2024: Limited revival production run available NOW factory-direct at www.tubesrule.com

In 2008 we brought a mastering engineer's dream to the world, the MANLEY BACKBONE mastering insert switcher. This unit is the centerpiece of a mastering system allowing precise control and manipulation of up to eight pieces of outboard gear.

A little history: Since our earliest days, we were commissioned to build many custom mastering consoles. But as we know, custom design work is both expensive and time consuming so we drew upon our experience to create a new stock production Mastering Insert Processor, the Manley BACKBONE.

The MANLEY BACKBONE accepts up to three balanced SOURCE INPUTS, selectable on the left side. LEFT & RIGHT can be reversed and ABSOLUTE POLARITY can be flipped. The 24 position INPUT & OUTPUT GAINS can be switched active or left passive. Up to EIGHT INSERTS can be switched in or bypassed. A SUM - DIFFERENCE MS MATRIX can be addressed between inserts 2 and 3. The order of inserts 4 & 5 can be SWAPPED. There is an injection point between inputs 7 & 8 to allow for several functions on the 3-Function MIX - FADE output control. You can mix in the DIFFERENCE signal from the input. This mixes in some out of phase signal from the input to the output in order to widen the image if desired. OR you can mix in a parallel signal in between inserts 7 & 8. A lot of folks run a reverb or parallel compressor in this fashion. OR you can use the knob as a FADER to make smooth and accurate level fades with the Penny & Giles rotary fader.

The MANLEY BACKBONE was available with ELCO or DB25 connectors for the INSERTS I/O. The 2024 revival production run were all produced as DB25 units. Cables for either system are not included and must be custom made or ordered.

For ELCO-fitted Backbones, we recommend going through Rapcohorizon. They do excellent work, are very dependable, and we've already worked out a product number for the BACKBONE ELCO snakes.

Pricing for the RAPCO supplied custom ELCO cables are:

• Part # MANLEY-Insert-A-4 (4 ft) MSRP: $469.00

  
  

• Part # MANLEY-Insert-B-4 (4 ft) MSRP: $469.00

  
  

• Part # MANLEY-Insert-A-10 (10 ft) MSRP: $498.00

  
  

• Part # MANLEY-Insert-B-10 (10 ft) MSRP: $498.00

  
  

These snakes use an EDAC (interfaces with ELCO) female with screw, 4 ft or 10 ft in length to 8 XLR-M/8 XLR-F wired and labeled according to the diagram in the BACKBONE manual. Snake "A" covers channels 1-4 and snake "B" covers channels 5-8.

If you want to order cables for your DB25 BACKBONE, THIS IS THE SNAKE TO BUY (YOU NEED FOUR OF THEM: each DB25 cable covers two channels inserts each.)

Item ID: DigiSnAES
Description: DB25-XLR M+F AES/EBU DigiSnake, 12' (4 x XLRF + 4 x XLRM)

Instructions for making I/O cables yourself can be found in the BACKBONE Owner's Manual
We very much like the GRIMM AUDIO TPR8 8-channel multicable if you will be making the snakes yourself.

Specifications subject to change because they just might.

Manley BACKBONE Mastering Insert Switcher

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Question: I am a little confused by the MIX - FADE - Parallel Processing thing. Please can you explain it some more for me?

Please remember that Insert 8 is after everything else, even the output gains, so if you were to feed signal into send 8 and listen to the main outputs, the fader functions will have no affect on the signal.  Another way help understand this, because you are not the first to be confused by this feature, is if you look at the lines on the front panel insert: the engraved line from the mix button comes up and points between insert 7 and 8 to try to show you that insert 8 comes after the mix stage/injection point. Insert 8 is supposed to be the "final-final" place for signal changes before going back to the converter/tape. 

Let's assume everything is engaged. Here is the order of signal flow:

input XLRs x 3 = Source->
input gain (on/off via gain button)->
insert 1->
insert 2->
M/S1 encoding amplifier (on/off via sum/dif button)->
insert 3->
insert 4->
ms2 decoding amplifier (on/off via sum/dif buutton)->
insert 5->
insert 6->
insert 7->
mix/fade amplifier (on/off via mix/fade button)->
output gain (on/off via gain button)->
insert 8->
main outputs->
Go out to your converters/tape

Also, to perform parallel processing, the mix mode toggle switch is set to "mix", and it mixes in additional signal from the MIX INPUT XLR's on the rear of the unit (next to the main output XLRs).  NOTE: if you have nothing connected to the MIX INPUT XLRs, the fader will have no affect to the signal when the toggle switch is set to "mix".