Crane Song TRAKKER - Manual (Page 9)

is an airy high end to the sound.
The Soft knee settings provide a classic soft characteristic similar to many tube and solid state
feedback type compressors. The soft knee setting does not have a program dependent release
time. The release time is determined by the release control only.
The hard knee can be thought of as a limiter although TRAKKER has adjustable attack and
release times. The knee control changes the ratio when operating in the hard knee mode. Hard
knee means the knee has a hard break point. When the signal is above this break point, com-
pressor / limiter action takes place. Below this point no gain control action takes place. This is
typical of many classic units that fit the hard knee category.
NOTE*** The threshold control will need re-setting when changing between hard knee and any
other character knob settings (i.e. optical, air-optical, soft knee) because the side chain becomes
completely rearranged when switching between the hard and any other knee settings.
AMPLIFIER TYPES:
CLEAN, VINTAGE, CLEAN-VCA, VINTAGE-VCA
The clean setting is a very transparent discrete class A audio path. This is the most transparent
audio path in the device. The clean setting imparts the least amount of color on the sound.
The vintage audio path has color similar to a triode tube circuit and single ended Class A transis-
tor circuits. The color is mostly second harmonic with third harmonic being introduced when
clipping is approached. Using this setting will result in a rich, fat, warm sound.
Many vintage tube and solid state compressors have small amounts of control voltage feed
through and other modulation artifacts that take place with gain changes. The VCA settings add
these types of modulation artifacts to the audio path. It is important to note that the color added
by the VCA setting is dynamic. This means that the sound change is only heard when
TRAKKER’s gain is changing and is more prevalent with fast attack and release settings. The
sound setting is called VCA on the front panel. (The VCA artifact can be attached to the clean or
vintage sound.)
Combining the two amplifier sounds and the VCA sounds results in 4 different audio paths to
chose from. When the 4 different compressor characteristics are included, there are 16 different
sounds to choose from. This does not include the large variation in sound that is possible with the
different attack, release, and shape settings.
Because of relay switching, when changing the character switch there will be a small clicking
noise. The signal turns off for .2 ms thus causing the click. It will only happen when there is
signal present. If it was possible to change the relay at zero crossing of the signal, there would be
no click. By using relays the audio path quality is maintained.
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