background image

1) 

The Power Switch

: First things first, flip the toggle up to turn on the Mini Massive. There is no "power on LED", instead

the "Bypass" LED indicator is lit red for a few seconds as the unit warms up and stabilizes. If the "EQ IN" switch is also up,
then a few seconds later  the LED changes from red to green. The Mini Massive has a "hard-wire bypass" so even when power
is off it will pass audio untouched. In fact, because this EQ is quite transparent when  set flat, one of our tests is cycling power
on and off while listening for any audible change - it should be as transparent through the unit as when hardwire bypassed.

2) 

EQ IN

 toggle: This activates both sides of the EQ and is intended as a convenience feature. Of course, it is pretty easy to

bypass the two individual sections per side using the "OUT" setting  (Switch#3) so one can easily use the unit as two mono
EQs. This master EQ IN switch makes auditioning and comparing the effect of the total stereo EQ extremely easy.

3) 

BOOST / OUT / CUT,  TOGGLE

. Each band has individual toggles to select whether that band will boost or cut or be

bypassed. "OUT" is a hardwire bypass for that band. Unlike most EQs, you must select boost or cut for each band. There are
several good reasons for this arrangement. First, because the boost part of the circuit is in a different place than the cut part
because it is passive, this allows us to use the same components in both sections but doing essentially opposite functions. The
conventional arrangement of a boost/zero/cut pot (baxandall) circuit was avoided to really make it passive. This switch also
allows twice the resolution of the "GAIN" pot and a much more accurate "zero". The center detent of conventional EQs is rarely
the "electrical" center of the pot so what you expect is zero is often a little EQed. This toggle allows some of us, who use dip
EQ to reduce offending frequencies to verify those frequencies in "Boost" and then switch to "Cut". Finally, it allows us to
bypass each band individually, without losing our "GAIN" pot setting rather than  resetting a band to zero or bypassing the
entire EQ.

4) 

SHELF & BELL toggle

. The two lowest (leftmost) bands can each be a special Low Shelf or conventional Bell shape. The

two highest (rightmost) bands can each be a special High Shelf or conventional Bell shape. Shelf & Bell describe the EQ's
shape. We included some diagrams to help visualize these curves. Bell curves focus their boost and cut at given frequency and
the further away we get from that frequency, the less boost or cut. The bell curves on the Mini Massive are moderately wide
and the "Bandwidth Control" does not have a lot of range and it also affects the maximum boost and cut (like a Pultec). Shelf
slopes generally boost  (or cut) towards the highs or lows (thus high shelves and low shelves). These are not to be confused
with "high or low filters" which purely cut above or below a given frequency. Shelves also have gain or 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 highest freqs and a corresponding oval around the Bell 2 setting.

It is a bit of an refinement from the Massive Passive which doesn't offer that feature and which followed a more general
philosophy of maintaining very similar curve shapes across the spectrum. While the SHELF curves on both the Massive
Passive and Mini Massive are capable of good control of  'air', it seems many users missed that idea because they generally
favor bell curves and in the case of the Massive Passive the bell  Q is probably too wide for great 'air' control. The Mini Massive
includes 3 features that vastly improve 'air' control. The first is this narrower Q in Bell 2, the second is reshaped curves for
the 4 highest shelf frequencies, and the third is the incredible clarity offered by the Rapture amps along with transformerless
outputs, which extents the frequency and phase response. These features were considered important for a basic 2 band stereo
EQ more aimed at mastering than the Massive Passive was, where ironically it has seen a lot of use.

Similarly, we reshaped the 4 lowest shelf curves for more fatness, depth and punch compared to the Massivo. These new curves
might be considered more Pultec-like but are not in the strictest sense. They just offer a similar usefulness and essentially
increase the range that the bandwidth control can be effectively used for those lowest freqs. It also breaks away from the
philosophy on the Massivo of maintaining similar curve shaping across the spectrum. The Mini shifts the dip aspect of the shelf
curves more towards the low mids and mids for those lowest 4 frequencies.

It may also be worth pointing out that the shelf curves that were introduced by the Massive Passive were quite unique at that
time and while there have been imitations since, these shelves are still unique, unusual and certainly unconventional compared
to most EQs and are worth exploring and learning. Let us just say that the biggest fans of the Massive are the engineers who
quickly learned the strange shelf 'features' and those who approached it as a whole new tool, and not just a standard EQ.

5

THE FRONT PANEL

mini

BY MANLEY LABS

FREQUENCY

22

33

47

68

100

150

220

330

470

680

1K

LEVEL

0

8

20

P

B

massive

BOOST

OUT

CUT

LOW FREQUENCY EQ

BANDWIDTH

SHELF

BELL

560

820

1K2

1K8

2K7

3K9

5K6

8K2

12K

16K

27K

22

33

47

68

100

150

220

330

470

680

1K

560

820

1K2

1K8

2K7

3K9

5K6

8K2

12K

16K

27K

FREQUENCY

BANDWIDTH

LEVEL

BOOST

OUT

CUT

SHELF

BELL   2

SHELF

BELL

SHELF

BELL   2

FREQUENCY

BANDWIDTH

LEVEL

FREQUENCY

BANDWIDTH

LEVEL

BOOST

OUT

CUT

BOOST

OUT

CUT

HI FREQUENCY EQ

HI FREQUENCY EQ

LOW FREQUENCY EQ

0

8

20

P

B

0

8

20

P

B

0

8

20

P

B

EQ IN

POWER

BELL

BELL

HZ

HZ

HZ

HZ

1

2

3

3

4

4

6

3

4

3

4

5

7

6

5

7

6

5

7

6

5

7

Содержание Langevin MINI MASSIVE STEREO EQUALIZER

Страница 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 ...

Страница 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 ...

Страница 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...

Страница 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...

Страница 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...

Страница 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...

Страница 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...

Страница 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...

Страница 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...

Страница 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...

Страница 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 ...

Страница 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...

Страница 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 ...

Страница 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 ...

Страница 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...

Страница 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 ...

Страница 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...

Страница 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...

Страница 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...

Страница 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...

Страница 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 ...

Страница 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...

Страница 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...

Страница 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...

Страница 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...

Страница 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...

Страница 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...

Страница 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...

Страница 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...

Страница 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 ...

Страница 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...

Страница 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...

Страница 33: ......

Страница 34: ......

Отзывы: