Introduction, Common Compressor Applications

dbx 266xs

Introduction

Section 1

Section 1 - Introduction

Congratulations on choosing the dbx 266xs Compressor/Gate. The 266xs provides traditional dbx sonic quality and performance for the working musician, DJ, studio operator or anyone who needs a friendly compressor/gate to achieve quality compression, gating and downward expansion quickly and easily. We recommend that you take a moment and read through the manual as it provides information that will assist you in using your unit to its fullest potential.

1.1Common Compressor Applications

•Fattening a Kick Drum or Snare Drum

•Adding Sustain to Guitar or Synthesizer String Sounds

•Smoothing Out a Vocal Performance

•Raising a Signal Out of a Mix

•Preventing Sound System Overload

•Digital to Analog Transfers

The 266xs compressor is packed with just the right features to effectively reduce and control the dynamic range of your audio, add punch to flabby, loose sounds, or add sustain to instruments. The 266xs begins with the classic dbx compression made famous by our 160 line of compressors. Just set the 266xs Attack and Release controls to 12:00 to get the same response as those units. But there’s more. We scaled the program-dependent Attack and Release controls with dbx’s AutoDynamic™ circuitry, so that the 266xs full range of controls produce voicings that extend from slow leveling to aggressive peak limiting.

1.2Common Gating Applications

•Gating Dry Percussive Sounds (e.g., Snare Drum, Kick Drum)

•Gating Sounds That Have Longer Decay (e.g., Cymbal, Piano)

•Gating Hum or Buzz From Live Instruments or Recorded Tracks

•Downward Expansion to Reduce Noise Under Smooth Sounds (e.g., Vocals, Woodwinds)

The 266xs gate is ready to tackle all your gating needs, whether you need to remove unwanted noise or other background sounds, tighten drum sounds, or change the characteristic envelope of an instrument. The 266xs gate provides more flexibility than traditional switch gates because it actually functions as a combination gate/expander. Where switch gates are generally only suitable for a limited number of uses (e.g., gating percussion), the gate on the 266xs acts as a gentle downward expander at low Ratio settings (suitable for vocals, guitar, mixed program, etc.), and can effectively work as a switch gate when used at high Ratio settings.

Refer to the following pages for suggested initial settings. These settings should suffice for traditional compressing and gating requirements. However, the 266xs can accomplish many more changes to sound quality. We recommend that you experiment with the 266xs controls; take our suggested settings and run with them, try totally different settings, and try unorthodox combinations of compressor and gating controls. You might be surprised at what you hear. Best of all, you may create the perfect sound quality for your needs.