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. 11-22-2004 CONTENTS SECTION INTRODUCTION POWER SUPPLY BACK PANEL & CONNECTING FRONT PANEL METERING LIMITERS, HINTS, ETC. DIGITAL RAMBLINGS THE GUTS, INSTALLING THE A/D/A, ALIGNMENTS TROUBLESHOOTING MAINS CONNECTIONS SPECIFICATIONS ADDENDUM FOR SLAM! MASTERING WARRANTY WARRANTY REGISTRATION APPENDIX 1 - EXAMPLE SETTINGS APPENDIX 1 - TEMPLATE FOR STORING SETTINGS PAGE 3, 4 5 6, 7, 8, 9 10, 11 12, 13, 14 15, 16, 17, 18 19 21, 22, 23, 24,25 26, 27 28 29,30 32,34 35 36 37 38,39 2 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. In truth, the SLAM! started with the idea of an updated Electro-Optical Limiter and the original working name was ELOP II. That didn't last long. First we developed a fast FET limiter, decided that fast LED metering was approriate, then added a mic pre, decided that this box would make the ideal "analog insert in a digital world", then added almost every request and suggestion the customers had given us over the years. And somewhere during all this, decided each little part had to be right, and much was going to be quite new and elaborate. In the end, ELOP II was not at all descriptive and after a 'name this box' contest on our website it became the SLAM!. We can start right at the basic tube circuits. These designs are unlike any others we know of, including previous Manley circuits, so this is not a box with an old mic pre combined with an old Opto Limiter and a borrowed FET limiter with a conventional digital converter tossed in the salad. This is all new. The tube circuit is a hybrid FET/ tube design first used in the Manley Steelhead phono preamp and provides the advantages of both technologies. You get the low noise of FETs, the headroom of tubes, the gain of both and lower distortion than either typically, and a new texture in your tool kit. This is the beginning of the story and continues through the product and the manual. Some manuals seem to imply that if you use 'this box' then you are an instant mastering engineer or top producer with all the tools they use. This strange manual is filled with warnings, caution flags, grumblings about some aspects of digital and has extended quotations from other other manufacturers. Our intention is to help the user, supply a bit of under-reported info, and give equal time to both what might help provide the sound you've been looking for and what might be considered questionable or dangerous to your music. The SLAM!, like other powerful processors, can be great or horrible depending on how it is used or abused and if something here helps avoid disasters, then we have happy customers. GENERAL NOTES LOCATION & VENTILATION The Manley SLAM! must be installed in a stable location with ample ventilation. It is recommended, if this unit is rack mounted, that you allow enough clearance on the top of the unit such that a constant flow of air can move through the ventilation holes. Airflow is primarily through the bottom panel vents and out through the top. You should also not mount the SLAM! where there is likely to be strong magnetic fields such as directly over or under power amplifiers or large power consuming devices. The other gear's fuse values tend to give a hint of whether it draws major power and is likely to create a bigger magnetic field. Magnetic fields might cause a hum in the SLAM! and occasionally you may need to experiment with placement in the rack to eliminate the hum. In most situations it should be quiet and trouble free. We also suggest that you get familiar with the back panel switches and jacks before it gets mounted in a rack. If you have the digital option, experiment with the filter settings, dither, etc to find your favorite settings, then rack it. WATER & MOISTURE As with any electrical equipment, this equipment should not be used near water or moisture. Beer is OK though. SERVICING The user should not attempt to service this unit beyond that described in the owner's manual. Refer all servicing to your dealer or Manley Laboratories. The factory technicians are available for questions by phone (909) 627-4256 or by email at . Fill in your warranty card! Check the manual Your question is probably anticipated and answered within these pages...... RTFM 3 The Swiss Army Knife 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. It isn't just a mastering processor. Maybe the SLAM! is a new catagory. The SLAM! is intended to be the reference analog I/O (input/output) for a digital studio - the first choice analog insert for digital with strengths as an input device, output device and killer go-louder box. Sometimes digital gets cold and sterile, and people reach for tube processors for particular vintage colors, the 'warmth factor', the ballz, the thing that plug-ins or digital processors are not quite doing for 'em. So the SLAM! has an outrageous D/A and A/D option which sets it up as 'THE' Insert, and can be used with any other analog (or digital) gear to process tracks already on hard disk and then return them as pristene or mangled as desired. This requires great converters and analog circuits that can be super clean or dirty or in-between. The DAC can be pristene high-end solid state, tube, or driven hard for a wide range of colors. The ADC uses a transformer (iron) for its front end (and no chips) and is intended to be a 'warm' converter, because most everybody has the other kind. The SLAM! is a an outboard limiter and a new low-noise high gain tube mic-pre, and a mastering processor, and a DI, and possibly the best converter in your rack. As a mic pre it offers about 70 dB of gain and a new circuit, unlike any previous Manley PreAmp. The gain stages are based on a circuit developed by Mitch Margolis for the SteelHead phono pre-amp. Mitch also designed the VIPRE. The SLAM! can be used as a mastering processor (not a multi-band limiter), a processor that real mastering engineers use to create loudness without messing up the mix. As a DI or Instument Input it offers 2 impedances 100K and 10 meg ohms, plenty of gain, limiting, and if you want to have fun use both channels with your fave EQ inserted between, and use the optional A/D straight into the workstation. Swiss army knife is the most appropriate description. A multipurpose, well constructed, generally useful tool. The analog to digital converters also have the Swiss connection. They are designed and built by a Swiss company called Anagram Technologies who are not well known in pro-audio but getting an enviable reputation in the high-end audiophile market. Stereophile Magazine in April 2002 (p77&79) named them the 'kings of digital filters' and they build converters for Audio Aero, Camelot Technologies, Nagra, and Manley. What makes Anagram's converters so special? The DACs upsample to 192K and in the process remove jitter almost completely and to the point where A/D/A worst case jitter components are well below the -144 dB measurement limit of 24 bit digital. The analog to digital converter similarly has a permanent sample rate of 192K and then down-samples to any of the common data rates like 48K. This provides both the audible benefits of 192K and the practical benefits of a 48K data rate, like relaxed requirements for giga-bits of storage space. This is all done with proprietary software running on a pair of very fast SHARC DSP chips and 40 bit floating point math. First Things First We only have a few simple suggestions for your first few dates with the SLAM!. 1) Don't rack mount it until you are familiar with the back panel and have experimented a bit with the jacks and switches that you might use later. No problem racking it, but this way is easier at first. 2) Watch those levels. There is a lot of gain and ways to manipulate gain on the SLAM!. We have seen guys set up 30 dB of boost to a line signal, 30 dB of limiting and were not aware of how drastic those settings might be because they were unfamiliar with the box. On he LED meters, one segment = 1 dB (approximately), and if you see the LEDS go half way down, you are hitting 13 dB of limiting which is generally drastic. Most engineers prefer 6 dB or less limiting. You need to use your ears, and your eyes. Common mistake. a) Unity gain for line inputs is near 12:00 for the INPUT and OUTPUT controls. Begin with the ELOP and FET thresholds fully clockwise (5 oclock). A good starting point. b) To set INPUT levels start with the VU on INPUT and the VU attenuator at the "0dB" especially as you become familiar with the SLAM!. You have to be aware that practically all the knobs and switches affect level and gain and that you want to start off on the right foot, so get the INPUT set first. Then set Thresholds and Output level. Most early confusion has been due to level settings. c) The LED PEAK METER (audio mode) is most useful to view when setting up the limiters and comparing how much louder it can get while hitting the same peak level. Compare your original peak level in Bypass to the level possible with limiting engaged. 3) This is a limiter and limiters generally can create weird distortions especially when the gain reduction is deep and releases are fast. The SLAM! FET limiter has very fast releases so it can be dangerous. The OPTO is easier to use because the attack & release are slower which is why opto's have always been popular. Sometimes we want the ease of opto and the speed of FET, and using the FET gently to 'clean up' the overshoots of the opto is pretty easy too. With the FET limiter alone, some experimentation and critical listening is a must. Different songs and sounds seem to want different settings and one may often be surprised by the optimum setting. 4) Because the SLAM! is old-school analog, the limiters won't have the 'precision' of a digital limiter that can be easily set to hold peaks within 0.1 or 0.2 dB of clipping. If you intend to use it as a brick wall limiter before the A to D converter as a method to be safe/lazy/ clever, in an attempt to get hot levels within .2 dB of digital clipping you may be creating the worst case scenario for an analog box. It is difficult to set the SLAM! up to do that. It can be pretty good IF you take the time to carefully set the controls. Foolproof and easy - no, but if you want 'easy', then the safest way is to accept -2 to -5 dB DFS (23+ bits), and use a digital limiter like an L1 or L2 for the last few dBs. The combination provides the best of both worlds. Another approach is to try the "CLIP" setting plus the OPTO which is a bit easier and may or may not be as audible. It might not be worth being obsessed with hitting -.1 dB DFS and focus on the sound instead. 5) Once you have found your favorite back panel settings, feel free to rack mount the SLAM!. Yes, you can leave Phantom on all the time. Old consoles didn't have phantom switches and it was always on - no problem. Most guys stick to one sample rate, 24 bits, and one choice of filters. 4 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 line voltage switch 5 4 FUSE replace fuse with same type and rating ON 3 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. Rotate the whole connector until it mates with the socket, then just a turn or so on the outer ring clockwise will complete the mating. Force will NOT be needed. The cable is 6 feet long and keeping the supply 612" away from other gear reduces the possibility of induced hum, though this supply won't radiate much. The supply may get reasonably warm, and this is an intentional trade-off to keep those magnetic fields minimal. NOTE: The bulk of the power supply will not turn on (inc ...