WARNING For your personal safety, please read this operating manual and warning thoroughly before using the equipment. This unit must be installed in such a manner that operator access to the mains plug is maintained. Where the product is to be rack mounted, this may be achieved by having access to the disconnection device for the whole rack. To reduce the risk of electric shock, it is essential that the unit is disconnected from the mains supply before removing the cover.
CONTENTS Section Page 1 Introduction 3 2 Installation 4 2.1 4 3 4 Metering Controls 5 3.1 Input 5 3.2 Gain 5 3.3 Bass Cut 5 3.4 Threshold 5 3.5 Time Constant 5 3.6 Side Chain Bass Cut 6 3.7 Presence 6 3.8 Air 6 3.9 Active EQ 6 3.10 Output Trim 6 Servicing & Maintenance 7 4.1 Valves/Tubes 7 4.
1 Introduction The Phoenix HG is a single channel version of our classic Phoenix Stereo Compressor. The gain has been boosted to suit mic inputs, particularly valve or FET condenser types, though many moving coil mics such as Shure, Audio Technica, etc. are fine to use with it on vocals and close mic-ing most instruments. As a line level compressor it will perform as a mono Phoenix with a slightly harder compression.
2 Installation The Phoenix HG 15 should be rack-mounted. Although it is valve based, therefore producing more heat than solid state units, it can be racked with no space above, as long as the room temperature is within the range 0-25°C and there is adequate ventilation beside and at the rear of the unit to dissipate heat. Input and Output connections are standard XLRs with pins 2 and 3 Signal, (transformer ‘balanced’) and pin 1 ground. If coming from and to unbalanced sources, pin 2 should be “Hot”.
3 Controls 3.1 Input This controls the signal level going to the HG15. Switched to MIC the max. gain is over 50dB making it suitable for most microphones, though not those with a low output, eg. ribbon mics. PAD Reduces the level by 14dB for very high mic. sources, or for extra compression if ‘line source’. LINE Designed for source levels of 0dBu - +18dBu. NB. The +48V switch will apply phantom power to mics in MIC & PAD mode.
release – as Fairchild 670 etc. Attack and release times are in 3 categories each – Fast (F), Medium (M) and Slow (S). Each switch position is a composite of Attack / Release. 1 = F/M, 2 = F/S,3 = M/ F, 4 = M/M, 5 = M/S, 6 = S/M. 3.6 Side Chain Bass Cut This switch reduces the compression on signals below 100Hz - see op hints. 3.7 Presence This control mimics the highly acclaimed mid-lift control on the Earlybird 2.. It’s simply a very broad – band lift peaking at around 3 kHz. 3.
4 Servicing & Maintenance The unit comes with a 12 month warranty covering all parts, including valves. It is essential that it is returned to our factory or to the dealer from which it was purchased for repairs to be carried out otherwise the warranty is invalidated. There is, however, one important exception to this rule: 4.1 Valves/Tubes The most likely cause of a problem is a faulty valve.
5 Operational Hints The HG15 is designed specially as a vocal compressor, though it’s very much at home also as a track compressor, using 2 together for stereo buss. Also great for individual instruments. When recording direct from a mic source, the MIC setting is fine for most microphones, whether condenser (valve or FET) or moving coil dynamic. However, PAD can be used for high output mics that like a higher impedance input.
If the SIDE CHAIN BASS CUT is used this will allow low frequency impulses to trigger the compression much less, at the same time a fast attack time could be used and this will mean that transients can be compressed quite effectively without the low frequency impulses causing the compressor to over compress. This will make the compressor seem much faster as it's attack time is faster and the release time will not be slowed down by a slow decaying low frequency impulse.
6 Specification Input impedance MIC: PAD: LINE: Output Impedance: 1kΩ 2KΩ 10kΩ 600Ω Max gain MIC: PAD: LINE: 52 dB 38 dB 25 dB THD (30kHz filter) 1kHz: 100Hz: 0.12% 0.22% N.B. Distortion may increase with compression, especially with faster settings and 12 dB + compression. Frequency response +0/-1dB 16 Hz to 50 kHz Max O/P level (MOL): + 25.
Phoenix HG Frequency Response 8 6 4 Air 1 Air 2 Air 3 Air 4 Air 5 Air 6 Bass Cut 50 Bass Cut 100 Presence 3 Presence 6 Gain (dBr) 2 0 -2 -4 -6 -8 0 .0 2 0 .
Thermionic Culture Ltd., Harlow, Essex, UK Tel: +44 (0)1279 414770 email: technical@thermionicculture.com © Thermionic Culture Ltd, October 2013. Printed in UK.