Drawmer M500 Dynamics Processor - Manual (Page 23)

M500 OPERATORS MANUAL Ch 4 - 1
CHAPTER 4
BASIC EFFECT OPERATION
The Effects are accessed via the seven yellow keys on the bottom row of the keypad, and an
Effect may be selected for experiment by hitting ASSIGN then YES and then your choice
of Effect. Confirm your selection. Then hit the Effect key again to access the parameters on the
appropriate screen display. If you are new to the M500, it is certainly worthwhile setting some
time aside to explore the Effects in isolation before attempting to combine them.
Most of the Effects behave in a similar manner to their discrete, all-analogue counterparts, the
main difference being the additional parameters and features available plus the ability to store
Effects settings as patches for recall at some future time. In order to present the Effects in a
more understandable order, they will be introduced in a different order to that in which their
buttons appear on the front panel.
As stated earlier, the top page of each Effect is given over to metering while the next page gives
access to the most often used parameters. More advanced features are located on lower display
pages and these may be conveniently ignored if they are not required.
This section is intended as an introduction to the Effects and covers only their basic operation.
For details of the advanced parameters and facilities, refer to the advanced section. Having said
that, many of the advanced functions are self explanatory, so feel free to experiment without
further in depth reading. Very often, just knowing that a feature exists provides enough clues to
get it to work.
BASIC GATE
The GATE can perform all the functions of a stand-alone GATE such as the DRAWMER DS201.
However, the most common application of a GATE is to turn off the signal path when the input
signal falls below a threshold set by the user in order to remove noise during pauses. Full
envelope control is provided to enable gating to be performed with the minimum side-effects to
the wanted signal.
For basic operation, the GATE TYPE should be set to NORMAL NORMAL and this parameter
is to be found on the last (bottom) GATE display page. If this parameter is set to
RECORDED RECORDED, then different GATE parameter pages will be displayed.
DOWN one screen from the meter page gives direct access to all the parameters necessary
for conventional gating purposes. The Threshold level may be set by the user and this is normally
set as low as is possible without allowing noise and crosstalk to cause false triggering.
The Attack should initially be set to the shortest time possible, though if a click is audible when
the GATE opens, the attack time should be lengthened until the click no longer occurs. In
practice, the fastest attack times are only necessary for drums and percussive sounds.
The Hold time is designed to prevent the GATE from opening and closing rapidly if the decay
characteristic of the signal being processed is erratic and for most applications, a value of 50mS
or so will prevent chattering, even on low bass notes.
The Release time determines how quickly the GATE closes once the input has fallen below the
threshold and should be set long enough so as not to truncate sounds having a naturally slow
decay.
Range sets the amount of attenuation which occurs when the GATE is closed. This control is
necessary because it is not always desirable to have the signal fully turned off; sometimes a
sufficient degree of noise reduction can be achieved by setting a Range of only 10dB or so and
in difficult circumstances, this might reduce any audible side-effects. Additionally, in situations
where fast GATE opening is required, the GATE will open more rapidly, the smaller the range