Dan McDougall gets up to speed with Neve
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Dan’s writing space at Hoxa HQ in London is primarily based around an ‘in the box’ workflow but if he needs access to a larger recording facility, he can easily tap into the Hoxa HQ main studio. This has a control room equipped with a vintage Neve 8058 console with 31102 channel mic pre-amp/EQ, the circuitry and sound of which is almost identical to today’s 1073 variants.
“The Hoxa HQ Neve console sounds amazing,” Dan says. “The 1073OPX is the first Neve unit I’ve purchased, but I’ve always been a huge fan of the Neve sound so I am very pleased to now own my own mic pre.”
As a multi-instrumentalist, Dan has worked with numerous artists including Ellie Goulding, Grace, Razorlight, Jade Bird and Tom Odell, whose platinum selling album Long Way Down features Dan on drums. He is also an instrumentalist for Liam Gallagher and has featured on most of his tracks, including those on his forthcoming album. Dan’s production and songwriting credits are equally extensive and include Will Young, Aurora, The Amazons’ and, more recently, Bruno Major, Baby Queen and Callum Beattie.
Although the sound of Neve preamps played a large part in Dan’s decision to invest in a 1073OPX, there were also practical considerations at play - not least the compact nature of this unit.
“The fact that it has eight 1073 units in only a 2u chassis really suited my needs because it doesn’t take up too much room in my rack,” he says. “Tracking wise, I always love to go through great mic pres and this unit sounds so good that it’s really noticeable. Having eight amazing pres for drums, vocals and whatever else I am tracking is just great. Post tracking, I mainly end up working ‘in the box’, but I do send out anything for a few outboard effects that I can’t quite achieve in the box.”
