Manley MicMaid

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. TheMicMAID 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. 

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.