BSS Audio DPR-504 Owner's Manual - Manual (Page 17)

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very 'safe' gating such as for vocals, the signal will show nearer full scale,
and for critical close-mic gating such as for drums, the signal peaks will show
only a few dBs above the 0dB threshold point.
7.6 Attack, release
& hold
These two controls (attack & release) determine how the gate responds, in
time, once it has received instructions to open or close. Figures 7.2a & 7.2b
show the sequence of timing and how it relates to the program signal level.
Attack is the time taken for the gate to fully open once threshold level has
been exceeded. This opening sequence will continue, once triggered, even if
the signal level falls below threshold during the cycle.
Release is the time taken for the gate to fully close once the signal has
dropped below threshold. Contrary to attack, this closing sequence will be
overridden should the signal level rise above threshold during the cycle.
Within gating terminology there is another timing sequence which is called
hold. Hold is a period of time for which the gate will remain fully open once
the signal has dropped below threshold level, and is necessary to avoid the
7.5 Gate open
indicator
The triangular LED mounted underneath the 0dB scale point of the key level
meter is provided to give a visual indication of the actual activity of the gate
at all times. This does not necessarily correspond to the key signal passing the
0dB meter scale point, as the various dynamic controls of the gate modify this
correlation. The dynamic response of this gate open indicator matches that of
the gate action, and thus is dependent on the attack and release control
settings.
If for example, the release control is set at 1 sec, then this LED will be seen to
remain on, and therefore the gate to remain open, for a period of one second
following the side chain key level meter display falling below the 0dB point.
In application it is good practice to periodically monitor the operation of this
LED in conjunction with the key level meter display, to check for consistency
of operation and to anticipate potential problems more easily.