User manual

19
dbx
®
Dynamics
De-Esser Mono (Wet only)
A De-Esser is a type of compressor used
to control specific frequencies. Excessive
sibilance, or the “s” sounds, can be tamed
by applying this effect.
De-Esser Controls
Knob 1: Compression Ratio
Determines the amount of compression,
from 1:1 (no effect) to Infinity:1 (complete
limiting).
Knob 2: Frequency Range
Selects the frequency range of compres-
sion in 40 discrete steps from 1600Hz to
10kHz (the most common frequencies in
which excessive sibilance occurs).
Knob 3: Bandwidth (Q)
Controls the bandwidth or “Quality” (Q) of
frequency range. The higher the selected
value, the tighter the bandwidth, and
less apparent the de-essing effect is.
Incremental in six steps from 1/4 Octave
(0) to 1/24th Octave (5). See Appendix on
page 39 for bandwidth values.
Compressor Mono (Wet only)
A compressor is used to control the
dynamic range of a signal. Typically used
to tighten bass or drum tracks, or to control
a vocal passage, a compressor is a very
useful but often misunderstood tool. To
better use the Compressor in the MX200,
a bit of understanding about compression
is helpful.
When a signal level crosses the Threshold
level, the compressor then reduces the
amount of output level by an amount deter-
mined by the Ratio. For example, if the
threshold is set to -12dB, and the ratio set
to 4:1, then when signal exceeds -12dB,
the signal level above that amount only
increases by 1dB to every 4dB of signal
level above -12dB. In this case, an incom-
ing signal of -4dB (which is 8dB above the
threshold) would result in an output signal
of -10dB, or 2dB higher than the threshold
level, since the 4:1 compression ratio only
allowed 2dB more output, based on the
8dB increase above the -12dB threshold.
Because the resulting output is less than
the original signal, a third control, Makeup
Gain compensates for this loss of level,
but with less dynamic range, or the differ-
ence between the softest and loudest parts
of the signal.
Compressor Controls
Knob 1: Threshold
Determines the threshold above which
compression begins, incrementally
between -70dB and 0dB (FS).
Knob 2: Compression Ratio
Selects the compression ratio, from 1:1 (no
effect) to Infinity:1 (or complete limiting).
Knob 3: Makeup Gain
Increases the output level to compensate
for signal attenuation during compression.
Incremental between 0dB (no gain) to
+12dB.
Effects Descriptions - dbx® Dynamics