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I'm so tweaked!

I just won a Manley Vari-Mu on Ebay for a song!

I'm so excited I think I just wet myself a little... ;-)

I got it from a mastering house in LA (not sure which one, but they were also selling a Weiss mastering desk so I'm sure they are legit...)

Just thought I'd share. (y)

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Massive Mastering Wed, 06/07/2006 - 22:48

'Bout friggin' time!

Hope you have a good tan already, because you aren't going to see the sun for a while...

Do youself a favor and make sure the calibration is all up to spec before running it through the paces - It's all in the manual, no "skill" required. Take the cover off, press the tubes in, tweak the meters and such...

Is it the switched version?

Cucco Thu, 06/08/2006 - 06:42

No kidding - it IS about time!!!

I'm not worried about the tan though - if I get pale, I'll just take the top off and warm up by the light of those beautiful glowing orbs of heaven...

Sadly, I got the standard (non-detented) version, but beggars can't be choosers... In any case, I'm definitely going to calibrate it.

I am such a nerd - I printed off the manual the moment I won the auction and began reading up. Now I have to wait a week before I get it....what a drag!!!

Cucco Fri, 06/09/2006 - 04:29

Massive Mastering wrote: That reminds me... I'm sending mine in for the HPF sidechain mod in July... I'll let you know how it turns out. It's only $200... I would imagine it'll be well worth it.

Color me jealous!

I really want the m/s mod but I don't think they do it on the non-mastering version. I find myself doing m/s more and more lately. it seems no one knows how to get vox and bass to play well anymore much less just get a god vox sound at all.

Cucco Sun, 06/18/2006 - 07:26

Sure -

I just got it racked yesterday after spending a day on my bench. It tests out well, but it is an older model (serial MSLC112) and it appears to need a little light service. The sound is quite good - everything I've come to expect from it after having others master my tracks with it in the chain.

The two items that I'm going to have serviced (more if EveAnna thinks it needs it) are:
Tubes - seem a little noisy
2 of the Pots are a little scratchy (not too bad though - perfectly usable since I don't do a lot of adjusting on the fly while mastering.)

I had my first client early this morning as a fact - we just finished up mastering 2 songs. Despite the two very minor issues, I still had no problem putting it into service and getting good sounds out of it.

The one thing I'll have to keep in mind (after years of working with digital brick wall limiters) is that transients do still make it through some times (particularly snare and cymbal - though I believe the mastering version of the Vari-Mu is a tad quicker on the attack so it might be worth considering in the near future), so I give them a little room and then bring them back down during the final pass with the digital brick-wall.

All in all, I'm very pleased.

I'm going to hate having to live without it for the few weeks its back at its biological parent's home, but I'll deal.

J.