Walrus Audio Mantle

[gtirard]

It's out

Mantle Analog Bass Preamp // D.I.

The Mantle is a premium preamp and DI for electric bass, created in close collaboration with Ian Martin Allison. Designed to give your instrument an impeccable sonic foundation, the Mantle brings studio-grade refinement to any environment - whether you're stepping onstage, tracking in the...

www.walrusaudio.com

 

[OldManNewBass]

 

[lowfreqgeek]

Ok, after reading through the actual description and sifting through the buzzwords (Neve, API, magnetic, JFET...), I'm interested-ish. But it'll take a lot to unseat the Manley Tube DI I've used for 15yrs.

I do love the idea of rotary switches instead of potentiometers. There's so much more you can do with them - as evidenced by their filter/boost configs here. Can't really do that with a pot. I've had a very similar idea to re-imagine my L2500 tone controls with rotary switches. They cost a lot, though.

 

[projectapollo]

I like the thoughtful design

 

[BGroovy]

it seems very well thought out. I like the click knobs and that the functionality shifts. Yet, I have no GAS and don't think it fills a need in my board.

 

[whoismarykelly]

Sounds and functionality are really cool. I wonder if they're using stepped pots to digitally control some analog filters to make the controls work how they do.

 

[silky smoove]

Sounds and functionality are really cool. I wonder if they're using stepped pots to digitally control some analog filters to make the controls work how they do.

It's possible, but given that Avalon has been doing this sort of thing on their devices for decades with no digital components I don't think it's a guarantee. Either way would be fine by me, but we won't really know until someone opens one up.

 

[monsterthompson]

Kinda interested.
IMA demos = instapass.
I’ll look/wait for other demos.

Mantle Analog Bass Preamp // D.I.

The Mantle is a premium preamp and DI for electric bass, created in close collaboration with Ian Martin Allison. Designed to give your instrument an impeccable sonic foundation, the Mantle brings studio-grade refinement to any environment - whether you're stepping onstage, tracking in the...

www.walrusaudio.com

$750?

 

[Ricoco]

I like it, it sounds great in the demos. Lots of people commenting on price across the internet but Walrus are calling this as a premium product. Think it could have been worse. IMA plays Lull, he’s into boujee gear.

I am trying to navigate the GAS. I’d have loved thru output. Using amps with lots of baked in character I’m not sure if I need a bunch more saturation at the front end.

 

[sunbeast]

For the price I’d love to see more functionality, like having both the HPF/LPF and EQ boost options simultaneously on separate knobs and a Master Volume as well so one could push the input transformer with the Gain then dial back the output volume to a reasonable DI level. I guess it’s ultimately just not for me!

 

[Bass4ThePublic]

Couldn’t help myself hahahahah

 

[Bass4ThePublic]

After reading about it… $750????? Yeah I’ll keep my JHS punchline I got for like almost half off at Sweetwater.

 

[aguacateojos]

That's a lot of bananas.

 

[LowWay]

Although I would like to see the extra features that sunbeast has mentioned, I pulled the trigger with the 15% off. If I don't love it, I can sell it at very little loss I suspect. I think it sounded good in the IMA demos.

I'll see which survives, the Mantle or the Noble (or both).

 

[ole Jason]

I dunno about this one boys

 

[lowfreqgeek]

Kinda interested.
IMA demos = instapass.
I’ll look/wait for other demos.

IMA is a hype-man. I appreciate that he's found some professional success as a player, and a lot more as an internet personality, but I haven't seen enough originality as an artist/bassist to take him seriously enough to buy whatever he's selling. He's a good player, he's seemingly more successful than I have ever been, but he's basically just an "influencer" rather than (IMO) a bonafide bass artist.

He seems like a cool guy, so I won't dog him on that, I just get the idea that all the signature gear and strings and what not are more due to his internet persona than his prominance as a professional bassist (in the vein of Sean Hurley, Pino, Lee Sklar, or Tim Lefebvre, etc.).

But maybe I'm wrong.

 

[NL_Bsss65]

It's out

Mantle Analog Bass Preamp // D.I.

The Mantle is a premium preamp and DI for electric bass, created in close collaboration with Ian Martin Allison. Designed to give your instrument an impeccable sonic foundation, the Mantle brings studio-grade refinement to any environment - whether you're stepping onstage, tracking in the...

www.walrusaudio.com

Interesting but holy cow the price is asune because Ian Martin Allison is involved out side my price range untill they start to show up used

 

[silky smoove]

For the price I’d love to see more functionality, like having both the HPF/LPF and EQ boost options simultaneously on separate knobs and a Master Volume as well so one could push the input transformer with the Gain then dial back the output volume to a reasonable DI level. I guess it’s ultimately just not for me!

I had similar thoughts. For IMA's intended use case, and my own if I were in the market for it (swapping out the HX Stomp for an Anagram in my case), I would just do the high and low pass filtering digitally ahead of the Mantle, and would then use the Mantle as an end of chain color box for global EQ and saturation before sending to FOH/IEM.

Per your point about output volume versus saturation; if they were really going for the vibe of a 1073 they would include an output attenuator. If they were really going for the vibe of a 312 they would include either a 1:1 versus 3:1 transformer tap, or an output pad switch (depending on which version of the 312 is being used as a style reference). Without these inclusions I'm with you in that I could potentially see problematic scenarios where you want to push the gain into saturation but end up being too hot for the signal's intended destination without the need for padding on the next device in the signal chain, likely a mix desk of some sort, assuming it has a pad available. Perhaps Walrus has done something clever to mitigate this issue.

 

[OldManNewBass]

Although I would like to see the extra features that sunbeast has mentioned, I pulled the trigger with the 15% off. If I don't love it, I can sell it at very little loss I suspect. I think it sounded good in the IMA demos.

I'll see which survives, the Mantle or the Noble (or both).

LOL, don't forget about the upcoming Jad Freer LUCE, a tube & transformer based DI; NOT a preamp, no tone or gain controls at all, but another bougie DI in the offering...! ;^p

 

[Lava]

I will give IMA credit in that he usually has a hand in development of the gear that he uses and advertises. There are so many players who endorse and advertise gear that was basically just gifted to them in hopes of a mention.