Dc 24 users guide-6 bass guitar setup – Rane DC 24 Users Guide [RaneNote 130] User Manual

Page 6

DC 24 Users Guide-6

Bass Guitar Setup

RECORDING

Use it on bass guitar, piano, drums, vocals–anywhere

you’ve used a compressor/limiter before. The DC 24 gives
you more control and a less tortured sound. In fact, split-band
processing works so well that a DC 24 sounds good com-
pressing an entire mix (two required for stereo in split-band
mode).

Of special interest are instruments which have large level

differences in their different tonal ranges. String pops on a
bass are one, but flute is another. The higher tones require
more breath and are much louder than the lower. Another
good application would be a drum mix or submix. A split-
band compressor does a better job of smoothing the perfor-
mance out.

Roger Nichols (Engineer)- He uses the DC 24 primarily on

bass and guitar. He sets the Crossover at 100 Hz, the Gates
and Compressors to 1:1, and engages the Combine and Dual
Mode switches. This gives him separate Limiters to control
the high and low peaks separately on a mono signal.

Brent Hurtig (EQ Magazine)- “In the studio, the crossover

has some different applications. With Combine selected and
the Crossover engaged, a signal entering Channel 1 is split
into two bands. These two bands again may receive separate
processing. What’s different here, though, is that the two
bands’ signals are merged at the Channel 2 Output. This little
exercise allows you to apply different amounts of compres-
sion and limiting to the low and high ends of a piano. Or let’s
say the saxophonist sounds great, but every time she hits the
high C she pins the meters: Just the high end of the sax could
be limited. Very clever.

“You also can use the Separate mode in the studio. With

this setting, the crossover acts like a low pass filter to signals
in Channel 1, and like a high pass filter to signals in Channel
2. We found some great sounding guitar, vocal, and keyboard
tones using the DC 24 in this equalizer-like manner.”

Digital Recording: Use it to compress an extremely wide

dynamic range into a signal that won't go into digital over-
load, i.e. clipping. The limiter is the primary circuit here to
keep things under control, but a little compression with its
threshold set just under the limiter threshold setting will help
keep the limiting even more subtle. Also, the gate can be set
just above the noise floor with a low threshold and high ratio
to remove mixer or tape hiss between cuts. To control a stereo
mix, set the switches to Normal / Separate / Slave.

is to insert the unit in the effect loop of the preamp. This
allows the bass signal to be affected by the pre-amp first, then
the comp/limiter, and then sent to the power amp. This can be
desirable with tube pre-amps.

This unit can also be used for biamp rigs. For this, it is

placed in the signal chain after the preamp and before the
power amps. The output from the preamp is the signal that is
processed and split at the selected crossover point. For biamp
purposes, the Combine/Separate switch should be in the
Separate position. Channel 1 processes the lows and channel
2 processes the highs. The low and high outputs are indepen-
dent and correspond to Channels 1 and 2.

The DC 24 has two great advantages over other compres-

sors–the crossover and the dual channels. It gives you
complete control of the signal and processing of it. This is
something that wasn’t available before in a single unit. One
stereo or two mono comp/limiters and one crossover would
be required to do what the DC 24 does in a single rack space.
This unit solves many compressor blues. For more attack, you
can turn up the Level on the top end. Notice that when you
stop playing, that amp buzz and hiss goes away. Nice, huh?

Dave Freeman (Bassics Magazine)- “I tested this unit in

the combine mode with the crossover set at 200 Hz. I used my
4 string Music Man bass, famous for its ear splitting high end,
as test in different channel settings. I set Channel 1 (low end)
for mild compression at 2:1 with the Threshold at -10 dB. I
set Channel 2 (high end) for heavy compression at 6:1, and
the Threshold at -20 dB. I turned the volume and the treble
controls on the bass on full, and slapped and popped like a
madman. So what happened? Well, the high end was com-
pressed down to the low end level. The sound was balanced
and didn’t have a compressed tone. I could slap away ‘til my
fingers went numb without having the comp/limiter clamp
down on the entire signal. Impressive results!

“I then tested the unit with my 5 string Ken Smith bass. I

set the lows for mild compression at 2:1 at -20 dB Threshold.
I set the high end for the same compression but with the
Threshold at -10 dB. I wanted just a bit on the bottom for the
low B string and less processing on the highs. I slapped and
popped on all the strings including the low B. The result was
slight processing on the lows which tightened the bottom, but
didn’t make it sound controlled or processed. The highs had
subtle compression that sounded natural, unlike others that
‘breathe’ when compressing.”

DC 24

THRESHOLD

RATIO

THRESHOLD

RATIO

SIG

LEVEL

BYPASS

MODE

FREQUENCY

POWER

GATE

COMPRESSOR

CH 1 OUTPUT

LIMITER

CROSSOVER

GAIN

REDUCTION

THRESHOLD

RATIO

THRESHOLD

RATIO

SIG

LEVEL

BYPASS

GATE

COMPRESSOR

CH 2 OUTPUT

LIMITER

GAIN

REDUCTION

LOW

EXPANDER

(:1)

SLAVE

DUAL

DYNAMIC

CONTROLLER

-50

-40

-30

-20

-10

1.1

1.2

1.4 1.6 2

-6

-40

-30

-20

+12

-12

-6

HIGH

EXPANDER

(:1)

200

100

150
125

400

800

1.2k

+20

-20

-6

+20

-20

-6

+12

-12

-10

-48

-50

-40

-30

-20

-10

(:1)

1.1

1.2

1.4 1.6 2

-40

-30

-20

-10

-48

DUAL

CROSSOVER ENGAGE IN
(REAR PANEL)

COMBINE
(UNLESS
BIAMPING)

DOC 103168 PN 05140