Appendix A: Application Notes
The compressor of the DN540 can perform various compression styles for different applications.
Drums and percussive instruments
Drums require a slow attack time to thicken the sound. Try the compressor in manual mode with high ratios, slow attack, medium release and soft knee.
Stringed acoustic instruments
Acoustic instruments benefit from subtle processing. Settings that are too aggressive can sound unnatural. For best level control try using auto mode and soft knee, with high ratio and the threshold set quite high. For more control of instrument timbre try manual mode set to slow attack and medium release, with a low ratio and the threshold set a little lower. Experiment with the presence accentuation.
Stringed electric instruments
Here the compression process can become an integral part of the instrument’s sound. Try aggressive compression on electric bass and guitars. Use manual mode and hard knee set up with fast attack and release on a medium to high ratio (around 3:1). To accentuate the leading edge of sounds, slow the attack a little.
Brass instruments
Compression is useful for thickening thin sounding instruments and compensating for less than perfect mic technique. Try auto mode and soft knee with high ratios (4:1).
Vocals
Try the compressor in auto mode with a ratio of around 2:1, or soft knee with 3:1 ratio. Presence accentuation will allow the threshold to be brought much lower — or the ratio raised — for increased compression, while retaining intelligibility.
Presence accentuation
Many instruments have a percussive start to notes that are played. These contain the bulk of the signal harmonics that are recognisable and that we use to distinguish one instrument from another. Without this initial attack most instruments sound quite similar, and very dull! Unfortunately this is what tends to happen when they are compressed, as compressors capture much of the percussive start and reduce it in level more than they reduce the remainder of the sound. Although it is not as extreme as totally removing the start of notes, it still strips much of the harmonic content and removes presence from the sound.
This can be corrected by using equalisation to boost the upper frequencies. However, this is dangerous in sound reinforcement because when the instrument is silent and the
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