Manley Langevin MINI MASSIVE STEREO EQUALIZER Owner'S Manual Download Page 1

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OWNER'S MANUAL

LANGEVIN

MINI MASSIVE

STEREO EQ

MANLEY LABORATORIES, INC.

13880 MAGNOLIA AVE.

CHINO, CA. 91710

TEL: (909) 627-4256
FAX: (909) 628-2482

http://www.manleylabs.com

email: emanley @ manleylabs.com

email: service @ manleylabs.com

Rev. MSMPXxxxx

MANLEY

LABORATORIES, INC.

Summary of Contents for Langevin MINI MASSIVE STEREO EQUALIZER

Page 1: ... MASSIVE STEREO EQ MANLEY LABORATORIES INC 13880 MAGNOLIA AVE CHINO CA 91710 TEL 909 627 4256 FAX 909 628 2482 http www manleylabs com email emanley manleylabs com email service manleylabs com Rev MSMPXxxxx MANLEY LABORATORIES INC ...

Page 2: ...RAMETRIC 10 WHY PASSIVE WHY PARALLEL 11 PHASE SHIFT WHY TUBES 12 CURVES 13 to16 TUBE LOCATIONS ETC 17 18 EQUALIZING EQUALIZERS GENERAL 19 EQUALIZER TECHNIQUES 20 to 24 TRANSLATIONS 25 TROUBLESHOOTING 26 27 MAINS CONNECTIONS 28 SPECIFICATIONS 29 WARRANTY 30 WARRANTY REGISTRATION 31 APPENDIX 1 EXAMPLE SETTINGS 32 APPENDIX 1 TEMPLATE FOR STORING SETTINGS 33 ...

Page 3: ...us a good analog parametric a familiar vintage EQ plus a few good digital EQs including a linear phase type Some sections of this manual have been directly borrowed from the Massive Passive manual and some parts are fresh and only pertain to the Mini Massive As usual the manual is mostly just train of thought random ramblings from one engineer to another and can be read with a grain of salt or a s...

Page 4: ...round Pin 2 is hot or and Pin 3 is low or These outputs are not the typical pseudo balanced or cross coupled type which automatically compensate for unbalanced inputs but are often unstable and may significantly reduce hum rejection These outputs maintain a constant and very balanced output impedance regardless of loading conditions 8 Transformer Option Switch Mini Massives may have the Transforme...

Page 5: ...r dB controls which allow you to just boost or cut a little bit if desired filters never have these controls The High band also has a special setting labelled BELL 2 that only operates on the 4 highest frequencies It simply narrows the Q for those 4 highest frequencies This can be useful for controlling the apparent air or sweetness of the extreme highs One may notice the ovals marked around the 4...

Page 6: ...ple associate a wide bell on conventional EQs with more energy boost or cut and at first impression the Massivo seems to work backward compared with that and narrow bandwidths give more drastic results On the Massive Passive a narrow bandwidth bells will allow up to the full 20 dB of boost or cut and wide bandwidths significantly less at about 6 dB maximum In Shelf Modes the Bandwidth has a specia...

Page 7: ...ike vocals and mastering 9 Of course the Mini will get compared to the Massive Passive which gets compared to vintage Pultecs and to Manley s Enhanced Pultec EQs so maybe a few words from the designer are appropriate First things first The vintage Pultec EQ section was designed by Western Electric and decades later Eugene Shenk added his gain stage and formed a company called Pulse Technologies to...

Page 8: ...e for some situations and somewhat controlled dirt is appropriate for others Beware of getting the mind set that either goal is appropriate for every sound and every situation Like every house should be the same color There are many situations where one might want a processor or preamplifier that doesn t leave its thumbprint on the sound Typically mastering is one place for a transparent EQ especi...

Page 9: ... if this is where digital technology is at its weakest or most immature for now However like yourselves we do use plug ins music programs etc and evaluate too many to name and we are keeping our ears and eyes open Of course some of you know that the we have contributed to some non Manley plug ins that are highly regarded Meanwhile progress continues and we are continuing to listen and maybe some d...

Page 10: ...rted with these goals modern parametric like operation passive tone techniques through out and features different from anything currently available and it had to sound spectacular The Super Pultec Manley Labs has been building a few versions of the Pultec style EQs for many years as well as an updated version of the EQ 500 another vintage EQ These are classic passive EQs combined with Manley s own...

Page 11: ...th center detented pots Mechanical center and electrical center are rarely the same The Passive Parametric For years we had been getting requests for a Manley parametric equalizer but it looked daunting because every parametric we knew of used many op amps and a conventional parametric would be very impractical to do with tubes Not impossible but it might take upwards of a dozen tubes per channel ...

Page 12: ...to get some hum bucking action but avoid magnetic coupling with careful positioning Some kinds of interaction suck and some are beneficial Why Passive If you hate tech talk just skip this section it has to do with electronic parts and circuits and design philosophy AllEQsusecapacitors Theyareveryeasytouse predictible cheap and simple Some sound slightly better than others Inductors do almost the m...

Page 13: ...ic Thisisprobablythemostmisunderstoodtermfloating aboutinthemixingcommunity Lotsofpeopleblameornamephase shift for just about any audio problem that doesn t sound like typical distortion We ask that you try to approach this subject with an open mind and forget what you may have heard about phase for now This is not to be confused with time alignment as used in speakers or the phase buttons on the ...

Page 14: ...l Cut Narrow Bandwidth just for reference LOW SHELF CURVES Just like most EQs a 100Hz low shelf doesn t reach max until about 10 Hz 13 FREQUENCY RESPONSE BANDWIDTHSETTING AT1 1 00 LOWFREQSHEL VES 22 33 47 68arenew 20 20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 d B r 20 50k 50 100 200 500 1k 2k 5k 10k 20k Hz 47Hz 100Hz 68Hz 22Hz 150Hz 33Hz ...

Page 15: ...HELF BOOSTING THE HALF WAY 10 dB POINT HAS SHIFTED TO 50 Hz THESE CURVES SHOW ONE OF THE IDEOSYNCRACIES AND IT IS POSSIBLE FOR A LF BOOST TO SOUND AS IF IT HAS LESS LOWS DEPENDING ON THE FREQUENCY AND INSTRUMENT SIMILAR CURVES APPLY TO THE HIGH SHELVES AND PARTICULARLY 10K AND 12K CAN BE STRANGE WHEN THE BW IS NARROW THIS IS ABOUT 1 5 DB AT 300 Hz AND NEGLIGIBLE MORE 100Hz SHELVES SHOWING BOOST AN...

Page 16: ...Bandwidth Bandwidth at 12 00 Narrow Bandwidth dB set at max 20 dB and changing the Bandwidth Max Boost Narrow Bandwidth 12 00 Boost Narrow Bandwidth Max Boost Wide Bandwidth 12 00 Boost Wide Bandwidth Changing dB and Changing Bandwidth TYPICAL BELL CURVES 15 ...

Page 17: ...al Manley Langevin dealers are capable of making the change if needed Part of the reason we did this is to discourage some grey market sales However the following page does show this section of the board in detail and what traces need to be well cut and where jumpers need to be soldered for various AC line voltages 4 Adjusting unity gain There are only two trim pots in the Mini Massive and they ar...

Page 18: ... 9 54 4 0 5 0 2 47 3 2 5 0 23 47 0 3 0 5 0 23 42 3 54 44 02 4 2 5 4 2 AC MAINS VOLTAGE SELECTION This may involve soldering jumpers and cutting of printed circuit board traces Danger There is a possibility of electric shock if power is connected and danger of damage to the Mini Massive if the procedure is done wrong This should only be done by a trained technician and ONLY ever be done with the po...

Page 19: ...g in digital EQ with the same 3 predictable knobs per band as the analog EQs The only significant digital variation on the parametric concept has been the linear phase equalizers These are the first EQs ever including nature that can change the spectral shape and not change the phase response in turn Sometimes this can be appropriate or sound better this time on this sound and sometimes not Passiv...

Page 20: ...l be to finesse your available EQ Hit Record finesse it in the mix More important to get the vibe than to burn out the band doing sound checks and tweaks If mic choice is a mystery you might want to research some Steve Albini or George Massenburg interviews Rather than guess wrong some engineers compare 3 or 4 probable choices Some choose the mic that minimizes EQing later some hear the mic s tran...

Page 21: ...ividual units like mics like rooms consoles engineers The last problem was that they only had a few weeks to shout at each other Avoidthattechnique Yougottabecreative playitbyear use your own variation if it works out that way this time Only the final result counts There are many ways to get a killer sound and too damnfewthatworkeverytime Youmayknowmostofthisalready General Suggestions If you are ...

Page 22: ...ussion There are two big tricks The first is don t trust VU meters usepeakmetersanddon tgettooclosetofullscale Thekey word is percussion and the peaks or transients are very short and impressively hot When in doubt turn it down Actually when in doubt listen to a short bit recorded then turn it down if it was crunchy The second trick is to EQ these tracks in the mix not soloed We tend to make thing...

Page 23: ... understand the difference its not just attitude 3 Therestofthegearinmajormasteringhousesisalsosoimportant that cost is no object The engineers regularly shoot out new gearandwillalwaysbuyifitISbetter Inapromasteringhousethere are no weak links in the chain and no semi pro gear 4 There isn t a single processing unit that is the key but more like a combination of several that are mostly slightly ut...

Page 24: ...s know what adventures you are having with the Mini Massive The Circuit The Mini Massive is a not a particularly complicated circuit The audio comes in is converted from balanced to unbalanced and DC servo d and given enough power a few watts to drive the EQ This stage uses one half of a potted module called a Rapture Amp It was developed in an exercise in R D to find the most transparent and inau...

Page 25: ...ost forgiving and automatic method to interface given that the ouput is floating and either leg can be grounded without a loss of headroom and with less groundloop difficulties Technicalities aside the transformer also provides a bit of fashionable transformer warmth and richness or fatness The switch associated with the transformer option then allows transformerless direct outputs the transformer...

Page 26: ...n a lot of freestyle sports but in audio it often runs the risk of painfully bright or screaming highs Telephone Sound First try deep shelf cuts using the two bands set approximately for 470 and 3900 Experiment with the bandwidths and frequency selects Try mixing in some distortion stomp box or guitar pedal Attack usually the upper mids but depends on the instrument For example on drums and bass f...

Page 27: ... amps from left to right a pair at a time and verify whether one is not at all well retired early a little dead and arrange to swap the bad amp with your dealer or Manley Another possibility is a power supply problem because each side has its own power supply regulators Most likely the culprit is a fried 30 ohm 1 2 watt resistor that is used as a fuse and isolator in the power supply In fact there...

Page 28: ...agreewithanothercompany sDAT Onecannottrustthemtotrulyindicatepeaksorovers Outboarddigitalpeakmeters with switchable peak hold that indicate overs as 3 or 4 consecutive samples at either Full Scale Digital FSD are the best Theywon tagreewithVUmetersorAveragemetersorBBCPeakProgramme PPM meterseither Eachisadifferentanimal for different uses When in doubt use the recorder s meters when recording the...

Page 29: ...ug proceed as follows The wire which is coloured GREEN YELLOW must be connected to the terminal in the plug which is marked by the letter E or by the safety earth symbol or coloured GREEN or GREEN and YELLOW The wire which is coloured BLUE must be connected to the terminal in the plug which is marked by the letter N or coloured BLACK The wire which is coloured BROWN must be connected to the termin...

Page 30: ...al ref to 30 dBm Input Impedance 20 K ohms Output Impedance 60 ohms transformer 300 ohms Power Consumption 15 watts 100 mA 115VAC Fuse 2 Amp Slo Blo 120VAC 1 Amp Slo Blo 240VAC Size 1U 19 x 1 75 x 10 Actual Weight 12 Lbs Shipping Weight 16 Lbs Number of Channels 2 Number of EQ sections Total 96 48 per channel Low Shelf 11 22 Hz 1 kHz Low Bell 11 High Shelf 11 560 Hz 27 kHz High Bell 11 High Bell2 ...

Page 31: ...tories will not pay for express or overnight freight service nor will Manley Laboratories pay for shipments to locations outside the USA Charges for unauthorized service and transportation costs are not reimbursable under this warranty and all warrantees express or implied become null and void where the product has been damaged by misuse accident neglect modification tampering or unauthorized alte...

Page 32: ...rranty and registration Thank you again for choosing Manley gear and reading all the way through The Owner s Manual We really mean that sincerely the bit about thanking you for choosing our gear THANK YOU MODEL _______________ SERIAL __________________ PURCHASE DATE ______________ SUPPLIER ______________________ PLEASE DETACH THIS PORTION AND SEND IT TO MANLEY LABORATORIES MODEL _______________ SE...

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