Crane Song TITAN - Manual (Page 4)

INTRODUCTION
Titian is an analog compressor-limiter with a very large range of color and control choices that has
reset-ability. The main audio path is digitally controlled analog with discrete class A electronics. The
side chain is built with a very high speed dsp that allows the design to push the limits beyond what is
possible in the design of an analog side chain. Reset-ability is attained by using stepped controls and
encoders that have their values displayed on Titian’s color LCD display or are indicated by markings
on the front panel. The LCD display also shows the in-out status of the compressor. In the stereo link
mode it shows which device is the master and slave
THRESHOLD, ATTACK, RELEASE, AND SHAPE CONTROLS
The values or settings of the controls are displayed on the LCD display. This allows repeatability of
settings. The knee shape is graphically displayed on the LCD and this graph interacts with the
Threshold and Shape controls showing the knee character and thus how the ratio changes. There is
a 0VU = +4dbu reference line and the top of the graph is +25dbu.
The Threshold, Attack, Release, and Shape controls have a range of 0 to 99. This is 100 steps,
being it is a feed back style compressor, control values like attack and release change depending on
the threshold, knee shape and how much gain reduction is taking place. The four controls have a two
speed range that allows you to get from one end of the control setting to the other with a single fast
turn of the control. This gives the control a more pot like behavior when going from one end to the
other. When you turn the control slower is will change the value by increments of 1 to allow fine
adjustment.
COLOR CONTROLS
Titan has a set of controls that allows the user to change the color of the compressor.
This group of controls; the three red knobs and one toggle switch allow the user to do things that are
not available on any other compressor-limiter. The controls do a complete rotation, no end stop. This
makes is easy to do a process full on – process off comparison. The controls have been designed to
help keep any pops to a low level when changing them. When making the full on to full off change it
is possible to create a pop in the audio path, this is the worst case change.
PARALLEL MIX
The PARALLEL MIX control blends the unprocessed audio with the compressed audio, a mixing
function. There are 16 steps in the cross fade-mix control for a wide range in control. The Direct
setting is almost all unprocessed audio. It is somewhere around 6% of the compressor audio and
94% direct audio. For 100% direct use the bypass switch. When using the Parallel Mix control it is
best to level match the make up gain of the compressor with the direct audio path. If there is a large
level mismatch it will increase the step level changes and thus popping when the control is changed.