elysia mpressor - Manual (Page 11)

11
Gain Reduction Limiter
A specialty of the mpressor is the Gain Reduction Limiter for the control voltage of the compressor.
This limiter is not placed in the audio path where you would usually find it, but in the control path
of the compressor. When it is activated, it limits the control voltage according to the setting of the
controller. This means: No matter how high the input level might become – the amount of gain
reduction will never exceed the value which is set with the GR Limit controller.
For comparison, just imagine a fader on a mixing console with your
hand moving the fader to ‘play compressor’. If now the fader was
limited by a piece of duct tape at 10 dB, for example, it could only
reduce the signal up to this value. If the input level dropped below
this limit, the fader would be moved up correspondingly.
However, if the input signal got even louder, the fader could not be moved down any further
because of the duct tape limit, and then the output signal would become louder again in corre-
spondence with the input signal.
Loud parts in an arrangement can keep their dynamics, as they will
not be compressed beyond the limit of the Gain Reduction Limiter.
Some very nice special effects like ducking or upward compression
can be achieved with it easily by only reducing the quieter parts
without changing the original dynamics at the same time.
Niveau Filter
This filter is a specialist in changing the overall sonic character of a track with ease. It features two
controllers per channel and is capable of producing convincing results flexibly in no time at all.
Whenever a classic shelving filter would be too limited and a fully parametric filter would be too
much, the Niveau Filter is the perfect tool.
Its main function is to change the proportions between high and
low frequencies. The principle is quite similar to a pair of scales: De-
pendent on the gain setting around a variable center frequency,
the high frequencies are boosted whereas the low frequencies are
attenuated (or vice versa).
By simultaneously boosting and cutting the selected frequency areas, it is much easier to influ-
ence the character of a track (‚bright‘ vs. ‚dark‘) compared to using other types of equalizers. The
center frequency can be shifted continuously between 26 Hz and 2.2 kHz or between 260 Hz and
22 kHz respectively (when the x10 switch is activated).
The characteristics of the filter change in the extreme positions of
the EQ Gain controller: the fully counter-clockwise setting will pro-
duce a low pass filter; fully clockwise position will result in a high
pass filter. The overall level can drop quite noticeably then, but this
can be corrected with the gain controller easily.
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Gain Reduction
Time
Standard
GR Limiter
Output
Input
Level
Compression
Gain
Frequency
EQ Gain Low
EQ Gain High
Gain
Frequency
Low Pass High Pass