KORG PA4X 76 - Manual (Page 851)

Connecting audio devices to the audio inputs |847
Programming the Adaptive Compressor
When Adaptive is on, an automatic Compressor algorithm is activated, and
changes the control set. Most of the adjustment is done automatically, so
fewer controls are required.
▪ Use the Compress control to reduce the range between louder and softer
singing to produce more even-sounding vocals. It does so by listening to
your singing over time (less than 30 seconds) and adjusting accordingly.
Typical compressors require multiple controls, knowledge and experience,
and time spent testing and refining over a performance. With TC-Helicon’s
Adaptive Compress feature, these are not required.
The factory setting of 50% strikes a good balance between moderating dy-
namics in your singing without incurring feedback, a side effect of compres-
sion used in a live mic setting. If you have a high quality monitoring/amplifi-
cation setup with a flat frequency response and you want more compression,
by all means add more with the Compress control. Be aware though, that av-
erage quality systems have frequency peaks that may cause feedback with
lots of compression combined with Adaptive Shape EQ.
▪ Compression basics
You may not notice this effect as easily as with Shape. It can be quite subtle
until you educate your ears to compression. Following is a very brief descrip-
tion.
We typically sing dynamically, like this (capitals are used to show louder dy-
namics):
I
LOVE
to watch you
WALK
down the
STREET
At acoustic singing levels with no, or very quiet instrumentation, this would
sound fine. When amplified however, the loud words become strident and
even worse, quiet words can be lost in the instrument sounds. The louder the
amplification system and band the more pronounced the loud parts become.
Compression seeks to do the following to your dynamics:
I LOVE to watch you WALK down the STREET
Applied appropriately, the difference between loud and soft is reduced with-
out killing the interesting dynamics in your performance.