Manley Vari Mu Question

[machinated]

The Manley manuals for their hardware are always a great read, and well worth going over even when using the plugins.

One thing that caught my eye with the Vari Mu was:

The INPUT LEVEL is a five position switch with a generic optimum setting of “0” in the 12:00 position. Each step in
either direction is 2 dB. For reference, Unity Gain is “0”.

The Output Attenuators are in half dB steps. Reference Unity is -11.5 or fully counter-clockwise. You might think of
these as “gain makeup”. They are marked technically, in that “0” or fully clockwise has zero attenuation in the circuit.

The tube circuit actually has 15.5 dB of gain. The Input attenuator at “0” removes 4 dB and the Output attenuator
removes the last 11.5 producing “unity”. With a little compression the “gain make-up” available with the Output At-
tenu-ator is very handy

It seems though, that with the UAD Plugin, the output control doesn't behave like this. To get unity gain when the Input is at 12:00, the output has to be turned up to maximum. At minimum, the signal is totally attenuated. Is there any more information on how UA modelled these controls vs the hardware behaviours?

 

[Marsrock]

The Manley manuals for their hardware are always a great read, and well worth going over even when using the plugins.

One thing that caught my eye with the Vari Mu was:




It seems though, that with the UAD Plugin, the output control doesn't behave like this. To get unity gain when the Input is at 12:00, the output has to be turned up to maximum. At minimum, the signal is totally attenuated. Is there any more information on how UA modelled these controls vs the hardware behaviours?

According to the Manley Vari-Mu hardware manual, the settings apply to the input/output controls on the Mastering version. UA modelled the standard version which uses the continuous input/output controls.

 

[machinated]

According to the Manley Vari-Mu hardware manual, the settings apply to the input/output controls on the Mastering version. UA modelled the standard version which uses the continuous input/output controls.

So for unity gain (by Manley's definition/design), the input control would be set to 12:00, and the output control maxed out? Sounds like the output is merely an attenuator?

 

[LesBrown]

Sounds like the output is merely an attenuator?

According to the UAD Plug-Ins Manual:

Output provides continuous attenuation of the Variable Mu’s signal level at the output of the plug-in. Note that output adjustment is only possible when the In/Bypass switch is set to In.
Note: This control has no effect on the dry signal component.

 

[machinated]

According to the UAD Plug-Ins Manual:

So unity is 12:00 and output maxed? I’m not sure whether the non-mastering version also has the 15.5dB internal boost.

and for the HW Mastering version, unity would be 12:00 and output minimum (-4dB from the input, -11.5dB from output)?