indefinitely." (From Rupert Neve site.)

It’s a shelf, you can hear it trust me! 😇

How come?

Yeah how come?

@@barneyrubble8255 The diode bridge compressor sounds insane, and the eq is extremely punchy

@@christopherpederson1021As an owner of a vintage neve 1064 pre amp/eq unit, I can tell you two things: the 1064 is right up there with the 1073 in sound magic and the Portico EQ and pre are 99.98% equal. In blind tests, I couldn’t tell them apart. So the Shelford is better than a 1073/1064 vintage unit??? If you think so, I must get my hands on one and see for myself. Now, the diode bridge comp is a different topology than the Portico II comp. I understand the Shelford diode comp is like a 2254 or a 33609.

Me too but mainly because I don’t have a choice since portico is discontinued But I do prefer the 1u Rack size Until they come that’s all I can comment on without parroting other user’s comments