Any mic, any pre, any time. Plug your four favorite mics and mic preamps into the Manley MicMAID,
and pick the best combination for every session. With its convenient
level-matching capabilities and user-programmable routing schemes, this
is the ultimate tool for auditioning and comparing your finest
equipment. Get ready to find the sound you're looking for faster (and
easier) than ever. Start cleaning up YOUR workflow with a MicMAID. The
MicMAID was designed to fill a particular niche in the business that has
never really been addressed: auditioning and selecting microphones and
microphone preamplifiers. Proper pairing of mics and preamps has always
been (and always will be!) a vital step in the tracking process, but
there has never been a simple, accurate way of doing this. Since we are
in the business of providing tools to professional sound engineers, we
saw this obstacle as an opportunity to flex our design muscles and
create something that could finally fill this void.
Features
Four Microphones A/B/C/D matrix to four external Microphone preamplifiers 1/2/3/4
Lock each selection combination for comparison
Front-panel 1/4" Direct Input with Variable Phase circuit and Ground Lift switch
Thru: mirrored output of the Direct Input
Low/High range select for Variable Phase all-pass filter
Remote Fader jack for manual gain riding
Polarity Switch flips phase 180degrees for selected Matrix path
Monitor Section has ±19.5 dB gain trim for each signal path
Store and Recall settings for gain, mic & pre combinations
Phantom Power selection for each microphone A/B/C/D
Direct Output provided for each mic preamp return
Pickle Remote can step through each microphone or each preamplfier for "sweet spot" selection
Variable illumination brightness user-selectable in three levels
High-quality, gold-contact sealed relays used throughout
Neutrik gold-contact XLR jacks
In the past, records were made in studios. Big studios, with big
consoles, with banks and banks of microphone preamplifiers. With a
console full of mic pre's available, it was easy to audition several
microphones through four almost identical preamps. In today's world,
however, most do not have this luxury. In a home studio, most people
only own a few preamps and a few microphones. With a conventional patch
bay, auditioning gear takes time - muting monitors, unplugging sources,
re-patching, adjusting gain for the new microphone or preamp - and in
this time, our memory for the sound we just had a minute ago (or more)
has faded. We might recall a general idea ("breathy", "boomy", etc.) but
we don't REALLY remember precisely what we were hearing.
With the MicMAID, this problem is solved. Four mics are plugged in, four
preamplifiers are plugged in, and that's it. Hear any mic through any
pre, any way you like. For each of the four signal paths, levels are
easily adjusted and saved - this level-matching fixes the all-too-common
problem we encounter when we just assume the "louder" signal path is
the "better" signal path. Subtle sonic differences between pieces of
equipment are now instantly perceivable, with a simplicity never
previously available.
In addition to the four main outputs the routing matrix provides, there
is a fifth output labeled MON/REC on the rear panel. Although this is
described as a "monitor" output, this output can (and should) be used
for recording purposes - for it is only this output that utilizes the
active components of the MicMAID. These include the level-matching
capabilities and the Variable Phase section of the unit. When the
continuously variable phase circuit is selected, it allows you to easily
phase-align the selected mic signal (or the front-panel DI signal) with
another microphone. This phase adjustment has an all-pass filter with
two selectable center frequencies, making it useful on a variety of
sources.
With four passive hard-wired signal paths and its versatile monitoring
section, we'd like to think that the MicMAID can help you find the sound
you're looking for just a little quicker than you could before. It's a
tool of the trade, and as with all tools, you should feel free to be
creative and think up new ways to use it that make your life easier and
your recordings better.
