‘I use the Manley Variable Mu all the time on all the TV shows, films, and records I work on,’ says music recording engineer and score mixer, Jason LaRocca’s. ‘I have the Mastering version with the high-pass sidechain mod and T-Bar mod. Most people use it for mixing and mastering, and I do that, too, but I use it even more to compress instruments on the way in during tracking.’
With Ruby Sparks and The Mechanic among his film credits, and Once Upon a Time, Beauty and the Beast and Crash in his TV credits, he has given Manley’s stereo limiter compressor broad audience.
Committing to processing during tracking is an old-school approach, but it serves LaRocca well: ‘True, it is old school,’ he agrees, ‘But I know what I want to hear, and the Variable Mu is such a musical sounding box that I don’t need to wait. If you know what you’re going for, you can go ahead and compress on the way in. In fact, after compressing with the Variable Mu, the tracks are recorded so well that they feel done before I mix in my DAW. They sound great. And when I do mix, I use the Variable Mu on the two-track.’
The Mastering Version of the unit has detented steps and Greyhill rotary switches with gold contacts. The steps are determined with a large number of precision metal film resistors. The ten-fold improvement in precision helps a great deal in left-right matching. There is a subtle audible improvement with stepped switches, as well.
The sidechain mod is stock on all regular and mastering Variable Mu Limiter Compressors. It adds two switches to the front panel, one for each channel, so that when engaged, the side chain will not respond to frequencies lower than 100Hz (other frequencies can be custom ordered). This mod can be used on music with heavy bass lines or bass-heavy mixes where you don’t want the bass driving the whole action of the compressor.
The T-Bar mod uses a pair of 6BA6 pentode tubes, wired as single triodes, to replace the obsolete 6386 tubes in earlier Variable Mu units or to convert later 5670-based units to have the smoother limiting characteristics of the original 6386.
‘Plug-ins are really good now, and few things are worth spending a lot of money on,’ LaRocca insists. ‘But the Manley Variable Mu is always useful, and I always like what it does. It holds the mix together. In sound tracks and when recording orchestras, there isn’t a lot of room for colour; you’re trying to capture the music in its purest state. But the Variable Mu lets me add a bit of colour in a musical way.’
More: www.manley.com
