ManleyVariable Mu Limiter Compressor

Manley Variable Mu

Beloved by mixing and mastering engineers far and wide, the Manley Variable Mu Stereo Limiter Compressor is a two channel tube-based compressor and limiter that glues your buses, mixes, and masters into one happy piece. Composed of two identical channels, the Variable Mu can apply a more natural and smooth amount of limiting to even a delicate smush of compression just to bring out elements that need a little extra love.

Each step of the way, the Variable Mu takes tube gain staging (hence the Mu), amplification, and leveling with maximum high-voltage headroom for a clean and powerful signal. The input gain is ganged for both channels, but this should be seen more as a pro than a con considering it's general use for stereo mixes and two-tracks. Each channel can be set to a gentle compressor with a 1.5:1 ratio, or be pushed into maximum drive with a limiter that starts off at a 4:1 ratio but pushes up to 20:1 once the gain reduction surpasses 12dB.

Dynamic control is implemented with a continuous threshold control for fine-tuning gain reduction, while the time shaping tools feature a relatively smooth attack time of 25ms to 70ms and a quite slow release with times of 200ms all the way to 8 seconds. All three of the controls can be set individually or in a stereo link for one set of controls affecting both channels, and all compression and limiting can be easily viewed via the backlit gain reduction VU meters. For tighter control over compression with less influence from the low end of your mixes, each channel has an engageable 1-pole high pass set at 100Hz on the sidechain circuit. The final output controls are unique for each channel making it very easy to dial in the perfect amount of leveling per channel.

Powering mix and master sessions alike for that final polish to make your tracks whole, the Variable Mu offers fantastic dynamic control at the macro level and adds that classic Manley tube sound for beefing up and filling out your tracks.

Variable Mu Features

• Stereo tube limiter/compressor
• Balanced transformer inputs and outputs with flat frequency response
• All-tube signal path, including variable gain, amplifying, and output
• Each channel has a limit/compress switch and a hardware bypass switch
• Compression is soft knee at a 1.5:1 ratio, Limiter is a sharper knee starting at a 4:1 ratio and can achieve up to a 20:1 ratio
• Detented input gain ranging +/-8dB over an 11-position control
• Continuous control over threshold and attack (25 to 70ms)
• 5-position recovery control (200ms to 8 sec)
• HP SC input sets a 1-pole filter at 100Hz
• Sep/Link sets whether the threshold, attack, and recovery are individual to the channels or linked controls