Manley SLAM!, Owner'S Manual

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Which brings up the first thing last. The traditional way to have
loudness, dynamics, excitement and smoothness all at the same
time is with that old tool called ‘arranging’. Take another listen
to your favorite records and check out how they use many instru-
ments to create loud or a few to create quiet or a relief. Listen to
how solos & intro instruments sound great when not covered by
everything else. If it happens to be a recording of great musicians
playing together, listen to how they are their own automatic level
control. This rarely happens with a mostly overdubbed song, but
sometimes a great mix simulates it. Dynamics galore, but a con-
stant level, hmmmmm.
OPTIMUM SETTINGS
Sorry, we can’t really tell you where to set the knobs for female vo-
cals, a strat, or next year’s standard mastering level. It all depends
on the track and taste and the sound you are trying to achieve. We
can give you a few guidelines and share some experience, if that
helps.
Limiting can be more audible or difficult than on a well set up
compressor given the same number of dBs of gain reduction. This
is because limiting has a higher ratio and typically has faster at-
tacks and releases. Old school engineers advise “to only limit a few
dB on occasional peaks”, and this is good advice on most limiters.
Hopefully, you will be able to limit a little deeper with the SLAM!
without the usual problems. A limiter that shows, say, 5 dBs of re-
duction, can sound louder than a compressor set for 1:1.5 ratio and
dropping 10 dB almost steadily. Certainly during quiet passages,
the compressor will seem louder, but the limiter can seem louder
in the hotter passages when it is just grabbing transient peaks. The
compressor might be smoother and more tolerant of settings, but
won’t offer the protection and ‘drive’ of a well set up limiter. The
compressor’s job is to reduce the difference between soft and loud
in a smooth even way. The limiter’s job is to inaudibly stomp on
the hottest transients, and prevent peaks from getting above a set
threshold. It’s all in the names.
How can you tell when you have it set wrong and set right? There
is no ‘wrong or right’ that applies to every day, but we can suggest
the usual things an engineer listens for. You should experiment
with some drastic settings when you are alone or can without scar-
ing a client. There are 3 main things and the amount of reduction
affects each of them, so it is worth trying some heavy-handed set-
tings to imprint the symptoms to your audio memory.
The first is modulation distortion. When a limiter is set for dan-
gerously fast releases, the bass waveform gets into the sidechain,
causing the gain of everything to be changed on a low frequency
cycle by cycle basis. The result is a ratty sort of distortion, not
really bright and edgy like clipping, but usually not very pretty
either, and often not very useful creatively. With the SLAM!’s FET
limiter, you can easily set releases that are way too fast and cause
modulation if there are any significant lows in the signal. The cure
is slower releases, less limiting and/or slower attacks. Settings
slower than 100mS are generally pretty safe but always listen.
With the Opto, modulation can happen with about 10 dB or more
limiting on bass. You can use less limiting or try the side-chain
filter switch. Keep in mind that the side-chain filter will prevent
some limiting of loud low notes so there is a some risk of ‘overs’.
The combination of both the Opto & FET can help share the load
for tougher signals like mixes and can be a sweet combination.
The second typical problem setting for limiters and maybe even
more for the SLAM! is pumping. The worst case scenario is a mix
that has a very hot transient followed by a significanty quieter few
seconds. A limiter should grab the peak, shove the gain down suf-
ficiently, then gradually return to normal gain. How gradually de-
pends on where you set the release. If the limiter was set so that
it reduced 20 dB, then that quiet passage may rise in level 20 dB
over a short time. This can sound pretty wierd depending on that
quiet passage. Unfortunately, some of the moderate release times,
like between 100mS and 500mS can be most obvious. Unfortunate
because, these are typically optimal settings for loudness enhance-
ment. Faster releases might distort and slower might tend to hold
the gain down or sit between peaks or beats. We have known a
few engineers to change release times on the fly, for transitions
between big chorusses and sparse verses that follow, and this can
work better than any electronic or algorithmic ‘auto’ setting.
The third problem is not really so bad unless you are attempting
to make the song loud. Releases set too long. When the release is
very long, a transient, however brief, triggers gain reduction, and
a bar later the gain is beginning to rise back to normal, and boom,
another transient reduces the level again. You could have turned
down a fader or final gain control and gotten the same effect. The
SLAM! isn’t immune to this, but the slowest release is moderate
at 2 seconds. Some limiters have much longer releases. 8 second
releases tend to be safe and almost inaudible, but pulling a fader
down a few dB before the song starts is very, very inaudible and
does about the same thing. Sometimes the best thing, is to ride the
fader, slowly, gently, then add the limiter for what it does best -
extremely fast reaction.
Vocals can be a prime candidate for limiting. Perhaps the most
used limiter ever for pop vocals is the vintage LA2A. The ELOP
Limiter in the SLAM! recreates that action, and goes a few steps
further with side-chain filters and FET limiter. Start with the
ELOP typically on the 100 SC filter (or 200 if esses need a bit of
extra taming), get the INPUT & ELOP LIMITER levels optimum,
adjust for an optimum level to ‘tape’. Then maybe sneak in a bit
of FET Limiting, with Attack at VF, RELEASE between 1 sec and
100 mS.
For a Mix , we generally lean on the FET Limiter for most of the
work. Releases again between 1 sec and .1s are OK, but .1s is
verging on dangerous. Attack will be important. VF attacks will
sound cleanest but less punchy. Adjust to taste and watch out for
loss of drums at VF and distortion at M. Adding some ELOP will
be subtle if more than 6 dB of FET limiting is used. We suggest
using the 200 SC filter to tame highs and de-ess sometimes.
Guitars may like the FET CLIP setting for a bit of extra crunch.
Bass may require slow releases, and VF attacks for ultra clean
sounds, but for extra growl, there are quite a few settings that go
there. Faster releases, deeper limiting, and slower attacks each
contribute to various distortions, not to mention just overdriving
levels. Piano is difficult usually, but try faster attacks, slower re-
leases and not too much limiting.
Drums - well, you just gotta play with the SLAM! to find the most
appropriate sound. You can certainly tame dynamics, exagerate
room sound, crunch and mangle. Faster release times bring out the
room sound and ambiance. It’s a bit drastic, but you can use one
side of the SLAM! for mic-pre and limiting, go out to an EQ, and
return to the other channel for yet more limiting, drive and A/D
conversion. You might record that first channel as a minimally
processed back-up too. Save something for the mix.
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