Someone in here with a Manley VariMu Limiter?

[robot gigante]

FWIW, (I'm not Jerry but) I never get the same sound with the input pulled back like that, no. It really is about working that input knob.

I only push it past 1 o'clock when using it mixing or in parallel.

Jay, thanks for the clarification on the different versions. I've always wondered about that. I guess mine is a version 3.

[inlinenl]

think I found/heard the sweetspot .... but driving the inputs a little softer ...
I've got version 4a ...

most off the time the input at 12:15




regards wim

www.inlinemastering.com

[soundroid]

hey Jerry,

Looks almost exactly like my set up.

[Jerry Tubb]

Originally Posted by lucey

Jerry do you ever pull it back below 11 and get the same results? IIRC the sweet spot was always in the box, and not so much a gain stage thing.

Hey Brian, as previously stated I usually keep the input between 12 and 1 o'clock. If I pull it back to 11 or below I'd be attenuating signal, & would have to raise the outputs, bringing up up the noise floor. Since I keep the Manley last in the analog path before the ADC, I like a little input gain. I guess experimenting with it for ten years, found some habitual settings that work for me.

All that said, after tax season, I'm thinking of picking up a Crane Song STC-8 for a little different flava. Hopefully you guys will share some of your fave settings wit me.

Cheers JT

[robot gigante]

Originally Posted by Jerry Tubb

All that said, after tax season, I'm thinking of picking up a Crane Song STC-8 for a little different flava. Hopefully you guys will share some of your fave settings wit me.

Cheers JT

I think you'll like it.

I'd love to hear some favorite settings on that one also, as it's a deep box and I don't have a complete handle on it yet.

[lucey]

Originally Posted by Jerry Tubb

Hey Brian, as previously stated I usually keep the input between 12 and 1 o'clock.

I agree with you all ... 12 to 1ish was it for me too ... sorry to have missed your post on that.

[Shaman]

BTW I have my Vari Mu with M/S option and STC- 8 for sale at the moment.
Both mint.

pm me if interested !

[grandmasters]

I've been using my Vari-mu (mastering version) for 10 years. Bought the new version a few years ago cause I thought it sounded better than the old one. I think I can count the times I haven't used it on a master. Mind you I almost never do gain reduction (or at least GR showing on the meters) with it. (or any other compressor for that matter)

[grandmasters]

that last post just jinxed me. a tube died in the middle of my session today. the 5751 tube. luckily i had the old tube from when i retubed it last december. i was surprised to find that the 5751 tube was a 12AX7EH from the factory. Are they the same tube?

Can anyone tell me what the trim pots inside the unit apply to?

[zenmastering]

The ones in the back of the unit are for calibrating the meters in 'limit' mode; The ones just behind the 5751 are for balancing-out differences between the two halves of the 'mU-tube' (5670). The ones attached to the inside of the front panel are for calibrating the meters in 'Compression' mode. If you have the T-Bar mod, I think that there's also a 'balance' (6BA6) trimmer on that board, too.

This link may not be for your unit, but there's more info about the trimpots on page 15.

Best,

Graemme

Originally Posted by grandmasters

that last post just jinxed me. a tube died in the middle of my session today. the 5751 tube. luckily i had the old tube from when i retubed it last december. i was surprised to find that the 5751 tube was a 12AX7EH from the factory. Are they the same tube?

Can anyone tell me what the trim pots inside the unit apply to?

[dcollins]

Originally Posted by grandmasters

that last post just jinxed me. a tube died in the middle of my session today. the 5751 tube. luckily i had the old tube from when i retubed it last december. i was surprised to find that the 5751 tube was a 12AX7EH from the factory. Are they the same tube?

They are similar but not the same. A real JAN5751 is a lower gain, and lower distortion version of the 12AX7, made for military use and is most excellent.

Both are available NOS.

http://www.upscaleaudio.com/product....id=47&catid=40

This is a real 5751. I notice EH advertises "high-gain" for its version, which doesn't really compute.....

DC

[grandmasters]

interesting that it came from the factory with the 12ax7 but when I ordered the replacement tubes it was 5751. maybe a stock issue at manley?

[matucha]

reviving old thread...

I got my varimu about week ago as my first (hw) compressor. It is a rev 4 with hipass mod that I bought from a fellow gearslut.

Overall it sounds very very subtle to me in every way. There is no way to force it to do agressive stuff. It can only get uglier, in the extremes or with wrong settings, but it won't change a lot compared to what I'm used with software dynamic killers ;-).

I don't hear any loss of bass. It thickens the lowmids and rolls off some highend, bluntly put. As it was said many times, it softens ... well everything, not too much, but it is quite obvious.

On 2buss I found, it fills nicely a bit sterile mixes... actually I have to say it works quite well on electronic music that is well mixed and on the clean side. It is not for muddy stuff obviously.

I don't think it could be used to make things louder on 2 buss (at least with electronica), because it doesn't really compress the peaks, it rather brings up the stuff in between the beats in a way thats new to me. I tried to push it for some more agressive compression and coloration, but as I wrote above, it doesn't work that way, it only gets uglier and still almost the same in a way. I can see that there is the sweetspot for compression and coloration... as you all said.

The HP mod is a must on 2buss, without it kicks go south very fast, not nicely compressed... HP SC lifts the curse off

I also tried various other stuff...

It was nice on vocals, it can even them out without obvious bad artifacts that I'm used to with plugs.

Dunno what is causing it (my guess falls on transformers), but it has some phase shift on the bottom. That means it changes the symetry of the low freqs. And that means some basses get cured from asymetry and some get (more) asymetric. That could be a problem or not.

I liked it on overheads. It was ok on trumpet... well it depends on if you want things fuller in the low mids and softer on the top... I usualy do like it.


What else? Well just want to say that in my world it hardly compresses on 2buss, even with 2-3dB it is ALMOST like nothing. From my very short expirience with it I percieve it more as a color box with a bit of "glue" on the 2buss and as a nice tool for mixing and tracking, where I can really make it compress ;-).


That's it for now and first contact, obviously I have to learn to work with it and add some more boxes to complement. Thinking about pair of Trakkers and some EQ when money allows.

[Bob Yordan]

Deep sea fishing, ehh.

I liked what you wrote.

MVM is a very good compressor, older version added more color
I've heard.

The new MVM (as most quality OTB units) handles bandwidth much better than any commercial plugs (processing dynamics) that I have tested, so far.

Best wishes & enjoy your new toy

[matucha]

Originally Posted by Bob Yordan

Deep sea fishing, ehh.

Trying not to start 1000th thread about vari mu... continuing the best one ;-)

[jayfrigo]

Originally Posted by Bob Vosgien

Ya know, I mostly just take a peek now and again at this site to keep tabs on disinformation that runs around here... but this one got under my skin

This was a revival of an old thread (notice the original post dates of Nov. 2006); no point stirring up all that junk from the first page.

[soundroid]

Bob,

I remember getting fired up by this thread when I saw it a couple of years ago, and I have to say that my passion for this bit of gear is still the same as it was then. I simply
love this box and could not part with it. However more I use it, the more I clearly understand that it's not easy to get the best from this unit within 5 minutes of it coming out of the box. Possibly why it gets mixed reviews. A lot of people want instant results, zero learning curve. this unit takes time to grow on you and to discover that 'sweet spot' that Jay and others have mentioned. some have mentioned that different revisions of this unit may be better or worse than others but I'm not sure of that. we have 2 units here, and both were purchased nearly 10 years apart. I have no issue coaxing the same
sound from either. In recent times I've also demoed a few other comps just to make sure I wasn't being left behind, but as suspected, the Manley still held strong and I felt no compulsion to replace it what so ever. (BTW, that's not to say I didn't like the sound of some of the other comps I tried. STC was real nice)

[mixerguy]

bump to an old thread

any other comments?

[jac]

The VM is a great box. thumbsup
Love it on mix buss as well for mastering (i also use it before returning to digital).
Can work great even if you push it harder, but usually 1dB reduction is enough for that beast for adding THAT flavour: tight bass, opening stereo image and INPUT knob does the magic...

[riffmachine]

I got the high pass and T-Bar mod on mine about 6 months ago, and it really improved the unit IMO. Much more diverse now, and the low end is there. I'm mostly doing rock and metal so the kick has to be there, and before I wasn't able to get the compression to feel right without the high pass filter and TBar mod. The TBar mod definitely allows you to dial in more compression without the aritifacts. I'm a happy Vari Mu user now. - paul

[jayfrigo]

Originally Posted by mixerguy

bump to an old thread

any other comments?

Still rockin' the "Mu Spot," and still the most used comp in the room.

[inlinenl]

old classics never die , the don't get older, they just get better ...

[the unik]

Originally Posted by inlinenl

old classics never die , the don't get older, they just get better ...

That was the sentence of this thread thumbsup ! Very well said !

Love mine aswell, and also something very interesting...Actually I don't have mine for a very long time (and it didn't took a long time to reach that marvelous sweet spot though..), but with even 1 DB of GR it was sometimes like "mm, that's a bit too much...",
so I decided to mail Manley and ask them about something I wasn't sure with this unit : " and what about the threshold in link mode ?" answer was that once linked, the left side threshold was the master threshold actually. Even if that sound obvious for some of you guys, from that day I was able to compress the signal the way I want without the "mm, that's a bit too much..." factor.

+1 for V-Mu

Adrien.

[jpupo74]

Me like VM.
Not your ideal mixbus comp for your Rock n Roll project, for my taste, but well suited for ballads, acoustic music and background vocals, bass and anything you want to add a big spoon of heavy syrup.
Cheers,
Pupo

[Jerry Tubb]

We re-tubed both of our VMu's last year, one a 1997 the other a 2004 model.

Still use 'em both everyday, 13 years on one, 6 years on the "new" one.

In addition to a touch of compression and tube "color" they work great for a few dB of gain.

Viva la Manley!

JT

[Bob Vosgien]

Been rockin' the Vari-Mu since 1995. It's been the compressor I've picked 90% of the time on the records I've mastered. It's seeing less use now since my tech built me a prototype Vari-Mu comp that I'm loving at the moment.

Tubes rule!
thumbsup

[krytikal1]

Originally Posted by Bob Vosgien

It's seeing less use now since my tech built me a prototype Vari-Mu comp that I'm loving at the moment.

Tubes rule!
thumbsup

Can you elaborate a little more on the prototype and how it differs from the original design?

K.

[Bob Vosgien]

Originally Posted by krytikal1

Can you elaborate a little more on the prototype and how it differs from the original design?

K.

No.

[krytikal1]

Originally Posted by Bob Vosgien

No.

I figured as much....but it never hurts to ask haha.

[Thor]

We've been working the 'mu-spot' too for over 7 years. It's the most-used comp in the room, but with the settings I end up using (pretty much the same as Jerry, Jay, etc - input between 12-1 o'clock) the needles are barely moving.

Ours has the T-bar and M/S mods, as well as red lights and knobs. stike

Never noticed any problems in the bass either...

Between it and the STC-8 we can tackle pretty much any compression needs, and the API 2500 that we recently added to the room is nice when a mix needs a bit of a spanking

Thor