Rupert Neve Designs MBT Master Bus Transformer

Stereo processor to add sonic color to complete mixes, groups, stems or individual tracks

Transformers have always been at the heart of Rupert Neve's device philosophy. Rupert Neve Designs' custom transformers are fundamental to every product they create. The MBT, with these high-quality transformers, offers a wide range of sonic options for shaping, enriching, and enhancing audio sources. It's an essential tool for improving sound musicality. It adapts perfectly to full mixes, groups, stems, or individual tracks, guaranteeing legendary timbral quality and a flexible set of controls. Create Magic with the HPF & Shelf EQ. The MBT's first main feature is a high-pass filter adjustable in frequency from 100Hz to 15Hz, ideal for mix management. Additionally, there is a new 2-band equalization section with a range of 3 octaves, gentle slopes, and minimal phase rotation. This EQ is easy to use and adds color to tracks, especially when combined with the other MBT sections. Each EQ band offers gain control adjustable from +/- 9dB. The low-frequency band allows you to add or attenuate track power, while the high-frequency band enables precise adjustments in the mid-high and high range, adding clarity and brightness to the sound. An interesting aspect of the MBT is how these sections can interact with each other. Sometimes, it can be useful to adjust the EQ before other sections, but the MBT allows you to experiment with different combinations. New Life with Color Comp. Thanks to the new Color Comp optical compressor, you can emphasize the non-linear distortion and "colored" characteristics of the Opto cell, giving new life and depth to the sound. It allows you to adjust compression with low values (2:1) for gentle compression or high values (5:1) for a more incisive effect. An adjustable high pass filter on the side-chain removes low frequencies from the circuit driving the compression, allowing low frequencies to pass without processing. This control, from 20Hz to 350Hz, offers great flexibility in sound shaping. The Color Comp also has a Blend control to use the compressor in parallel with the uncompressed audio signal. This is useful for managing harmonic content, reducing dynamic range, and controlling transients. It also allows you to adjust the threshold from 0dBu to +24dBu, with a gain reduction LED that lights up when the signal exceeds the threshold. It should be noted that the Color Comp introduces harmonic content even with slight gain reduction, so it should be listened to carefully even when gain reduction is not obvious. You can vary the release time from 100mS to 1.5S. By increasing the ratio and reducing release times, you can achieve more pronounced "pumping" effects, while longer release times produce smoother compression. Finally, the Color Comp offers 20dB Class-A makeup gain, which is useful for balancing the level before and after signal compression, and for further improving harmonic characteristics through the Super Silk section. New Dimension with the Width Section. The Width section is designed to expand the perception of stereo panorama without compromising low-frequency presence. The MBT's "WIDTH" controls are inspired by the Stereo Field Editor (SFE), but feature two important differences. First, the MBT's Width control is purely additive, with a wider range for extreme operations. Second, there is a variable high-pass filter between 50Hz and 800Hz, which allows you to adjust the width so that low frequencies remain anchored to the center of the mix, while mids and highs are expanded to create wider space. Additionally, a subtle reduction in high frequencies in stereo content has been introduced to avoid over-emphasizing the most annoying frequencies. Full Harmonic Control with Super Silk. Introduced nearly twenty years ago, Rupert Neve Designs' Silk technology is much loved by professionals. Now, with Super Silk on the MBT, a new level of harmonic manipulation is reached. Super Silk offers independent controls for Red, Blue, Harmonics, and Zener Drive, allowing unprecedented harmonic manipulation. Traditionally applied to the MBT's output transformers, Silk technology now offers greater control and flexibility. Super Silk includes extra transformers to expand the possibilities of this circuit. The user can push Super Silk for dynamic saturations and transient clipping or attenuate the signal with the Output Trim for more precise gain control. Silk Red emphasizes harmonics in the mid and high frequencies, adding brilliance, while Silk Blue emphasizes harmonics in the mid and low frequencies, increasing weight and depth. The Harmonics control increases harmonic content, saturating the MBT's custom transformers and interacting with Silk Blue and Silk Red settings, offering infinite possibilities for timbral blending. Finally, the switchable Zener Drive is an asymmetrical soft clip circuit based on diodes that primarily introduces odd-order harmonic content when the signal approaches the MBT's headroom limit, creating more aggressive sonorities. Drive and Control Levels with I/O Amplifiers. To maintain optimal gain control in the MBT, Class-A input and output amplifiers have been implemented. These output amplifiers power Rupert Neve Designs' custom transformers, contributing to balancing and line isolation. This way, you can push the transformers to the maximum and precisely balance pre and post signals.

Specifications

• Built with Rupert Neve Class-A transformers.
• Revitalize mono or stereo tracks, stems and mixes with new controls.
• Add body and power with the Super Silk circuit.
• Introduce dynamic character with the Color Comp optical cell compressor.
• Enable quick tone adjustment with gentle and musical LF and HF Shelf EQ.
• The Width section offers options to increase spatiality without losing focus.
• I/O amplifiers to manage and adapt the levels of interstage transformers.