Neve V R-60
The V R-60 turns up in studio-update columns constantly, and usually at the studios that could afford to be picky.
Used V R-60s appeared on the secondhand market with GML automation at prices around $350,000 (Mix, January 1994, p.211).
Overview
There is no tidy spec sheet for the Neve V R-60. What survives is a paper trail of studio installations - the classified-and-update columns where facilities announced what they'd just bought - and the trail is thick for a console of this class. The V R-60 was a 60-input large-format desk from Neve's V Series. It was ordered with Flying Faders automation so often that the two are practically inseparable in the record. When a studio bought a V R-60, the automation came along with it. By the mid-1990s, used V R-60s were trading on the secondhand market at prices in the neighborhood of $325,000 to $350,000, typically equipped with GML automation (Mix, January 1994, p.211). A later 1994 listing placed a VR-60 with GML at $325,000 (Mix, October 1994, p.199).
The installation record reads like a map of serious rooms. BMG Studios in New York, formerly RCA Studios and by its own claim the largest recording complex in the Northeast, took delivery of a 60-channel V R-60 with Flying Faders as part of an equipment acquisition. Music Grinder Studios relocated to Hollywood Boulevard with an 8108-48. Westlake Studios in Los Angeles upgraded its consoles with a V R-60 with Flying Faders in Studio A and a VR72 with Flying Faders in Studio D. Marathon Recording in New York upgraded *from* a Neve V Series console *to* a V R-60 with Flying Faders, so the desk replaced its own predecessor in the same room.
The pattern holds across the country and across the Atlantic. City Lights Studio in Hopewell Township, New Jersey, ordered a V R-60 with Flying Faders alongside Mitsubishi X-880 and X86HS digital machines. Chung King House of Metal in New York took a V60 with Flying Faders paired with a Mitsubishi X-850 using Apogee filters. Apollo Theatre/Inner City Broadcasting in New York got a V R-60 with Flying Faders. San Antonio Shoe in Boerne, Texas, purchased a V R-60 with Flying Faders Automation. In the U.K., Amazon Studios in Liverpool took delivery of a 48-input V R-60 Legend with flying faders automation, so the desk came in frame sizes other than the full 60.
Collectors note that the V R-60's reputation rests less on any single published measurement than on the company it kept. These were not budget rooms. The desk went in alongside Studer A820-24 multitracks, Otari DTR-900II digital 32-track recorders, and Soundstream editing systems, in six-figure control rooms where the console was the anchor. Flying Faders automation was the feature buyers kept specifying by name.
Similar items on eBay
No exact neve V R-60 listings are live right now — these searches show current neve and similar vintage synth gear on eBay:
As an eBay Partner, we earn from qualifying purchases. This helps support our independent vintage technology research.