PRELIMINARY AND "IN PROGESS" OWNER'S MANUAL MANLEY SLAM! Stereo Limiter And Micpre MANLEY LABORATORIES, INC. MANLEY LABORATORIES, INC. 13880 MAGNOLIA AVE. CHINO, CA. 91710 TEL: (909) 627-4256 FAX: (909) 628-2482 http://www.manleylabs.com EveAnna's email: emanley @ manleylabs.com Tech Support: service @ manleylabs.com REV.
CONTENTS SECTION PAGE INTRODUCTION 3, 4 POWER SUPPLY 5 BACK PANEL & CONNECTING 6, 7, 8, 9 FRONT PANEL 10, 11 METERING 12, 13, 14 LIMITERS, HINTS, ETC.
INTRODUCTION THANK YOU!... for choosing the Manley SLAM!. This unit combines Mic and Instrument Preamps, 4 limiters, comprehensive metering and is ready for or already has the digital converter option. As one might expect, the basic operations are fairly simple and instructions may not be needed - but - the SLAM! has a lot of advanced features, and we strongly recommend reading through the manual. There are a lot of tricks and features that are not so obvious.
The Swiss Army Knife First Things First The SLAM! is an unusual product that doesn't quite fit into a simple catagory. We get questions like "Why have a mic-pre on a limiter?", "Why have a DAC on a mic-pre?" and "Why so many input and output jacks?" and "Why no hard-wire bypass on this mastering processor?". And the only answer is "It's not just a ....., it does a lot more". It isn't a channel strip - no EQ, besides being stereo. It isn't just another front-end for the workstation.
MANLEY SLAM! POWER SUPPLY UNIT WARNING: to reduce the risk of fire or electric shock, do not expose this unit to rain or moisture. CAUTION: risk of electric shock. do not open, high voltage. refer all servicing to qualified personnel only N9512423 5 line voltage switch replace fuse with same type and rating 4 FUSE 3 ON 2 POWER 1 1) POWER MULTI-PIN: 16 PIN AMP connector that screws into the matching socket on the back of the SLAM!. This should be connected first.
This page will have connection example diagrams 6
THE BACK PANEL INSTRUMENT CHANNEL CHANNEL 2 BALANCED INPUT 1 XLR PINOUT: TRANSFORMER BALANCED PIN 1 = SHIELD = GROUND PIN 2 = HOT = POSITIVE PHASE PIN 3 = LOW = NEGATIVE PHASE MIC = 2400 OHMS, LINE = 50K OHMS CHASSIS INSERT OPTO SC 2 SEND INSERT FET SC IN =100K OHM 1/2 IN =10 MEG SEND GROUND 1/4 PHONE JACKS : BALANCED INPUT = 2400 / 50K OHMS INSTRUMENT = UNBAL, 100K INPUT Z HALF OUT = 10 MEG OHM FET CIRCUIT RTN DO NOT HOT PLUG TURN OFF POWER SUPPLY PHANTOM POWER 48V 20K D NORM NORM 8
7) DIGITAL OPTION: Some SLAM!s will have this converter option and some will not and have just a blank panel fitted. The 'Option' is two parts, and one is this panel with jacks, switches, and its 3 circuit boards. It is intended to be something the average user can install and similar to inserting a PCI card in your computer and attaching a few ribbon cables to it. The second part is a 5"x6" board that contains the converter chips, clocks, PLL, two very high speed SHARC DSPs, and a micro controller.
17) PHANTOM POWER SWITCH: This simply turns on 48 regulated volts of phantom power that 'rides' on Pin 2&3 of the BALANCED XLR INPUT. In this case, it is also only ON when you select one of the 3 Mic modes on the SOURCE switch.
FRONT PANEL DI mS MIC MIC 180 MIC 100Hz LINE DAC INPUT 200 SC HZ ELOP LIMITER 100 FLAT OUTPUT A T T A C K .2 .5 20 3 2 1 5 10 7 40 1 0 60 80 0 1 100 2 20 3 3 2 1 5 10 7 40 20 0 60 80 0 1 2 100 DI 3 mS MIC MIC 180 MIC 100Hz LINE DAC 20 FET LIMITER 6 26 26 ELOP LIMITER SLAM! 20 STEREO LINK DUAL MONO GR LED LIMIT POWER GR LIMIT PEAK VU 0 dB O/P VU 12 INPUT 200 SC HZ 12 100 FLAT OUTPUT A T T A C K 20 6 Sec .2 .5 1 10 DIST SOURCE F M .
8) RELEASE: This only affects the FET Limiter. There are 11 positions numbered from 2 Seconds (slowest), to 10 milli-Seconds (fastest). Slow releases tend to be the least audible and will be cleanest. Medium release times on the SLAM! are pretty fast for a limiter and where the most loudness increase tends to be, but if pushed too far also might be obvious with pumping or a volume rise after the 'cresendo'.
METERING The SLAM! has some very comprehensive metering. If you skip this section, you’ll be back here with the yellow highlighter pen, once you start really using the box. There are both LED bar graphs and standard VU meters, and each can show a variety of information. Before proceeding further, we should mention that any peak meters and VU meters should look different with music and that they are intended for different purposes.
MODE 1 SELECT MENU DISPLAY MODE 1 PEAK Toggle Middle Combination PEAK + FET GR MODE 1 GR Toggle UP Combination OPTO + FET GR +21 -1 -2 -3 -4 -5 -6 +16 -11 +26 FET GR INFINITE TIMED 1 SEC.
VU METERS Two toggles are used for the VU meters. One is used to select whether the VUs display Input Level (after the Input Pot), Output Level, or the OPTO Limiter Gain Reduction. If in BYPASS the OPTO GR the meters drop out rather than sit on zero. A VU meter showing OPTO GR seems to be a bit of a standard and the time constants and ballistics are a good match, even if the VU does not show every drop of gain reduction. The LED meter also can display Opto GR or the total gain reduction.
LIMITERS "The FET Limiter" The first compressors we know of used special tubes designed for radio and gain control. These are the "remote cut-off" type like the 6386 as used in the Fairchild 670. Manley has been making the "Variable MU" compressor/limiter for many years based on the same principle. Because we couldn't improve much on our old opto circuit we decided to add a second 'type' of limiter with its own characteristics and its own historical roots.
'Hyper-Compression' Hints The word 'Hyper-compression' is a word mastering engineers use and was coined by Lynn Fuston (Mastering Web Board, DSD vs 96/ 24). For many people it implies the idea of limiting and multi-band limiting and normalizing and squeezing every last drop of apparent volume possible onto a stereo mix but most mastering engineers would prefer not to. It has become almost a contest and everybody wants to be louder than everybody else.
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 instruments 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.
Limiting and more limiting and more... The following is a small section of the Orban Optimod-FM, 8400 owner's manual. This is a compressor used by radio stations before they broadcast the music signal. Orban is, by far, the leading company building broadcast limiters in the world. This eloquent piece posted on by Robert Orban serves as yet another warning for those that intend to use hyper-compression on their mix.
Digital Converters The Quantum Converters There is a lot of discussion on internet bulletin boards regarding bit depth, sample rates, human hearing, dither, jitter and word clocks. Many people claim to hear a difference between 48K, 96K and 192K and those that percieve those differences seem to generally prefer 192K. Some don't hear the difference.
Here is another great post from Robert Orban dealing with an esoteric audio topic that we also feel is very important, especially in its relevance to brick wall anti-alias filters found in digital converters. This was originally a 2 part post in rec.audio.
THE GUTS CIRCUIT GND XLR PIN 1 CHASSIS GND REMOVE THESE 2 SCREWS. TOP SLIDES BACK CHASSIS GND CIRCUIT GND REMOVE THIS JUMPER BEFORE INSTALLING A/D/A 5V LED -18V FET METER AUDIO PEAK OPTO GR ZERO METER OPTO GR MIC THD METER SIDE CHAIN ZERO 5V D 140-180VDC 22K MIC THD -18V 12AT7 OP GAIN FET BIAS LINE TRANSFORMER LINE TRANSFORMER FET BIAS BAL BAL GR GR VU LAMP 26V / 1W .95" x .
INSTALLING THE QUANTUM A/D/A MODULES 1) Unplug the power from the SLAM!, wait 10 minutes (to let power supply capacitors discharge) 2) Remove the 2 screws from the back of thetop perforated cover, slide it back and set it aside. 3) Remove the blank back panel, which requires a small Phillips screwdriver to remove the 4 screws. 4) Inside the SLAM!, there is an unused 34 pin (2 rows of 17 pins) connector that has a small red jumper across it, 7 pins back from the front.
SLAM FACTORY ALIGNMENT PROCEDURE Prep: 1) +4 dBu (1.23vAC), 1kHZ Oscillator fed into XLR LINE INPUTS 2) UNBALANCED LINE OUTPUTS feed Level & Distortion Analyzer. 3) Select LINE on SOURCE, L&R LIMITERS off, Phantom OFF. 4) Set INPUT & OUTPUT LEVELS for 12:00. 5) Set ELOP LIMITER & FET LIMITER fully CW. 6) Set SC HZ to FLAT, ATTACK to .1 SECOND. 7) Set LINK to DUAL MONO (off). 8) Set LED to PEAK, VU to I/P, VU to 0dB. Power 1) POWER UP supply toggle – verify zero AC amps on external Variac current meter.
Limiter Trims. OPTO LIMITER +4 dBu (1.23vAC), 1kHZ Oscillator fed into XLR LINE INPUTS. 1) VU select = GR. Verify reading close to 0 VU. 2) L&R LIMIT = ON. 3) Verify VU’s within 3 dB of zero. Trim ZERO VU GR on Side-chain board so that VU = 0 with no gain reduction. 4) VU select = O/P. Set ELOP LIMIT threshold knob to 9:00 O’clock. VU’s should show some reduction. 5) Adjust OPTO GAIN TRIM for 4 dB of limiting. 6) VU mode = GR. Adjust OPTO CAL TRIM also for -4 dB displayed on VU’s.
LED Meter Trims (This is done in MODE 2) 1) With 0VU, adjust AUDIO PEAK trim (sidechain board) for 4 segments lit. Increase oscillator by 6 dB & Be sure L&R are even. Verify 10 segments lit (4th dot from top), adjust AUDIO PEAK trim if needed. 2) Kill oscillator verify no segments lit. Verify -20 dB in lights the first segment. 3) Set LED to GR. With FET LIMIT at 9:00 adjust for 4 Yellow segments lit. Be Sure L&R are even. 4) Use music to verify display is nice, balanced and no segments are dead.
TROUBLE SHOOTING There are a number of possible symptoms of something not quite right, some may be interfacing, others we will touch on as well. If you suspect a problem the following paragraphs should help. NO POWER, NO INDICATORS, NADA - Probably something to do with AC power. Is it plugged in? Check the fuse on the back panel. A blown fuse often looks blackened inside or the little wire inside looks broken or its resistance measures higher than 2 ohms.
IT MAKES NOISES WHEN THE FRONT PANEL IS TAPPED - An easy one. Some tubes become microphonic over time. That means they start acting like a bad microphone. Vibration has caused the supports for the little parts in the tube to loosen and now the tube is sensitive to vibration. Easy - Replace the tube. Which one? The one that makes the most noise when you tap it. Usually this will be one of the smaller (gain stage) tubes (12AT7A) closest to the front.
MAINS CONNECTIONS Your SLAM! has been factory set to the correct mains voltage for your country. The voltage setting is marked on the serial badge, located on the rear panel. Check that this complies with your local supply. Export units for certain markets have a moulded mains plug fitted to comply with local requirements. If your unit does not have a plug fitted the coloured wires should be connected to the appropriate plug terminals in accordance with the following code.
SPECIFICATIONS MANLEY SLAM! MIC PRE SECTION: Frequency Response: +/- 1 dB 10 Hz to 40 kHz Gain range +60 to 0 (another +/- 20dB using the OUTPUT Level giving 80 dB total) Noise Floor (150 ohm source) -85 dB (A Weight) -X 20 Hz to 20 kHz (ref to +4 dBm) Equivalent Input Noise Input Impedance approximately 2000 ohms Maximum Input : 1.5% THD +20 dBm (typical headroom 20 -20K) THD & Noise (1kHz, 30mV in, 0VU out) .
OPTIONAL DIGITAL CONVERTER 2 Module set that can user-fitted into any SLAM! and provide the following: Analog to Digital Section: Technology 128 x fS oversampling, Proprietary adaptive linear phase FIR (Sharc DSP) using 40 bit FP math. Sample rate always at 192K, "data rate" is user selectable. Output AES/EBU 3 pin XLR male plus Word Clock / Super Clock BNC input for clock rate Sample Rates 44.1K, 48K, 88.
Page intentionally left blank will display 6 curves Opto GR FET GR freq response opto filters Freq response line to line Freq response AD filters Freq response DA filters 31
WARRANTY All Manley Laboratories equipment is covered by a limited warranty against defects in materials and workmanship for a period of 90 days from date of purchase to the original purchaser only. A further optional limited 5 year transferrable warranty is available upon proper registration of ownership within 30 days of date of first purchase.
WARRANTY REGISTRATION We ask, grovel and beg that you please fill out this registration form and send the bottom half to: MANLEY LABORATORIES REGISTRATION DEPARTMENT 13880 MAGNOLIA AVE. CHINO CA, 91710 USA Or you may FAX this form in to: +1 (909) 628-2482 or you may fill in the online warranty registration form found in the Tech Support section of our website www.manleylabs.
A few example settings (people, please send in a few of your filled in templates, and get your name or internet name in a Manley manual. This page is only blank because nobody has sent in a few real world settings yet.
TEMPLATE FOR storing settings 35
