Doug Turkel
Liz Atherton
Joel Snyder
Tom Antonellis
Marc Preston
Manley designed the Core reference channel strip so that you can hit record and focus on your performance instead of your signal chain. The Core is infused with the quality, performance, and flexibility Manley’s VOXBOX is known for, at a price that makes it accessible to any serious artist or engineer. You get a world-class Manley mic pre, followed by a 3:1 ELOP style compressor for effortless dynamic control. Engineers at Sweetwater love the active Baxandall EQ, and the fast-attack brickwall FET limiter that protects your converters from clipping. Even if you plug right in without tweaking a single knob, the Manley Core ensures that you will get an amazing sound.
Related Videos: Core Reference Tube Channel Strip
Manley’s greatest hits in one chassis
Building upon its decades of producing acclaimed recording studio gear, Manley Labs distilled its Core technologies into the Manley Core, an innovative channel strip that combines its “greatest hits” with new cutting-edge technology. The inviting front panel gives you intuitive control over musical and sonically forgiving circuitry that allows musicians and engineers to concentrate on capturing a perfect performance instead of getting lost in a sea of knobs. Take it from us: with the Core’s outstanding ease of use and wisely chosen operating points, it’s impossible to produce anything other than flattering results.
The epicenter of your studio
Manley’s design goal with the Core was to combine a high-quality vacuum tube mic preamp, an ELOP (Electro-Optical) compressor, a flattering EQ section, and a fast FET Brickwall Limiter in a rugged, gorgeous 2U steel chassis. It had to be musical, flexible, and forgiving. Drawing on their extensive expertise and insight working with the industry’s top recording engineers and musicians, Manley succeeded on all fronts. Boasting impressive headroom, seductive sound, USA handcrafted build quality, and an amazingly budget-friendly price, The Manley Core will become the epicenter of your recording studio.
Lets you concentrate on job one
Computers were supposed to simplify the recording process, and in some ways that’s true. But given the intricacies of modern DAW software and thousands of plug-ins, simplicity often gets lost in the shuffle, distracting you from job one: crafting your music. By designing a dedicated recording front end with very high-quality stages — and without extraneous functions you’ll rarely use — you can concentrate on your artistic endeavors instead of fretting over the technology. The great-sounding modules inside the Core are the fruit of Manley’s decades of design experience and subjecting listening, and they work together brilliantly.
Big IRON for authoritative sound
The Core sounds huge, and of course, there are reasons for that. Your signal enters the Core through Manley’s renowned, handwound IRON input transformer with nickel laminations in a mu-metal can. The tube amplifying stage is the latest implementation of the company’s famous Class A circuit topology found in the VOXBOX and Manley Dual Mono and Mono microphone preamplifiers. This all-triode vacuum tube circuit runs on a regulated 300-volt power supply to deliver massive headroom and indefatigable output drive capability. The result is an easy-to-use reference-grade channel strip that makes any source sound authoritative. Highly recommended for studios large and small!
Manley Core Reference Channel Strip Features:
- Easy to use reference-grade channel strip based on Manley’s award-winning VOXBOX
- Class A tube mic preamplifier with Manley’s hand-wound transformers
- Direct input uses a similar circuit as the Manley SLAM! for fantastic DI recordings
- ELOP compressor with 3:1 ratio tames any signal transparently
- Baxandall EQ with low/high shelving and sweepable mids for flexible, flattering sound sculpting
- Fast attack FET brickwall limiter continuously variable threshold and release controls
- Flexible metering can display input, output, and compressor gain reduction levels
- Balanced XLR mic and line inputs; front-panel 1/4″ DI
- 1/4″ TRS insert point between mic pre and EQ/limiter
- Balanced XLR direct output (after preamp/compressor section)
- Balanced XLR main output
- 2U steel chassis with CNC-machined 1/4″-thick faceplate
- Handcrafted in USA to Manley’s exacting quality standards