TC Electronic Broadcast 6000 - Manual (Page 107)

MD-4
English Manual 103
When mastering with DXP mode, start with a
Reference Level around -8 dBFS. This will en-
sure that loud parts are not subjected to exces-
sive gain and therefore limiting. When all other
parameters have been adjusted to complement
the material, try altering the Reference Level up
and down a couple of dB to set the optimum av-
erage/peak ratio of that particular piece of ma-
terial.
5 band
Mode
This is a powerful control that changes between
three different ways of using MD4. Please famil-
iarize yourself with the virtues of each individual
mode.
Normal mode
The Normal mode is a standard, five-band,
downward compressor, where material over a
certain Threshold will be more and more affect-
ed by the compressor, finally to be limited when
a second threshold is exceeded. Preset exam-
ples can be found in Engine Factory Bank 10,
decade 4. MD4’s 48 bit architecture can deliver
subtle compression individually applied to differ-
ent frequency bands and/or different positions of
a stereo image.
Used on single sources, Normal Mode can be
used to punch up a kick or a snare drum by using
a fairly long attack and fairly fast release time.
The attack time and the amount of compression
can have a big effect on how well the signal is
handled by small speakers (ghetto blasters, car-
fi, bookshelf enclosures etc).
Normal mode may be used with good results
on other pop/rock sources for compression and
spectral control, for instance with vocal, sax,
guitar, bass etc.
The Threshold of the 5-band downward com-
pressor in Normal Mode is set on the 5 Band
page, and relative to Reference Level on the Set-
up page. If Reference Level is set at -8.0 dBFS,
and the Threshold of a particular band is set at
-6.0 dB, the absolute Threshold of that band will
be -14.0 dBFS.
Parallel mode
The Parallel Mode is a true, five-band upward
compressor, where material above a certain
Threshold is less and less affected by the Com-
pressor. Preset examples can be found in Engine
Factory Bank 10, decade 4.
On analog consoles, parallel channels are often
employed to help control low level aspects of, for
instance, vocal or bass. MD-4 allows using the
same technique in the digital domain, where the
“dry” part of the signal is always delay compen-
sated with the same amount as the look-ahead
delay influenced “wet” part of the signal. Inside
the algorithm, before the limiter, the “dry” and
“wet” signals are summed.
When Trim and Band gains are all 0.0 dB, gain
through MD-4 in parallel mode is unity, provided
the signal is below the Threshold of compres-
sion.
Users have suggested an alternative calculation
of gain for Parallel Mode, namely to provide uni-
ty gain with Trim at 0.0 dB, and all Band Gains
at Off. If you too prefer parallel compression to
be purely additive, walk this way: Set Trim at
+6.0 dB, and turn all Band Gains Off. This will
cause gain to be unity. Now, use the Band Gains
to add gain. In this case, +6 dB will be reached
when the Band Gains are at 0.0 dB. If the current
way of setting gain in Parallel Mode is changed
in a future software update, information will be
provided to translate presets based on the 3.50
gain structure.
DXP mode
DXP Mode is a new five-band detail enhancer
with an integrated Brickwall 2 Limiter at its Out-
put. DXP Mode was designed as an alternative
to traditional dynamics processing – to lift up low
level subtleties rather than boosting and limiting
elements that are already loud.
As seen on the level diagram, an inactive pro-
cessing area is available above the Reference
Level but below the Threshold of Limiting, so
material neither too soft, nor too loud can be
left unaltered. Consequently, DXP mode offers a
flexible tool for hi-res processing, which may be
used with good results even on sensitive material
such a classical or other types of acoustic mu-
sic. Used on spoken word or singing, DXP mode
can improve speech intelligibility, and add extra
character and expression.
Individual frequency bands may have different
detail enhancement applied, and DXP can be
combined with MS discrimination, for instance
to lift up low level de-correlated components