Los Angeles, CA (August 31, 2016)—Mastering engineer Maor Appelbaum has been using two Manley Stereo Variable Mu limiter-compressors (Vari Mu), two Mini Massive EQs and a Massive Passive EQ on recent projects.
His credits cover virtually every musical genre, including Faith No More, Yes, Meat Loaf, Walter Trout, William Shatner, Rob Halford, Yngwie Malmsteen, Sepultura, Dokken and Fates Warning. “In some cases I need a sound that I can’t get from anything else,” he continues. “For example, I did a prog rock album called The Prog Collective, and I used the Manley Variable Mu to clean things up. The Variable Mu can sound hi-fi-ish, not screaming in the uppers but more like a round sound.
“For mid-tempo stuff, especially, it makes the track sound very round and nice. It gives you a kind of creamy flavor. The processed track almost feels finished but not entirely so because if it were finished you wouldn’t have room to do anything else.”
His two Mini Massives are go-to EQs for a lot of applications. As with the Variable Mu, sometimes a little bit is just enough. “I would call it a little additive EQ,” Appelbaum avers. “I don’t go far with it, just a bit to add weight on the bottom or to add something on the top. For me, the Mini Massive is more about fast response for transients than the Massive Passive.”
When vocals are well recorded but need a bit of color, Appelbaum relies on the Massive Passive. “It’s not just that I need to boost at 1 kHz but I need 1 kHz that sounds creamier, more liquid,” he states. “For that, I use the Massive Passive to focus on a few frequencies that need more roundness.”
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