Empirical Labs EL-9 - Manual (Page 7)

EXAMPLE SETTINGS PART 5
output. For the loudest MIX, keep the release fast also (.05S). With the Slow attack and fast
release, the transients will come through without over compression, and the fast release will keep
the music from pumping after an attack. 1 – 3 dB is usually enough gain reduction. Emphasis can
soften some high frequency pile-ups as described above.
Using the MIX Control on Whole Mixes. Once you start mixing in the DRY signal, the transients
are going to always be there. Therefore, you can use a faster attack on the compressor, and more
compression in general. There are so many options and we are sure folks will come up with really
unique ways to use the CompSat and Mix control.
LIVE SOUND REINFORCEMENT
– The Mike-E should be a wonderful Live Sound tool.
The unit is built like military gear with no internal connections, a steel cabinet, sealed components
including the pots, making it extremely hardy and road worthy. There are several outputs for
monitoring as well as main house feeds. The transformer output provides galvanic isolation to
prevent hums and buzzes due to voltage drops and ground loops between stage and the house
mixer. The lettering is quite large compared to many mixer eqs and the knobs are carefully
calibrated for repeatable settings. And of course, the extreme versatility and multitude of tonal
processors contained within it, should allow the sound engineers to handle many problems he or she
encounters in their day to day life on the road.
Lead Vocal processor – With the CompSat Circuit, the Mike-E is so much more than a Mic
Preamp. In fact, its much more than a good Mic Pre AND Compressor. Under Example Settings,
see Vocal settings.
Direct box – The high performance preamp in the Mike-E and the isolated output transformer, can
make the Mike-E ideal as a stage preamp. Bass, guitar, synths, and drum machines will all come
out clean and fat, especially if the CompSat section is used creatively.
House Buss Compressor – The dynamics of a live performance can sometimes be overwhelming.
Using the Mike-E as a house buss compressor can do all kind of wonderful things. See Buss
Compressor under Example settings. In addition, a Flat Frequency PA system can often be brutally
honest, and let pileups of high frequencies hurt the audience’s ears. Engaging the Emphasis can
warm and smooth the whole mix, dynamically softening the piercing passages.
1. Sidechain Hi Frequency Emphasis - There is a De-emphasis circuit on the sidechain going to
the detector that controls Gain Reduction. If you would like to have the compressor react more
to high frequencies, this De-emphasis can be turned off by holding the Comp Mode switch in for
2 seconds, when the Emphasis is engaged. Set the Comp Mode with the Emphasis On, and
then press and hold the Comp Mode switch in for two seconds and the Mode Indicator LEDs
will change and flash once, indicating the sidechain emphasis is in effect. Now the Compressor
detector sees a treble boost (the Emphasis), so it will kick in earlier on transients, and high
frequency laden passages, turning them down a little more than usual.
2. Increase the Saturation While Compressing – By inserting a pot or an amplifier in to the
sidechain jacks, you can change the threshold of when compression starts, and increase or
decrease the saturation to suit your taste.
3. When you clip the CompSat in 1:1 (BAD! LED) and use Emphasis, you can saturate a
source many dB and still be musical. Usually you would never want the BAD! LED to come
on, but with Emphasis on, and making the BAD! Light from the increasing DRIVE into the
CompSat, the normally nasty harmonics will be filtered by the de-Emphasis circuit, so it
continues to be mostly low order harmonics. Just ensure that it is ONLY the CompSat circuit
that is lighting the BAD! LED, and not another sta ge. But it gets plenty grungy before BAD!.
4. Increasing transformer output Level – A jumper on the left side of the power supply board
inside can be moved to the front position to increase the transformer output level by 3.5 dB.
This can be over an 84 volt swing, which could conceivably damage the destination device.
5. Line Amplifier – Use the Mike-E to match or adjust audio levels. It’s hard to beat.
6. Classical Recording – The super dynamic Mic Preamp provides unparalleled detail.
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EXAMPLE SETTINGS PART 4
Room Mics – A good Neumann room mic often needs little or no EQ... but if one wants to
compress these mics, one needs to prevent the cymbals becoming messy or harsh when mixed in.
Un-musical phasyness can also result as two different mics with different compression comb
dynamically. Imperfect phase however is natural and part of any sound. Your job is to make it
sound good no matter what, phase be to Hell. But experiment with the phase switch and test the
sound in stereo, and in mono where phase problems are more obvious.Of course in a Daw, you can
also experiment with delays and time alignment, but don’t get lost in the endless possibilities!
Bass
– Getting a great bottom end on a song is incredibly important, so we will go into some extra
detail here. If going direct while tracking, try the Mike-E Instrument IN jack on the front panel. It has
a high impedance and goes through a transformer which will saturate some of the lowest
frequencies in a musical way. From there, you have a higher level, low impedance signal to process
with the CompSat, or go straight to your recorder with.
Miking a bass cabinet will often give you the upper harmonics and saturation the bass player is
used to in his live setup. Often, a bass guitar is both mic’d up and direct, allowing the mixdown
engineer lots of control and options. When using both mic’d and direct sounds, flip the phase to
check for the best sound, testing it in the mix for what fills in the best low frequencies.
Bass is one of the difficult instruments to get “right in the mix”, being notoriously hard to round
out and clarify sometimes, but the Mike-E’s CompSat has many ways to help. First, if a low bass
tone is too pure and sine-wave-like, it will "fall off" on small speakers. By this we mean it will not be
audible because most of the bass frequencies are below the range of the speakers. The saturation
circuits in the Mike-E can help add harmonics that do carry through on small speakers. Often some
EQ that boosts the 700 to 2KHz range will do a similar thing, accentuating the upper harmonics that
will reproduce on small speakers. Band limiting the bass by rolling off the high frequencies is a
verrrry useful technique. Try pulling out a wide band at 4 KHz or above, or maybe turning a high
shelve down to cut clack, hiss, excessive pick noise etc. Sometimes pulling out frequencies around
300Hz will bring out the low end and high end on a bass and give that frequency range more room in
a mix for the guitars vocals, etc. It is not uncommon in this digital age to have tooooo many low sub-
frequencies on a bass track. By rolling off 50 - 70Hz or so, you will be able to raise the bass level in
a mix, giving it clarity and leaving the sub freqs to the bass drum. It is often useful to pull these
frequencies after compression such as the compressor in Mike-E’s CompSat, so it doesn’t try to
bring up all the power in that sub-frequency area after you tried to remove it. This is the kick drum
range. Often accentuating around 100Hz will give the bass plenty of bottom. See below.
Many excellent engineers often compress the bass while tracking, especially if the bass player
has a wide range of dynamics. A conservative setting is 2:1, 8mS attack, .1S release. You will
probably see the warm LED light most of the time, indicating harmonic generation. For an 1176
sound, use 4:1 or 8:1, .9mS attack, .05 to.1S release. This will tie the notes together and the knee
will make it quite natural sounding. The position of an EQ before or after compression can
sometimes have a dramatic affect. Boosting low freqs on an EQ before a compressor lets the
compressor grab the eq points and control them.
Mixes & Buss Compression - During tracking, mixdowns, and mastering, Compression is often
used. For those who aren't used to the jargon... A “BUSS” is usually a pair of channels that have pre
mixed instruments or stereo music on them. The Left & Right outputs of your CD player could be
considered a 2 channel buss. In the recording studio, it is more often applied to the final left and
right channel mix, or to something such as all the drums mixed down to 2 tracks (a "submix"). This
eases mixing tasks since instead of moving 12 faders at once to move the drums up and down, you
only have to grab two. Of course to do a Stereo Buss, you will need two Mike-Es. Here are two quick
uses of the Mike-E CompSat on busses.
‰ Adding Analog Heat to Mixes – Just running the CompSat in 1:1 to get some tape like
saturation can do magic. Try turning on the Emphasis in 1:1 and keeping the Warm LED on most of
the time, and the Toasty light often on peaks. This is going to be very Analog Tape like. You can
tweak the analog output pots by ear or with tones to match left and right channels, but they will
match within a fraction of a dB if you just match the four knob settings. You can turn the Emphasis
off too, and get a less colored sound. The general affect of the emphasis is to soften pointy peaks,
and saturate the highs musically if there is an occasional excessive amounts.
Compressing Whole Mixes – You will probably put the Mic Gain on Line (0dB Gain). Generally you
would use a low ratio (2:1), with the slowest attack (100mS) on such a mixdown compressor.
However, the MIX control offers a whole other approach to Stereo Buss compression. More on that
later. For now lets assume the MIX control is full CW (10) and you are hearing only the compressor
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