Tristan Taormino's writings on polamory must have found there way into the Manley Labs R&D department. The Manley MicMaid breaks the bonds of microphone-preamp monogamy and lets engineers experiment with multiple signal path combinations, all without having to reach back and fiddle with the nasty business behind the board.

Andrew Monheim of Manley Labs gave us a gentle, understanding, and most importantly honest tour of the Manley MicMaid at the recent AES show in San Francisco (of course!). This audio meet-up moderator brings four mics and four preamps into a switching matrix (hot!) where the engineer can then freely set input and output gains for each individual and quickly swap partners with minimal waiting. Now I consider myself an open-minded fellow, but this hardware is so revolutionary, I'll admit, I'm a bit scared of it. Does that mean my own gear-relationship isn't as sound as I previously believed? What a can of worms!