Sound Performance Lab Model 2049 manual Ratio control, „Ratio Hardknee, „Ratio Softknee

Understanding and enjoying the Kultube Operating

The Ratio control

As indicated above, this determines the ratio between the in- and output level above the threshold setting. The preset value specifies how the input dynamics should behave with respect to the output: a ratio of 1 to 2 means that only half of the dynamic change will be present on the output. At 10 dB of dynamics there will only be 5 dB on the output, whereas using a ratio of 1:8 means 10dB becomes just 1.25 dB, etc.

In short, this determines how much dynamics is allowed to remain. If the compressor is used to process vocals with very large variations in loudness, you would select a high ratio value (1:5 – 1:10) to produce a well-balanced and intelligible signal. When processing summed signals on the other hand, very high settings will be used in part to process only the peaks of the signal. This means careful setting of the threshold control is very important.

Fig. 2,

„Ratio Hardknee“

The slope of the compressor curve may be straight with a sudden rise (hard- knee, Fig. 2), but it may also show a softly curved slope in which compression begins slowly (soft-knee, Fig. 3).

Fig. 3,

„Ratio Softknee“

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