We no longer accept custom design requests for Mastering Consoles because finally we have a stock product in production, the Manley BACKBONE that serves as the heart of your Mastering Console. But please enjoy this display of creative and bulletproof engineering on this page, our portfolio of custom mastering consoles built over the years..
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Manley Labs has been nominated every
year since 1994 for the TEC awards (except for 2002 when GML
won one for the team), and we even won one in 1999
for the Voxbox and another one in 2003 for the SLAM! In 2001 we received a TEC award nomination for Manley Mastering Consoles in the small format console category. Clients of our custom mastering consoles include Bob Ludwig's Gateway Mastering, Masterdisk in NYC, Precision Mastering in Hollywood, and Oasis mastering in Los Angeles. (Amongst many: check 'em all out on this page.) |
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Custom Mastering Consoles
Warning: we are developing standard stock mastering building blocks and are for the moment not accepting any more custom projects until we get these new things done. Unless you wanna pay a ton of money to interrupt our R&D process.
But if you insist and you got the bucks... We have built a fair number of mastering consoles and we are pretty well versed in the general needs of mastering. So far, each console we have built has been different and we have worked closely with the mastering engineer to meet their individual needs. We have certain techniques that combine enough audiophilia with pro performance. We acknowledge that the requirements of mastering are truly demanding, but we're used to that by now.
Manley
Mastering Consoles are based on a few simple and proven philosophies:
1) We
try to make them as "passive" as possible using switches (or relays)
and as few amps as possible.
2) We
try to simplify where possible and discourage the "every possible feature
syndrome" for this application. Each feature brings in a penalty of a
possible compromise in signal quality and also adds to the price. Console
reliability is a big reality.
3)
Highest quality switches, parts, wire and connectors etc throughout. Componentry
WE have a ten-year track record with. No compromise on quality anywhere.
There
are a number of basic types of mastering console and they are all very different
from recording mixers.
1)
Primarily Monitoring: These generally have 3 to 6 inputs that can be
routed to a processing path and a monitoring path. These would have a big 24
position detented monitor control in 2 dB steps, mono, mute, and buttons to
select 1 pair of 4 sets of monitors. They may have meters (usually with
attenuation), 1/2 dB level trims, "compare" (source & processed)
buttons or other useful features.
2)
Primarily Processing: Selection of 4 to 6 "inserts", level
trims, metering, fader, M/S (Vertical/Lateral), etc.
3)
Cutting: Similar to monitoring except with a preview path plus some
remotes to the lathe.
4)
Digital: Sorry we do not do that yet except for the WaveDAC which has 4
analog inputs, 4 digital inputs, insert, volume control and speaker selection.
This WAVE has a nice Fred Forssell designed 24/96 DAC in it. This may be the most cost effective if your studio is
new or perhaps "project mastering" is a reasonable way to describe it.
Have a look... Here are just a few of our
Manley Custom Mastering Consoles
we have built in the last few years:
Below is the rear view of the above console
We build custom mastering consoles all the time. Pictured here is a custom console we built in 1997 for King Studios Malaysia.
In October 2000 our most advanced mastering console to date was delivered to Masterdisk, NYC. We also built a twin to this console which was quickly snapped up by Bob Ludwig's Gateway Mastering in beautiful Portland, Maine.
We love Bob! Check out this great Boston Globe article about him. And this interview from MusicTap.net.
A few specs on this console:
Freq response +0, -0.3 dB 10 Hz to 200 kHz
THD&N .002% (-95dB) 10 Hz to 200 kHz (no prominent harmonics on FFT)
Dynamic Range 125 dB (+30 dBu to -95 dB noise floor)
Max Input/Output +30 dBu (monitor max out is +24 dBu unbalanced)
CMRR -80 @ 1K Hz +4 dBu
Below is a lovely creation custom built in the summer of 1999 for Scott Hull when he was at Classic Sound Mastering, NYC, (then he went Hit Factory Mastering, and now he is somewhere else, and yes he took his console with him!) It's a beauty!
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Completed 11/2001:
Here's a great looking beast for Tony Mantz at Jack the Bear Mastering in Australia. |
Here is Tony's whole console installed in Australia:
Here is Bob Ludwig's new monitor controller shown during testing. This module was designed to retro-fit into his existing Neumann mainframe. And here is the finished module installed at Gateway Mastering. The faceplate sure looks simple enough but take a look above at all the guts, custom, one-off design. Thank you again for the honor, Bob!
Universal Mastering gobbled up three of these guys.
...and a 4th one went to
Jigsaw mastering, NYC
Just in time for Christmas 2000, Michael Au of iMusic Hong Kong received his brand new Manley mastering console!
In April 2000 we built this wild console and metering box for Jurgen of JK MasterMix in Munich, Germany. Jurgen requested a crazy blue powder coat finish, akin to that one would find on a Harley Davidson... (my H-D is just black) Oh well. We'll do whatever it takes!
Here is Jurgen with his exciting Manley Mastering Console!
Here is Glenn Schick Mastering's Manley Processor Controller built in July 2000.
We have had a long history with Precision Mastering in Hollywood.
We rebuilt Stephen Marcussen's original console in 1992 but was rebuilt again when Tom Baker took over that room in 1999. Don C. Tyler's room has some of our custom gear in it (but you can only see the stock Manley gear Variable Mu, Pultecs, etc. in this picture!) And here was Marc Regan's room at Precision with a bunch of Manley gear. There were also Manley-Tannoy-Mastering Lab ML10's driven by mongo huge Manley tube amps! (Click pix to enlarge)
We wish to give special thanks to Precision Mastering for their continued support over the years.
And yet another custom jobbie we built for Battery Mastering, NYC in May 1999.
Dave Shirk of Sonorous Mastering in Tempe, Arizona is the proud owner of this one-off console we built for him in June 1997.
Here is a picture of one of the Oasis Mastering Consoles we built and installed in early 1996 for Eddy Schreyer.
This was the last custom console we built. In 2004 we delivered this fully featured unit to Roger Seilbel at SAE Mastering. This unit had 6 sources, 4 monitor points, 10 tape outs, remotes for the tape machines, elliptical EQ Bass combiner, pan controls, and 5 speaker selections plus some other cryptic buttons.....
We also would like to acknowledge our friendship with La Source Mastering in Paris and thank Peter and Jean-Pierre for their continued support over the years...
And more thanks go out to Carlos Freitas at Classic Master in Brazil for his undying support! Carlos uses one of our Manley WAVE preamp/DAC combos as the heart of his mastering system:
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Gamma usually would end up bowing out for a few weeks of production-testing to build a console. He drew upon his previous years of production wiring experience to make every connection beautiful and solid. Gamma was our #2 Quality Control Production tester many years and graduated from the California State University Northridge Audio Technician Certificate Course. Gamma became more involved in the design cycle of these mastering consoles, assisting with the mechanical drafting and layouts.
EveAnna figured out the costing.
So you're still thinking about a
Manley Custom Mastering Console?