Portico 543 By: 500 Series Compressor-Limiter Serial #: Operations Manual 1
Portico 543: 500 Series Compressor-Limiter Thank you for your purchase of the 543: 500 Series Compressor-Limiter. Everyone at Rupert Neve Designs hope you enjoy using this tool as much as we have enjoyed designing and building it. Please take note of the following list of safety concerns and power requirements before the use of this or any Portico Series product. Safety It’s usual to provide a list of “do’s and don’ts” under this heading but mostly these amount to common sense issues.
Portico 543: Front Panel 3
THE NEED FOR DYNAMIC CONTROL OF SOUND LEVELS The dynamic range of sounds we hear around us in normal life greatly exceeds the capability of our best recording and processing equipment - but even if this were not so, the scale of dynamic range must be accommodated to the venue in which it is to be reproduced. For example, actual volume levels of the dance hall would be deafening in a students bedroom. In the same way, late night listening in a quiet living room demands careful adjustment of dynamic range.
Inevitably our data bank of “natural” sound is built up on the basis of our personal experience and this must surely emphasize the importance of listening to “natural” sound, and high quality musical instruments within acoustic environments that is subjectively pleasing so as to develop keen awareness that will contribute to a reliable data bank.
“signature” of its own. This leaves the designer free to use amplifier and transformer combinations that are well proven and produce the desired sonic quality. All Portico™ modules use input and output transformers and almost entirely discrete component amplifiers to produce the musical “signature” for which they are known. These are factors that enable the Portico™ 543 to work unobtrusively within the context of a very high quality audio chain. If the V.C.A. Control voltage is taken from the 543 input, (i.
The way in which these modes change the dynamic performance can be seen in the above graph but the more interesting effects are noted by listening - “Feed-Back” produces a sweeter, warmer sound but is not as accurate if you need to protect a transmitter, for example. 543 FEATURES THRESHOLD Sets level where the compressor may begin to react from -30 dB to +20 dB.
GAIN Often referred to as Make Up Gain. Considering the compressor’s VCA is generally being forced to attenuate louder signals some method of returning the average level to a volume comparable with the compressor bypassed is desirable. The GAIN control is mostly used for this purpose especially for those of us that depend on comparing compression to bypass.
in the low octaves and can cause excessive compression. Our ears may tend to associate loudness with mids or high mids for some sounds and one may be wanting the compressor to regulate and smooth perceived loudness. Removing some amount of low frequencies that the compressor “sees” can help especially if one is compressing deeply (-8 dB or more) Link When link buss is provided by the 500 series rack, install modules and use switch to link.
Frequency Response: Main Output, Unity Gain @ 150 kHz -3 dB. Crosstalk: Measured channel to channel Better than –90 dB @ 15kHz.
PRODUCT WARRANTY Rupert Neve Designs warrants this product to be free from defects in materials and workmanship for a period of one (1) year from date of purchase, and agrees to remedy any defect identified within such one year period by, at our option, repairing or replacing the product.