dbx Pro QUANTUM 33, 4.2 Broadband Compression (cont.), 4.3 Multiband Gate

Detailed Parameters Section 4

QUANTUM

QUANTUM User Manual

This is used to compensate for the gain lost during compression. By using heavy compression

on a signal and than boosting the signal with the output gain we can than create a signal that

sounds much louder than it was.

Attack is how fast the compressor starts to compress the signal after it passes the threshold. Fast

attack is useful when dealing with lots of fast transients. The attack control is not active when

in auto mode.

Hold is the time the QUANTUM remains in compression after the signal has dropped below the

threshold. A longer hold time is useful in smoothing out the sound when compressing several

fast peaks that are fairly close together in time. In general some hold time helps to make the

compression sound more natural but too much can over compress your signal making for an

unwanted drop in level. The hold control is not active while in auto mode.

Release is how fast the QUANTUM comes out of compression. The release is in dB per second.

For example, if release is set to 5 dB /sec, signal at 10dB of gain reduction, release time is 2

seconds. Too fast a release time can result in an audible volume jump, while too slow a release

time can result in the compression of signal that is not above the threshold. This can cause vol-

ume drops in your signal that may not be desired. The release control is not active while in

auto mode.

A gate is a simple device. It is either open or closed. When a gate is open, signal is allowed to

pass. When the gate is closed, signal is not allowed to pass. This lets you gate out background

noise between tracks, cut the ring out of a drum, etc. Downward expansion works on much

the same concept. Anything over a certain level is let by while any signal under that level is

dropped in volume (expanded downward). The multiband gate on the QUANTUM lets you con-

trol the amount of gating/downward expansion separately in each frequency band range.

Within the Expander/Gate menu on the QUANTUM the following parameters are user

adjustable.

Local (per band control) or global on and off.

Turns on or off each independent band

The threshold is the signal level at which the gate opens. Anything above the threshold pass-

es, while signal that is lower than the threshold is attenuated. Beware, setting the threshold too

high can cut off the tail end of signals as they fade out (the sustain of a guitar note, a held piano

chord, a reverb tail, etc.).

4.3 Multiband Gate4.2 Broadband Compression (cont.)