Portico II By: Master Buss Processor Serial #: Operations Manual 1
Portico II Master Buss Processor User Guide Thank you for your purchase of a Portico II Master Buss Processor. Everyone at Rupert Neve Designs hope you enjoy using this tool as much as we have enjoyed designing and building it. The name “Portico II” is being used for a series of new ultra-high end professional products that will share some traits. Please take note of the following list of safety concerns and power requirements before the use of this or any Portico II Series product.
your safety. Unplug the module during lightning storms or when unused for long periods of time. Don’t operate your Portico II module in or around water! Electronic equipment and liquids are not good friends. If any liquid is spilled, such as soda, coffee, alcoholic or other drink, the sugars and acids will have a very detrimental effect. Sugar crystals act like little rectifiers and can produce noise (crackles, etc.).
Portico II Master Buss Processor: Front / Back Panel 4
E Seperates the direct connection from audio signal ground to chassis earth 5
Power Requirements Each Portico II unit has a high quality, low noise switching power supply that is further filtered and regulated for an exceptionally quiet and reliable power source for the audio circuits. The power supply is considered “universal” in the sense that it will accept 100V through 240V AC and with 50 or 60Hz. Be absolutely sure to disconnect mains power (remove the power cable from the IEC power connector at the back panel) before checking the fuse.
This maximum level provides a large margin over and above the likely maximum requirement of any destination equipment to which the module may be connected. This is especially true when feeding digital equipment! Freedom from the interference fields that are inevitably present in any control room is virtually guaranteed by the balanced, ground-free design used in the MBP.
listener’s electroencephalo-grams. Kunchur describes several demonstrations that have shown that our hearing is capable of approximately twice the timing resolution than a limit of 20 kHz might imply (F=1/T or T=1/F). His peer reviewed papers demonstrated that we can hear timing resolution at approximately with 5 microsecond resolution (20 kHz implies a 9 microsecond temporal resolution, while a CD at 44.1k sample rate has a best-case temporal resolution of 23 microseconds).
Sound Perception” Paper read at 91st. Convention of the A.E.S.October 1991. Section 7. (1), Conclusion. 2. Miland Kunchur,Depart of Physics and Astronomy, University of South Carolina. “Temporal resolution of hearing probed by bandwidth restriction”, M. N. Kunchur, Acta Acustica united with Acustica 94, 594–603 (2008) (http://www.physics. sc.edu/kunchur/Acoustics-papers.htm) 3. Miland Kunchur,Depart of Physics and Astronomy, University of South Carolina.
sections, either of which suggest maybe too much compressor “action”. Conversely, losing quiet phrases or inadvertent clipping might suggest that a little more compression is warranted, keeping in mind that you can always do a bit more in the mix but undoing over-compression is not fun and often not even possible. FF/FB These are two very different compressor modes, FEED BACK and FEED FORWARD.
referred to as “the side-chain”. Note that the rest of the circuit and output will not have those lows filtered out. This function tends to be very useful because typical sounds often have more energy 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.
the “knee” when the threshold knob is set quite high. Both the limiter and soft clipper are switched out of circuit with the knob is fully clockwise. The release times are fully automatic and adjust depending both on the average depth of limiting and the duration of the transients above the threshold. The limiters share the same discrete, class-A gain module and VCA with the compressors, so using the Limiter does not introduce more stages that the music would have to pass through.
instruments. In many cases, these same elements may be virtually eliminated without adversely affecting the music bed. Used in conjunction, the depth and width controls effectively alter the perceived room ambience and dimension. WIDTH & DEPTH EQ To fine tune the SFE, there are individual filters that allow a fine tuning of what information is reintroduced from the width and depth circuits, thus tailoring each effect to a specific bandwidth.
Specifications Frequency Response: Main Output, no load, –3 dB @ 4 Hz –3 dB @ 120 kHz Maximum Output Level (Compressor and SFE Bypassed): Maximum output from 20 Hz to 40 kHz is +24.5 dBu. Total Harmonic Distortion and Noise: @ 1kHz, +20 dBu output: Better than 0.006% @ 20Hz, +20 dBu output: Better than 0.20% - As above, Silk Blue Engaged, Texture fully CW: Better than 2.5% - As above, Silk Red Engaged, Texture fully CW: Better than 3.5% @ 20kHz, +20 dBu output: Better than 0.
SFE Depth EQ Curves +20 +17.5 +15 +12.5 +10 +7.5 +5 d B u +2.5 +0 -2.5 -5 -7.5 -10 -12.5 -15 -17.
+20 50 100 RMS Peak 250 Hz SC SC Insert 1.5 1:1 2:1 Max Ratio 18 +10 +20 FB 0 FF +20dB +14 +8 100 RMS Peak 50 SC Insert 100 RMS Peak 250 Hz SC SC Insert 1.
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.
