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.
“Once you’ve inserted the MBT on your master bus, everything that follows requires only your ears, intuition and creativity.”
— BOB THOMAS, SOUND ON SOUND
INTRODUCING
Super Silk
Introduced nearly twenty years ago, the Silk circuit has long been a favorite for Rupert Neve Designs users. First available as a simple on/off switch, then with selectable Red and Blue modes and the variable Texture control, Silk exists to enhance and control even and odd order harmonic content in any source material.
Super Silk is the latest advancement to this beloved technology: with independent Red, Blue, Harmonics and Zener Drive controls, plus the ability to adjust gain into (and out of) the circuit, harmonic manipulation is taken to a whole new level with the MBT.
RED accentuates harmonics in the upper mid and high frequencies, adding sparkle and sheen.
BLUE accentuates harmonics in the low & low mid frequencies, creating more depth and weight.
HARMONICS increases the overall musical harmonic content, and interacts with both Silk BLUE and RED.
ZENER DRIVE introduces a diode-based soft-clip circuit for a more aggressive tonality as the MBT approaches clipp
SILK IN engages or bypasses the entire SUPER SILK section – and is now finally “Silk Purple”, one of our most-requested features.
REVIEWS
“When I come out of the DAW, it’s to impart a color, to impart a character…one of the great things about this box is that it has a lot of high quality, high-impact sonic signatures that you can impart on a recording, but without a thousand knobs.”
Dale Becker, Mastering Engineer
SZA, Doja Cat, Khalid, Snoh Aalegra, Lil Durk, Kim Petras
“It's one of those things that once I've heard it I don't want to work without it. There aren't many pieces of gear like that…it’s just been eye-opening how good this thing is. Smooth EQ, color compression, the stereo widener’s killer, and the transformers with the Red and Blue – just really, really nice stuff. I can’t say enough good things about it.”
Kevin Madigan, FOH Engineer
Carlos Santana
"The MBT is a special box. The Super Silk circuit with Zener drive will be revolutionary for many engineers. My initial thoughts on the color comp is it seems very usable and unique, and the blend knob is invaluable. I'm using it on my stereo bus at the moment, but the potential for parallel group processing is obvious and exciting. "
Brett Orrison, Mixing / FOH Engineer
Jack White, Widespread Panic
“The MBT just adds the right touch of transformer magic in today’s digital world! Apart from the usual 2-bus duties it was amazing as a drum bus insert, and even as an insert for an all vocals group. It has all the elements needed to tweak and enhance anything.”
“La combinación de todas las secciones del MBT hacen que sea un equipo muy versátil. La sección de ‘Width’ y ‘Súper Silk’ son de mis favoritos! Y bueno los transformadores que tiene son increíbles, le agregan un peso súper musical y tridimensional al sonido cuando son usados en combinación con el mundo digital, es el duo perfecto.”
Lewis Pickett, Mix Engineer / Producer
Marc Anthony, Carlos Vives, Alejandro Sanz
“In addition to the saturation, there’s something about the Blue Silk, the way that it saturates the low end and the low band EQ with the high pass filter, that gives me the best low end I’ve ever had in my career, and I don’t say that lightly – like, there’s some magic happening there…the way you can shape and mold the low end is absolutely incredible.”
Colt Capperrune
“It’s the punk rock younger brother to the MBP, and a perfect studio utensil for squeezing every last drop of juice out of tracks, stems, and mixes.”
Danny Reisch, Mixer / Producer
Other Lives, White Denim
“I’m constantly proclaiming that such a piece of gear is the last piece of analog gear I will ever buy. But you guys keep ruining that for me, because now I’m going to have to keep this…this is a near-instant love affair. I've fallen for it even quicker than any other RND products.”
John O’Mahony, Mix Engineer
Matt Maeson, Sara Bareilles, Vance Joy, Metric
FAQ
Absolutely! We encourage you to try out the MBT on various individual sources to see how it can bring life to snare drums, acoustic guitars, pianos, vocals, strings, and anything else you can think of. Note: please remember to convert any mono sources to a stereo STEM before feeding the MBT.
No; the input stage is based on our highest-quality line amplifier circuit, and was intentionally designed to be clean so it can safely drive the other more colorful sections of the MBT. However, our custom transformers ARE found in the interstage Super Silk circuit, and on the unit’s output.
The attack time is fixed at 20mS. This should allow most transients to sneak through without being overly compressed.
The LO ratio setting is 2:1 and the HI ratio setting is 5:1; the former will sound a bit gentler, whereas the latter will be significantly more aggressive.
Absolutely not. Every section of the MBT is different than the MBP – even the updated Width section. Tonally, they are also quite different and complementing each other when used in tandem. In fact, with both the MBP and the MBT you may have all your bases covered to professionally finish any track.
Not exactly: With the MBT we decided to include an additional dedicated pair of our custom transformers solely for the SUPER SILK section. This allows you to get much closer to core saturation and generate more harmonic content than ever before.
SUPER SILK also offers far more precision and control, since you can now drive into the circuit via gain stages earlier in the unit (INPUT Trim, EQUALIZER & COLOR COMP Gain), and then compensate for any increased level using the master Trim control in the OUTPUT section.
Specs:
Note: All measurements typical; All measurements recorded using 25ft. XLR output cables with Balanced ZSOURCE = 40 ohm
Input Impedance: 10 kilohm
No Features Engaged
Noise (22 Hz - 22kHz): Better than -95 dBu
THD+N (0 dBu @ 1kHz): Better than 0.004%
THD+N (+20 dBu @ 1 kHz): Better than 0.002%
Maximum Input Level: +25.5 dBu
Crosstalk @ 1 kHz: Better than -95 dB
Frequency Response:
<5 Hz - 30 kHz: +/- 0.1 dB
<5 Hz - 60 kHz: +/- 0.25 dB
<5 Hz - 180 kHz: -3 dB
HPF Engaged
Noise (22 Hz - 22 kHz): Better than -95 dBu
THD+N (+20 dBu @ 1 kHz): Better than 0.002%
Equalizer Engaged
Noise (22 Hz - 22 kHz): Better than -93dBu
THD+N (+20 dBu @ 1 kHz): Better than 0.002%
Compressor Engaged
Noise (22 Hz - 22 kHz): Better than -92dBu
THD+N (+20 dBu @ 1 kHz): Better than 0.002%
Width Engaged
Noise (22 Hz - 22 kHz): Better than -88dBu
THD+N (+20 dBu @ 1 kHz): Better than 0.002%
SILK Engaged
Noise (22 Hz - 22 kHz): Better than -95dBu
THD+N (+20 dBu @ 1 kHz): Better than 0.003%
WEIGHTS & DIMENSIONS
Product Dimensions (W x D x H): 19” (48.3 cm) x 10.125” (25.7 cm) x 3.5” (8.9 cm)
Shipping Dimensions (L x W x H): 22” (55.9 cm) x 18” (45.7 cm) x 8.7” (22.1 cm)
Shipping Weight: 17 lbs. (7.7 kg)