Beschreibung
Maselec MLA-4Marc-Dieter EinstmannMastered artists include Yo-Yo Ma, Elvis Costello, Chet Baker, k.d. lang, Viktor Vaughn, Cäthe a.o.www.einstmannmastering.com“The Maselec MLA-4 can be instrumental in saving mixes that need fixing. It may, however, be used quite efficiently on manymastering jobs. A true time saver. It is not a “vibe” multiband compressor like the Drawmer S3 or the Tube-Tech SMC-2B. Ithas ample headroom on its input and output stages, but since it is electronically balanced it has no coloration and a statedbandwidth greater than 1Hz to 500kHz.The MLA-4 shines in that it is surprisingly transparent even at band gain reductions of some -8dB; not that I ever needed thismuch gain reduction, but I like to “torture” new gear to find it’s limitations. The MLA-4 performed flawlessly with no audibledistortion even at shortest attack and release times across a broad variety of musical genres. Leif Masses chose differenttime constants for each of the three bands making it virtually impossible to cause audible distortion – very clever. In factprogramme dependent circuits reduce the distortion and speed up the release for short duration transients in the LF band.The crossovers use 6dB/octave filters that sum extremely well. However, the unit only has 4 crossover frequencies to choosefrom per band, while Tube-Tech provides 6×2 frequencies per band and the Drawmer 8 for the low-to-mid and 10 for the midto-high crossover frequencies. This limitation is debatable, but I believe it lets you work faster.The main advantage over any other analogue multiband dynamics processor that I know of is the MLA-4s ability to upwardexpand, i.e. providing compression ratios smaller than 1:1. Each band has selectable ratios of 6:1, 3:1, 2:1, 1.6:1, 1.4:1(downward compression ratios), 1:1 (“bypass”), 1:1.2, 1:1.4, 1:1.6, 1:1.8 and 1:2 (upward expansion ratios). Upwardexpansion can for example help bring back lost dynamics above set threshold for mixes that have been overzealously busscompressed during the mix stage. One band may be compressing while an other is expanding. What is more, the side-chainsmay be linked, opening up a plethora of options not available anywhere else: The LF side-chain may be linked to either theMF or the HF band or both. This can be quite useful for EDM tracks where additional “pumping” may be desired. Theselected LF side-chain triggered bands may use their upward expansion circuit in addition to the LF triggered compressionfor some interesting and flexible amplitude envelope shaping-very cool! A fourth mode labelled “Linked” allows for the MLA-4to be used as a “full”-band stereo compressor.The HF band has an “s/c boost” switch. When engaged (indicated by a red LED) it provides a high frequency boost in theside chain, thus compressing (or expanding) higher, often harsh and sibilant frequencies more. This provides some sort ofde-essing, without the need to lower the HF band’s threshold. Very useful, though I generally use a Maselec MPL-2 HFlimiterfor this.All controls are stepped for easy recall, input and output gains of ±5dB are selectable in 0.5dB steps. A master thresholdcontrol acts across all bands in addition to the individual band threshold controls. An “output select” dial is used for solomonitoring individual bands when needed or galvanically bypassing the unit.I’ve had this unit for close to 5 months now and have put it through its paces. Truly stellar!”
