Alesis 7-51-0121-A Using the Smashup, What the controls do, Attack/Release times vary by Type

3 Using the Smashup

What the controls do

Let's go back to the "engineer with his hand on a fader and eyes on the meter" analogy. The top panel controls simply tell the "engineer" what rules he should follow. [THRESHOLD] tells him how high the input level can rise before he has to start pulling down the fader: if it's turned full clockwise, he won't pull down his fader at all; if it's turned full counter-clockwise, he'll have his hand on the fader even for very faint sounds.

How far does he pull the level down? That depends on the [TYPE] setting, as will be explained later. For example, in Classic mode, Smashup acts as a compressor/limiter with a ratio of 4:1. That means that if the input rises above the threshold by 8 decibels, the output will only be allowed to rise 2 decibels. In Transparent mode, the compression ratio is a gentler 2:1, so an input 8 dB above the threshold will be allowed to rise 4 dB. In most modes, the detector of the Smashup looks at peak levels, not the average level of the signal. In addition, each compressor has its own “knee” characteristic (hard or soft). Soft-knee compressors allow signal levels near the threshold to be compressed more gradually.

The [ATTACK] and [RELEASE] controls involve the speed of the engineer's response, as does the [LOOK AHEAD] switch. Short attack times may order the engineer to pull down the fader 1/10,000th of a second after he sees a too-loud signal; long attack times tell him to let transients less than about 1/5th of a second pass. [RELEASE] tells the engineer how quickly he should push the fader back up again after a loud signal has stopped; when it's turned counter-clockwise, he pushes the fader back up instantly, and when it's full clockwise, he may take take a few hundred milliseconds to push his fader back up to unity gain.

The [OUTPUT] control is simply a gain control located after our "automatic engineer in the box". Since the engineer will pull the fader down when he “sees” levels above the [THRESHOLD] setting, it’s up to you to compensate for that action by raising the output level, if that’s necessary to restore the average level after the peaks have been removed.

The most important controls are the [THRESHOLD] and [OUTPUT] knobs. They both interact to get the effect you want, and that requires some experimenting.

Attack/Release times vary by Type

In fact, each Type has its own Attack/Release behavior and time ranges.

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