There was no name in audio circuitry design like Sir Rupert Neve's. And there is no company with a both modern and heritage-rich portfolio like RND.
Rupert Neve Designs – the crown of Sir Rupert Neve's Heritage
Now that can be answered swiftly: RND stands for Rupert Neve Designs.
It is the final company that the lately deceased audio guru Sir Rupert Neve was active in. Sir Neve's heritage lingers on in several companies, AMS Neve, Focusrite and RND. RND though is the final company Rupert Neve founded and can be regarded as the crown of his heritage.
As they are very modern analog designs, RND units sound very transparent and detailed. So no Rupert Neve Designs gear will make the audio signals ooze with colour, smash or distort them. But still, there are transformers everywhere you look, providing a subtle „grip“ to the signals and a classy top end. Quite often you will find a parameter called „Silk“. Silk allows you to dial in the amount of character if needed, from softly adding harmonics to the audio to quite audible colour. RNDs inductor EQs are carefully sweetening, but never over the top. The compressors may remain very technical unless pushed hard.
There are lots of different Rupert Neve Designs products you can buy. Undoubtedly the biggest would be a modular analog recording console. But the RND portfolio consist of several 19“ processors, among them the renown Shelford Channel, and quite an arsenal of Series 500 modules. Furthermore, Rupert Neve uses a proprietary cassette format, desktop units and small boxes like headphone amps and DIs.
The RND 5088 is a modular mixing console. It can be scaled from a simple 16-channel mixer with hardly any processing to a full-blown console like the classic ones from the pre-DAW era. The clou is that channels can be added and so can EQs/dynamics in the o-called „Penthouse“ section and additional VU meters. The console backbone provides 8 buses and 8 aux sends. As Rupert Neve's knowledge has grown and grown over the decades, the 5088 can be seen as the climax of all his designs. 5088 mixing consoles provide a very low noisefloor, high headroom, a cautious sonic character (mainly because of the custom transformers used literally everywhere), high flexibility and their ease of use.
Rupert Neve was well-known for the design of his microphone preamps and EQs. The 1073 is a pretty old design. But based on them, the powerful and transparent RND preamps meet all requirements of today. In terms of flexibility, tonal and technical quality, RND preamps can cover all demands with ease. You will find any format and channel count you need. From the Series 500 module RND 511 to desktop RND Portico 5017, 2-channel (RND 5211), 4-channel (RND 5024) to Dante-ready 8-channel RND RMP-D8 in 19“ housings. And there are lots of preamp/EQ and preamp/comp combinations – as well as full-blown channel strips like the Shelford Channel.
There are several equalizers in RND's arsenal – or „equaliser“, how it is being spelled correctly in British English. Speaking of… the „British EQ“ or simply „Neve EQ“ heritage can be found in all of Rupert Neve Designs. The Rupert Neve Designs 511 Inductor EQ is described as a „best of“ EQ: Low band derived from the classic Neve 1064, midrange proportional-Q 1073-style, high band a more modern design.
If Series 500 is your chosen format, you may find the RND 535 Diode Bridge Compressor following the classic Neve path. 5254 ist the 19“ stereo version. But there are lots of other dynamics in RND's product range: The 543 is a 500 workhorse VCA compressor, the Portico II Master Bus Processor is a Neve VCA as well. The RND MBC, tough, is an analog stereo limiter followed by an ADC (yes, digital, indeed!).
There are lots of interesting and helpful audio products by Rupert Neve Designs. Like the 19“ RND 5045 Primary Source Enhancer (Series 500: RND 545) an analog feedback reduction tool. RND's 542 Tape Emulator is also strictly analog and loved by many when tracking and mixing.
There are three different summing units, from the 19“/1U RND 5057 Orbit, a 16x2 summer, to the more versatile RND 5059 Satellite (19“/2U) and the RND 5060 Centerpiece. The latter is a desktop device with faders, monitoring section and DAW control – a small console, if you like. RND RNHP ist a small footprint headphone amplifier loved by many, RND RNDI and RND RNDI-S are mono and stereo DI-Boxes. The mono RND can be placed between a guitar amplifier and the cabinet in order to capture that octal tubes' harmonics…
Putting the whole matter in a nutshell: The RND Shelford products are more „vintage“ sounding. Preamp gain is set via a direct-coupled transformer, leading to a tonality known from older designs like the 1073. Unlike Rupert Neve's design from decades ago, the RND Shelford preamps are built with contemporary technical capabilities. The Shelford EQ and Shelford Compressor elements do not differ too much from the other units. But as the Shelfords run at higher voltages, the transformers can be bigger – which results in even better technical and sonic quality.