dbx QUANTUM User Manual

Also see for QUANTUM: Manual User manual Application guide

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dbx QUANTUM User Manual Manual pdf 43 page image

®Detailed Parameters Section 4QUANTUM33QUANTUM User ManualGain -20 to +20 dBThis is used to compensate for the gain lost during compression. By using heavy compressionon a signal and than boosting the signal with the output gain we can than create a signal thatsounds much louder than it was.Attack 0.1 m Sec to 200 m SecAttack is how fast the compressor starts to compress the signal after it passes the threshold. Fastattack is useful when dealing with lots of fast transients. The attack control is not active whenin auto mode.Hold 0 to 500 m SecHold is the time the QUANTUM remains in compression after the signal has dropped below thethreshold. A longer hold time is useful in smoothing out the sound when compressing severalfast peaks that are fairly close together in time. In general some hold time helps to make thecompression sound more natural but too much can over compress your signal making for anunwanted drop in level. The hold control is not active while in auto mode.Release 360 dB / Sec to 5 dB / SecRelease is how fast the QUANTUM comes out of compression. The release is in dB per second.For example, if release is set to 5 dB /sec, signal at 10dB of gain reduction, release time is 2seconds. Too fast a release time can result in an audible volume jump, while too slow a releasetime can result in the compression of signal that is not above the threshold. This can cause vol-ume drops in your signal that may not be desired. The release control is not active while inauto mode.A gate is a simple device. It is either open or closed. When a gate is open, signal is allowed topass. When the gate is closed, signal is not allowed to pass. This lets you gate out backgroundnoise between tracks, cut the ring out of a drum, etc. Downward expansion works on muchthe same concept. Anything over a certain level is let by while any signal under that level isdropped in volume (expanded downward). The multiband gate on the QUANTUM lets you con-trol the amount of gating/downward expansion separately in each frequency band range.Within the Expander/Gate menu on the QUANTUM the following parameters are useradjustable.Gate LOC/On/OffLocal (per band control) or global on and off.Band 1 to 4 On/OffTurns on or off each independent bandThreshold -75 to 0 dB (per band or global)The threshold is the signal level at which the gate opens. Anything above the threshold pass-es, while signal that is lower than the threshold is attenuated. Beware, setting the threshold toohigh can cut off the tail end of signals as they fade out (the sustain of a guitar note, a held pianochord, a reverb tail, etc.).4.3 Multiband Gate4.2 Broadband Compression (cont.)