Manley^® Massive Passive EQ

amazing

i love the manley massive passive. amazing clarity and head room.
i use it pretty much exclusively on the master fader, and it subtlety livens up the mix.
i'm still new to it, as well as mixing, but i'm in love with this plug. now if i could only get 5k together to A and B it with the hardware, then i could comment on its big brother.
that might take a while....

must for master

Fairly useless on most individual tracks, except for a last finish of some very critical / outstanding ones, but a must on master. As Bob Katz said about this plug (Beat/DE), the manley eq is one of the not substitutable tools if you have to master / fit recordings which sound as they come from the garage - but this plugin is one of the first analog emulations which does it on a similar level too.

Not for everything...

...but when it fits - it fits.
Never been in the position to use a real one, but I am totally happy with this one.

The EQ

What can I say? This the EQ I use on all my most important tracks in every project I ever do. And often an instance on the master as well. This is perfect for the shaping and kneading to get a sound to have the right shape, right character. Very transparent. Love the parallel setup. Give it a bit of extra headroom if the magic isn't happening. Recommended.

massive passive - sounds great!

Just started to use it on mastering tracks. Love it. It's subtle and easy to use.
Thanks for the great gear!

Manley EQ

This a super sweet eq. Very suttle, but perfect for mastering. The top end adds sizzle without being harsh. Highly recommended!

Too good

This plugin is going to make me buy 2 octos and a 2nd apollo quad so I can use one on every track.

Blow me away!!!

Sound like the the real hardware. I can confirm that!

Incredible emulation. This one is just about indistinguishable from the real thing (in fact, despite having extensive experience with the real thing, to my ears it is)... Some things are a just slightly a little less than the real MP, but this also seems to have a bit of smoothness or sheen somewhere that the real MP doesn't. Hands down an acceptable alternative considering the price difference and ability to run multiple instances (well, sort of... I have a UAD-2 quad and can only run a small handful of these and other plugs). Excellent new addition to part of my "mastering chain" though, and hats off to UA and Manley for accomplishing a truly impressive feat.

This is an absolutely killer plugin! I've been skeptical about it for a while and didn't even demo it because of the high price. But eventually I tried it out on a project I'm working on right now, and maaan this was spot on! Doesn't transform poor mixes to something magical but will put some sparkle on an already good mix. This is the missing part for me when it comes to mastering. Will buy it as soon as the demo is over. The 299 is a bargain compare to what you get and in comparison to the hardware;) Even if it's a resource hog, I will buy a new card just for this plugin, it's that good! GOOD work UAD! Really looking forward what UAD have for us in the future:)

This has got to be the best EQ plug I ever used. Never used the HW unit also, but even if they´re not similar, it doesn´t matter. It´s easy to use, quick to get the best results, and it smokes the competition - even UAD other EQs, more often than not. Not the kind of fix-this-terrible-loop EQ, more like a fine tuning tool. I don´t master stuff a lot, but been using the MP to sculpt vocals, and bought it straight away just for its magic at that. I don´t see myself mixing vocals in the box without this plug anymore, it´s really a game changer.

The only reason it doesn´t get 5 stars is that it´s a huge CPU hog to the point it brings trouble to your workflow.

"Massivo" the EQ superhero does it again..... in the digital realm! This godzilla esque eq shocked the world when it first entered the hardware realm with its organic, larger-than-life component network of sound and now it is happening again with software. I own the hardware and have had to patch with this thing for years and believe me, it is time consuming! Now I can leave Massivo on my master output and mix with the software, SAVING TONS OF TIME. This plug-in is so close to the original. There is a different energy when you push the software compared to the original, but this only applies for certain types of hard driven music. The filters are fantastic and sound exactly like the hardware. I use them more than anything. Overall I am very impressed with this plug-in and now a proud owner of both the hardware and software. Thanks once again Universal Audio for making my life easier!

What can i say. Anything is too less. Just got the demo, tried it and boom!!!.
In mastering is a MUST. The only "but" (that's why it's only 4 stars) is that it's
really high DSP consuming. But, hey, quality has a price.
About sound: just put something through and feel the colour. Tweak it to the extreme
and hear the "no distortion".

Very good, specially for vocals and drums buss!!!thanks

sounds better than its usages.

Sound wise its very good but on the downside it uses so much dsp which makes it hard to put in a chain many times.

2 words: Buy it! Need more words? Alright, how about this: It's the unrivaled champion of Equalizers. It imparts a super-smooth sound to anything it touches, and you can apply extreme cuts or boosts without ever getting a harsh or nasty sound due to the way the bands interact. The bands are very flexible and can act in shelf or bell mode, with configurable bell shape (Q) and, more interestingly, configurable shelf shape where you can change it so that it's not a pure shelf but actually giving it some interesting shapes that allow you to cut or boost without muddying or creating hollowness in nearby frequencies. Additionally, all the bands of the unit interact and can be combined around the same frequency ranges for amazing effects thanks to the unique curves this provides. It comes in a mastering and regular version. You NEED this!

Sounds great but...

I really dislike the user-interface, because it´s so small I always want to switch my monitor to a lower resolution. Nowadays lots of companies come with better/larger/custumizable interfaces - think u-He. So - I keep using it, but it´s not a joy dialing...

It's ok not great, and for the money so good at that

I sorta wish I could have my money back on this one. I regret buying it based on the hype, and not demoing it out. People talk about how smooth it is, but it's sorta brittle sounding to me, not very 3 dimensional nor round. I think the top sounds thin, and for low stuff the neve plugs are just straight up better. For the top, and brightening things up in a plug I would recommend the Maag, it's way better, furthermore the dsp usage on this thing is kinda monstrous. The upsides is, that the lowpass filter is pretty solid.

Texture like the analog unit

I am a 2 time billboard number 1 engineer. I love UAD plugins and they definitely are quality levels higher than waves plugins they sound real close to the analog unit, but all the hype about the manley massive I really thought it would be much more than it is, I do use it on my mastering but you cannot use it on mixing because of the lag. it is a good plugin I was not blown away with it but it is still well worth it has the texture of the analog unit

Jimmy Starr

just can't do without

I love the Manley EQ for mastering, especially the low end but I like to read DBs added or subtracted. It'll be great to have that on the UAD version. For smooth but heavy low end and mid rage Manley EQ tops them all.