THERMIONIC CULTURE THE PHOENIX mastering PLUS compressor OPERATING MANUAL
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 Standby and metering 5 3 Controls & operation 6 3.1 Output trim 6 3.2 Gain 6 3.3 Attack 6 3.4 Release 7 3.5 Threshold 7 3.6 Bypass 7 3.7 Link 7 3.8 Sidechain 8 4 5 Servicing & Maintenance 9 4.1 Valves 9 4.
1 Introduction The Phoenix is a stereo compressor, which can be used as a pair of mono compressors. It has a ‘soft knee’ or ‘variable mu’ characteristic in that the compression ratio increases with the amount of compression being used. Initial compression is 1.2:1 increasing to 5:1 at 15dB compression.
down when the bass instrument is introduced. This is especially noticeable when using heavy compression. The sidechain can also be useful on single instrument sources, perhaps a vocal that needs to be dynamically controlled in the mid-range frequencies for example. Another useful effect of the control is that it is possible to make more use of the faster attack times available on the Phoenix. When the sidechain control is activated the Phoenix will be responding to the higher frequencies.
2 Standby and metering The Standby switch is provided to extend valve and capacitor life. When the Phoenix is on 'standby' the HT current through the valves is less than 50% of normal. The meters, which read the current through the input valves, will be at about half full scale. Always have the switch up (red light on) when switching on from cold and leave for at least 20 seconds before switching down. Once switched on its best left on all day, but switch to standby if not actually being used.
3 Controls & operation 3.1 Output Trim Control This control is used to trim the output levels when compressing a stereo mix. Its function occurs after the electronics and therefore reduces the maximum output level (MOL) and noise. The Master Phoenix is calibrated for line level (+4dBu), so that input and output are identical when not compressing. The gain is calibrated to feed into 10kΩ. If it is feeding a lower impedance, the Output Trim may need to be adjusted to a higher level for equal in/out. 3.
3.4 Release Control The release control varies the rate at which the compressor ‘lets go’ of the input signal. Release changes from 40ms (position 1) to 2.2s (position 7), typically. Faster release times can give rise to low frequency distortion. A typical setting for normal operation of the release control is 3. N.B. Attack and release controls are somewhat interdependent, therefore no precise times are printed on the front panel to avoid possible confusion. 3.
3.8 Sidechain The sidechain filter operates only on the control voltage part of the Phoenix, it is not in the signal path so no audio that you will hear has passed through it. The sidechain filters operate as high pass filters operating at either 150Hz or 300Hz. This is denoted by the symbols for high pass filtering on the control. In use the filters will alter the response of the Phoenix to bass frequencies.
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 It is quite safe for the user to change the valves, but the unit must not be operated without all valves plugged in.
Input valves can be just plugged in and used with the zeros re-adjusted. The output valves have a more complex procedure and you must have access to a distortion analyser or an oscilloscope to correctly set them up. Full procedure details will be supplied if requested when ordering valves. 4.
5 Specification Max. o/p level (MOL): +19dB into 600Ω +24dB into 10kΩ Max gain: 30dB. THD (at no compression): better than 0.06 % @ 100Hz & 1kHz Noise, IEC weighted: better than 100dB below MOL. Input impedance: 15kΩ. Frequency response: <1dB variation over range of 12Hz to 56kHz. Attack time: 0.004s to 0.12s Release time: 0.04s to 2.4s Output impedance: 600Ω Distortion will increase with compression, typically 0.2% & 0.25% at 1kHz & 100Hz with 8dB compression.
Thermionic Culture Ltd., Harlow, Essex, UK Tel: +44 (0)1279 414770 Fax: +44 (0)1279 412233 ©Thermionic Culture Ltd., August 2011. Printed in UK.
