Perhaps, but would photographs of our Variable Mu® Limiter Compressor or VOXBOX® have created their successes alone? You have to hear this gear. You have to use this gear. Put your hands on the knobs and crank 'em. Engineers who have already gotten hold of the MASSIVE PASSIVE have told us: "Why does it make everything sound so much better?", "It's organic and orgasmic.", "It's a f%#king powerhouse.", "It's unlike any other EQ.", "This is IT. The sound I've always dreamt of but couldn't ever get until now."
Craig 'HUTCH' Hutchison designed these monsters... The MASSIVE PASSIVE is a two channel, four band equalizer, with additional high pass and low pass filters. "Passive" refers to the tone shaping part of this clever new EQ design not using any active circuitry. Only metal film resistors, film capacitors and hand-wound inductors sculpt the sound, kinda like a Pultec EQ on hyper-steroids. Super-beefy, hugely-high-headroom Manley all-tube make-up gain amplifiers deliver your tunes into the next realm. "Massive".... it's a fitting word for this beast. You'll need to experience this.
Creating natural, organic, acoustic tone can only be done with an equalizer that treats the signal with natural methods. The Massive Passive uses simple passive components and exploits their natural qualities rather than forcing a complex circuit to meet an arbitrary clinical or scientific goal. Manley knows that recording and mastering equalizers are used by artists for artistic goals and we balanced this design with a little more art than science. The Massive Passive is intended both for the most radical EQ sometimes needed for tracking as well as the most subtle shadings for vocals and mastering.
It is designed to be a fundamentally different EQ but incorporates the best strengths of Pultecs, choice console EQs, parametrics and graphics. The difference is that the Massive allows twice as much EQ with half the coloration. It allows huge HF boosts without sibilance problems and unbelievable fatness without mud. This is unique. Being different also gives it some quirks and idiosyncrasies that will spark your creativity and sense of audio adventure. We could attempt to use dozens of superlatives to describe the sounds, but really, you have to experience it yourself. Words cannot do it justice. The astute reader will notice a lack of "buzz words" and that the Massive Passive is not built around gimmicks, plagiarisms, or conventional techniques. However, it is built to complement our Variable Mu® Limiter Compressor for instance.... This combo could just be the ultimate processing chain.
It’s already a Mastering fave. To this end we finally have a new dedicated Mastering Version Massivo available too.
The Filters - 5 frequencies Hi Pass and bypass, PLUS 5 frequencies Lo Pass with bypass. We made them extra steep. 36 dB/oct ! Why? When you need to remove the garbage, this does the trick and allows more of the real music to be untouched. The other reason is that it sounds killer when combined with the regular bands. Towards the mids this degree of steepness may be tamed somewhat. We're going for pure "usefulness" not "well, we guess it's standard". Thinking drums and guitar stacks, and other tough jobs. These filters are passive too.