Thermionic Culture THE PHOENIX HG15 High Gain Valve Compressor - Manual (Page 10)

©Thermionic Culture Ltd, October 2013 9
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.
A good example of this would be in a situation where a vocal
is being recorded with a lot of proximity effect from the
microphone. Percussive parts of the vocal sound may well
contain a lot of low frequency information.
It might normally be decided to remove the low frequencies
from the vocal sound in order to stop any problems with
unwanted over compression.
Or the Phoenix HG 15 side chain bass cut can be engaged
to stop the compressor responding to the low frequency
impulses. This can help to give a "tighter" sounding result
that still contains a lot of low frequency information which
might be a desirable part of the vocal sound.
This situation can apply to many other instruments or sounds
like bass guitars, bass drums, synthesised sounds or any
instrument / sound or mix of sounds that contains low
frequency information.