Hello everyone,
I just hooked my brand new MU in today and I got a shocking suprize! I have it going direct in to the stereo incerts of a Mackie 32 channel mixer.
The cables are Monster 500 series XLR to ring tip sleeve and work fine for my Distressors.
When I am in bypass mode the signal comes through fine. But when I engage the compression there is but a slight tiny sound. .what happened? Did it blow a fuse?
Eva Anna said I had to re soder the wires, however I have spoken to a few people today about the pin 1=Ground, pin 2= Hot(+), pin 3= cold (-)
and they said the Manley should work with my configuration.
Please some one, what is going on?
Thanks!
Mad John
Zythum Studios
"The present day Composer refuses to die!" Varese :(
Comments
Back to your Vari Mu, no it is not broken. It is transformer cou
Back to your Vari Mu, no it is not broken. It is transformer coupled in and out and your insert cables currently have nothing hooked up to pin three. In an unbalanced hookup, you MUST ground pin 3-- you can't just leave it hanging.
So your cables need to do this:
T: SEND HOT goes to XLR Pin 2 input to Vari Mu
R: Return HOT goes to XLR Pin 2 output from Vari Mu
S: Ground has to go to Pin 1 & 3 of the XLRs
Easiest way to achieve this is to open up the XLR's and put a little jumper between pin 1 & 3 on both the input and output XLRs.
It's all in the owners manual...
Wow, hello and thank you Eve Anna! It is a honor to have you ad
Wow, hello and thank you Eve Anna!
It is a honor to have you address what has by now become quite a silly post.
I actuwaly spoke with you before this post was originaly aired and I have served a rightful dose of humility for my electrical ignorance, as these posts will prove.
I finally did the smartest thing by ignoring the Mackie incerts all together and simply took the Bords XLR main outs to the INs of the Manley MU, then out of the MU to (at this time) TC 96K , then to monitors and it worked beautifuly.... I melted when I finaly heard what the Mu did to my mix!
Creamy lush low end and a general sonic smoothness that was really quite impressive for a first go around!
Eve, I also spoke with Paul and he on several occasions has been most helpful. He is always willing to talk shop with me and I feel comfortable being honest about my lack of knowlege in this area, because like Paul said, "There is nothing wrong with not knowing this stuff, as long as you do learn it." :D
The more I reach with your Manley gear in the right direction (hook ups/wireing) the more I love your gear...All Art can be lined in GOLD now!
Thank you for your responce, I love you truly!
Respectfuly,
Mad John
Zythum Studios
"The present day Composer refuses to die."
Edgar Varese - 1921
[QUOTE]Originally posted by John Thomas Milhorat: [QB]Hey, spea
[QUOTE]Originally posted by John Thomas Milhorat:
[QB]Hey, speaking of George Harrison, I just got a great book today from Amazon.com , "Beatles gear."
Any one familiar with this book?
Hi John. Yes I got it last week myself. It really reminds you of just how much we're in debt to these guys,including George Martin and yes companies like Telfunken etc.
There's a great photo of John Lennon and George Martin sitting around the "console" at EMI studio's in the early days. Amazing. Should make people value the x amount of tracks etc that we get nowadays.Sad about George Harrison. "All things must pass", and sadly they do.
Kind regards
I needed to edit this, I had only read page one and didn't reali
I needed to edit this, I had only read page one and didn't realize there were two pages. There ya go John strait from the source :D
Wow...so much chatter in the previous page. It seems to me, in MHO that, although you all seem to like this thread, there is far too much bantering for professionals, no? ;)
Hi Wendy , Thanks for stoping in to say hello, I apreciate you
Hi Wendy ,
Thanks for stoping in to say hello, I apreciate your comments!
Most of us here are Professionals in one way or other, or at least striveing for Pro results!
I would not worry about the side track comments to much though, you need a good sence of humor when your as up aganist the walls of Madness as I'm sure many of us here are!
Being Professional is only part of our duty , we must also be human and humor and exajuration (as well as atroshiss spelling :D
Serious subjects are discussed , but the texture of everyones comments is bound to raise some interesting and unexpected responces,no?
That is what I belive makes people here unique and not as snoby and stiff, which can often come from a lack of humor and love from the individual.
This Bord is educational and social and quite challengeing with some of the best people in the industry right here reading this very post and shareing thier personal thoughts (thanks fellas!)
I think the difriention is splendid!
Hope you feel the same Wendy! ;)
Mad John
Zythum Studios
"Pay no atention to the man behind the curtain!"
The Wizard of OZ - 1939
"The present day Composer refuses to die!"
Edgar Varese - 1921
and then, of cause, just to stir the pot a bit, there are those
and then, of cause, just to stir the pot a bit, there are those people, myself included, who hold the opinion that everyone who drops that amount of money on a Manley compressor, regardles whether they have a Mackie or a Neve in the spare bedroom, is in need of ears and / or psychiatric treatment. :cool:
Hello Sjoko, Sound Manley hater and true representative. I g
Hello Sjoko,
Sound Manley hater and true representative.
I guess they read this forum and decided to make a mockery of us all!
The MU in my opinion is hard pressed for serious ridicule!
Sorry you hate this company so much , but I think the Mu alone is much like H.R. Pufenstuff; most will not understand and laugh at the supposed silliness , but the Magic and imagination is there , maybe you have to catch up?!
No hard feelings.
Mad John
Zythum Studios
"Cling and Clang are alive and well!"
Freddy the Flute was designed by Davied Manley and (created in proto type model) by Raymond Scott (useing old stock world war 2 parts.)
Witchiepoo still uses a Manley mikes in her control both area and Seymore is locked in the lower dungen doing work on the new Zythum box set (due in the fall of 2002.)
"The present day Composer refuses to die!"
Edgar Varese - 1921
The MU in my opinion is hard pressed for serious ridicule! wel
The MU in my opinion is hard pressed for serious ridicule!
well for one it seems to toss all your low end into a blender only too give you a much too squishy bottom.
in other words I dislike what the Vari-MU does to the low-end. It seems to take the low-end tightness away from the mix.
I use a pair of TAB U73 w/Varicom.
and it sure rivals a Fairchild for it's ability to produce a very controled/tight/huge low end.
and may I say that it wasa little over half the price of a Vari-pooh :roll:
Mike I was with you for a while but....... How would you know h
Mike I was with you for a while but.......
How would you know how many of anything I read?
That is awfully presumtuious.
Who gives a shit how I spell?
Spelling is not important, do you understand what I write?
Try not to hard to differ with me on everything Mike just for the sake of a disscussion.
I dont apreciate the nit picking , so back off a little!
I'll discuss the MU till the cows come home , but lets stay on the topic at hand and lets try to take good advantage of what we each have to offer here ok?
Mad John
Zythum Studios
"The present day Composer is looseing his cool"
Who else?
Great amusement is what I am all about! I am an entertainer , b
Great amusement is what I am all about!
I am an entertainer , but I am no joker.
The fact that I cant spell should not suprize you, since I could'nt figure out how to hook up a brand new MU. The incompitence runs in twos.
I am not a tech Mike, just a musician.
You may find me interesting if you asked the right qestions, rather than leave off as you have previously with bogus coments!
Do you not wish to be civil?
I can match any throw ya got (but that is not a challenge , just a defence!)
Peace and Dreams,
Mad John
Zythum Studios
"The present day Composer refuses to die!"
Edgar Varese - 1921
Hey Bear, Sorry man, we've got to let you onto a little secret.
Hey Bear,
Sorry man, we've got to let you onto a little secret. miketholen has been secretly enlisted by our PR department to provide only negative publicity because, like, if all posts about Manley were only positive, then people really wouldn't believe them. You see, we need people like miketholen to provide reality to our unbelievable reputation. It keeps us all human and we know you guys like to deal with, like, real flawed people not just giant faceless perfect companies.
All the famous and nice artists and recording engineers are always asking us for endorsements. We know they are nice because they give us all this attention, send us their discographies and glossy head shots for free, and even offer photographs of them using our gear for us to use in our ads. The problem is, I have a hard time explaining to them that we already use my picture in our ads and that has been working pretty well to sell these pretty boxes. What the real challenge has been is to find a guy like mike to do negative endorsements for us, cuz, like, usually most of the guys looking for endorsement work really like our stuff.
The other thing mikey does for us is to implement a technique called reverse psychology. It's a great marketing tool and we couldn't thank him enough for the great job he has done for us. Keep those page hits coming mikey! You are doing fabulous, even better than we expected from you.
Rock on guys, and don't forget that "Tubes Do Not Rule!"
A quick note to 'John Thomas'...it's EveAnna, one word, two capi
A quick note to 'John Thomas'...it's EveAnna, one word, two capital letters...go figure.
Originally posted by miketholen:
well for one it seems to toss all your low end into a blender only too give you a much too squishy bottom.
in other words I dislike what the Vari-MU does to the low-end. It seems to take the low-end tightness away from the mix.
Yep, that's the same complaint I have with it. Mine just went back to the Manley factory, EveAnna said they have a mod that might clear that up (no pun intended)...I'm interested to hear it.
I use a pair of TAB U73 w/Varicom.
Gee, there's a surprise. Have you ever been able to follow a complete thought without the words "TAB" or "Telefunken" entering the conversation?
and it sure rivals a Fairchild for it's ability to produce a very controled/tight/huge low end.
You've never used a well set up 670 have you. The "low end" options on a 670 are 'smeared' or 'lacking'. A pair of EAR 660's will net you the result you think you might have been hearing from a 670 (BTW, I've owned over a dozen 670's over the years, I know the good ones from the not so good ones).
If you think the TAB U-73's [or any of the "Brown Book" U-73's are the be-all, end-all of bus compression...then you've obviously never tried NTP 179-120's. A friend of mine (who just happens to have done some rather serious records...like the 'Living Color' albums, Bad Brains "I against I", some of Jagger's solo shit, "Creed", and a couple hundred others I can't think of at the moment) has an extra pair of NTP's. If you want to try some real compressors, give me a shout, I'll hook the two of you up directly (as in I'm not doing this to make 'dime one'...I'm doing this because my friend wants to sell some compressors, and you need something new to foam about...a win-win scenario if you ask me...)
well it sure is... :( And, yes, we know you like the TAB-Fun
well it sure is... :(
And, yes, we know you like the TAB-Funkenwerk stuff, care to give us detailed explanations why sometime? You sometimes come off like a newbie uncritically defending whatever they've invested in, and I imagine you have good reasons for liking your gear. I'd take your endorsement more seriously if you'd give some details sometime.
I am a newbie.
I'm 30.
I started as an intern when I was 17.
I haven't been around the block as some of you may have.
I can go into details about the TAB stuff later.
It's quite fun stuff.
Rock on guys, and don't forget that "Tubes Do Not Rule!"
well George is onboard at her joint now.
probably the best move for Manley.
Mine just went back to the Manley factory, EveAnna said they have a mod that might clear that up (no pun intended)...I'm interested to hear it.
interesting. ;)
If you think the TAB U-73's [or any of the "Brown Book" U-73's are the be-all, end-all of bus compression...then you've obviously never tried NTP 179-120's. A friend of mine (who just happens to have done some rather serious records...like the 'Living Color' albums, Bad Brains "I against I", some of Jagger's solo shit, "Creed", and a couple hundred others I can't think of at the moment) has an extra pair of NTP's. If you want to try some real compressors, give me a shout, I'll hook the two of you up directly (as in I'm not doing this to make 'dime one'...I'm doing this because my friend wants to sell some compressors, and you need something new to foam about...a win-win scenario if you ask me...)
No I have not used the NTP's and I'm sure I'd be delighted. but right now I need to use all the dough I have for a huge Christmas for my kids. thanks for the offer to hook me up anyway. :w:
I gotta go now. had my wisdom teeth pulled over the weekend and I need more Vicodin/Tequila.
cheers.
Jeezus Kryst John, maybe you should take a triple helping of tha
Jeezus Kryst John, maybe you should take a triple helping of that Prozac for a few days... :) :) :)
So Tholen, you're trash talkin' the VoxBox just cuz you were too much of a dumbass to figure out how the damn thing works?!? Compressor before pre, ohmigawd... if you unstuck your skull from your colonic cavity, maybe you'd realize that the VB comp works and sounds great, precisely BECAUSE you can squash your signal BEFORE the pre, and keep your tone in the pre's "sweet spot" without distortion! Pure genius. As for the VB not having enuff gain... well, the newer ones will crank up to 60dB. If that ain't enough for ya, maybe you need to start recording some real mans' RAWK music, instead of that new-age low-SPL solo harp crap at -200dBfs that you're obviously working on now. Love ya man.
:roll:
Howzabout a little technical reason for why some gear seems to h
Howzabout a little technical reason for why some gear seems to have loose bottom and only for some guys and not others?
Its the transformers and the nature of saturation. Transformers have a unique characteristic where they will eventually distort inversely proportional to frequency and directly proportional to power. In other words, more odd harmonics at low freqs and hot signals. This depends on the formulation of the lamination material, the amount of them and the number of turns (keeping it simple). Some trannies will be difficult to drive into saturation, some easy. At the edge of saturation, these harmonics can fool our ears into the illusion of hearing deep fundamental tones (especially with small speakers) and seem to give us a few dB of extra lows while measuring flat. This 'effect' is largely the source of 'the vintage sound' and 'warmth'.
But here's the rub too. All this is quite dependent on signal level and settings. If you push a trannie too hard you get that flabby bottom effect, and a bit harder gets you into a crunchy ugly bottom. Combine this with guys who presume that the best way to use any gear is to drive it hard, and you start getting comments that are very much in the realm of "your milage may vary". The only advice that can be given with gear that relies somewhat on iron for its sound and desirability, is to adjust incoming and outgoing levels to taste. If you want more 'warmth' drive it harder, if you want less 'flab' back it off a bit. Its all about levels and 'sweet spots'.
The 'T-Bar' mod for the Vari-MU mentioned earlier in this thread will be best suited for people who tend to use more than 6 dB of compression on the MU and those that have older 6386 models with those tubes getting very scarce. Those that use the MU for mastering or for touching up a mix may not hear any significant difference with 1-3 dB of GR that is typical for that purpose. The deeper the compression, the better the T-Bar mod helps. Should also mention, the sidechain is flat, so deep compression may seem a bit bass sensitive on some tracks. We can raise the HP filter on the sidechain for those getting the T-Bar mod and compressing hard, if requested.
Hope this helps somebody.
hutch
Originally posted by yorik: John, Looks like you just knocked
Originally posted by yorik:
John,
Looks like you just knocked yourself out. Check out irony in a dictionary. Unless of course you are yourself a master of the art. Stedel, where are you when we need you? Do we have a winner yet?
Hi yeah I'm here. But the last time I took uppance at being insulted up here and also at the level of "pro talk" displayed I got into trouble, there was even a post by Julian re my "welfare", questions as to whether I had a social life, and despite the other drugs up here, rumours re my coffee intake.
In terms of the "in depth" conversation needed to displace personal hyperbole and schoolyard name calling re the quality and fairness of criticisms of Manley gear and others, this whole post is ironic to me!!!
so who get's the mod? how much? interesting...howz 'bout a swi
so who get's the mod?
how much?
interesting...howz 'bout a switch to change the filter value in the side chain? or how 'bout access to the sidechain via back panel? ;)
I used the VB for over a year and I most definatly "got through the whole box" thank you.and it didn't take me as long as you. ejolson. :p :p
Originally posted by Faeflora: Well I moved out of my apartme
Originally posted by Faeflora:
Well I moved out of my apartment and got a house and am now building up my studio in the garage.
Good Luck with your new place Faeflora :) , it's always good to hear that someone is taking a big step up! On the note that you were talking about, slow growth I think is the answer. If I had the capital that I have spent in one lump sum when I had first started, I probably would not have spent it (I would have been tempted, but it would be foolish). Buying one good piece at a time while still functioning and learing is the best way IMO.
Paul Fargo in my service department has the "t-bar" mod all work
Paul Fargo in my service department has the "t-bar" mod all worked out for different vintages of Variable Mu's. (Yes the beast has evolved several times since 1993!) You should contact him with your serial number to get specifics of what is required for your unit. Paul's email is service@manleylabs.com
Hey everyone, The MU mod is garenteed to improve the current so
Hey everyone,
The MU mod is garenteed to improve the current sound of the Compressor (which to say is to change the original replacement tube of the latest model and switch it for 2 new ones!
Here is the deal:
Originaly installed in the early 1990's with a 6386 type tube , it was later replaced in 1996 when this tube became harder to get.
The present Tube that replaced the 6386 (5670), was said to sound great with limiting up to 6dB , but they say after that the Bass responce does tend to get "Mushy!"
Paul Fargo (and team) have come up with what sounds like a great solution!
They will replace the exsisting 5670 with 2 smaller tubes (actuwaly what these tubes are are not mentioned.
At any rate the mod is aparently supose to improve this "Bass responce delemia."
I am sending my MU out either today or tomorow.
Will let you all know how this comes out.
The Mod is only $250.00 for a complete check up and overhal......sounds good?!!!!?
Peace & Dreams,
Mad John
Zythum Studios
"The present day Cosposer refuses to die!"
Edgar Varese - 1921
"We are all connected!" - Bell Atlantic
[QUOTE]Originally posted by miketholen: The manley definatley
[QUOTE]Originally posted by miketholen:
The manley definatley looks better for the clients. :) :) :)
I read a great line from some board recently:
"Some people are like crows, they like shiny things"
hah. :p :p
in case anybody gets all riled up over this, and sues me for slandering manley, i'd like to mention (so here i go) that i own a massive passive :p and like it.
I'm New, BUT I think i'm gonna get along just fine here!! :w:
I'm New, BUT I think i'm gonna get along just fine here!! :w: