Rupert Neve Designs MBT Master Bus Transformer

Transform your tone.

For over six decades, audio transformers have been the bedrock of Mr. Rupert Neve’s audio circuit design philosophy – and Rupert Neve Designs’ bespoke transformers are an integral part of virtually every RND product. 

Packed with these transformers, the MBT provides an incredible array of flavorful options designed to sweeten, enhance, drive, widen, and utterly transform source material, making it the ultimate tool for musical coloration.

Create Tonal Magic with the Shelf EQ

With 3 octave ranges, gentle slopes and minimal phase shifts, the all-new 2-band Shelf EQ section was created with an emphasis on simplicity and elegance. This smooth & musical EQ is excellent at providing just the right amount of tonal enhancement – especially when it is interacting with the other sections of the MBT.

Each band has +/- 9dB of gain control, with the LF EQ corner frequency variable from 30Hz to 240Hz and the HF EQ corner frequency variable from 3kHz to 24kHz. 

The LF band is excellent at either taming or accentuating low-end to give source material an exacting amount of weight and power. 

The HF band provides a wide range of corner frequencies to choose from, allowing adjustments to be made from the upper midrange all the way up to the very top end, giving tracks extra shine and clarity.

One exciting aspect of using the MBT is discovering how the different sections can interact with each other. Sometimes the EQ can be dialed in first, other times it can be left alone until the other sections are dialed in. One thing is certain: the MBT encourages experimentation at every turn.

Breathe In New Life with the Color Comp

With an all-new optical compressor design, the Color Comp excels at accentuating the non-linear distortion and “colorful” characteristics of the Opto cell to bring source material a new sense of life and depth.

The Color Comp includes two selectable ratios, a sweepable high pass side-chain filter, variable threshold and release, 20dB of Class-A makeup gain, and a Blend control for parallel processing.

The compressor ratio can be set to a 2:1 ratio (LO) for subtle & smooth compression or 5:1 (HI) for much more dramatic behavior. 

The variable high pass side-chain filter removes the low frequencies from the compressor side chain circuit, allowing low-end information to pass through the compressor untouched while the compressor focuses on the rest of the signal. With a sweepable range from 20Hz all the way up to 350Hz, this is a highly flexible tonal shaping control providing the ability to leave the low end intact while taming or squashing the rest of the source material as needed. 

The Color Comp also contains a Blend control, making it easy to use the compression circuit in parallel with the uncompressed source material. This can be especially useful when wanting to dial back the harmonic content, dynamic range reduction, and transient squashing from more extreme compressor settings.

The threshold is variable from 0dBu to +24dBu, with a gain reduction LED illuminating when the signal passes the threshold. However, the Color Comp also introduces audible non-linear harmonic content even with just a touch of gain reduction – as such, we highly recommend listening to the Color Comp engaged even when no gain reduction is visible, in order to discern the amount of tonality that it introduces. The pleasing nature of this harmonic content will become even more apparent as the compressor settings become more extreme. 

The release is variable from 100mS to 1.5S. By dialing in higher ratios and faster releases it is possible to get the color comp to actively “pump” with the attacks, whereas with slower release times it will operate in a much smoother manner.

Lastly, the Color Comp has 20dB of Class-A makeup gain. This is not only useful for level-matching the before and after compression signals, but also for driving the interstage transformers found in the Super Silk section for even greater harmonic enhancements.