Ecler ECLERNET MANAGER - Manual (Page 170)

170
9.3.5. COMPRESSOR
The compressor section offers a dynamic behaviour processing of the channel signal, allowing the
output intensity to be controlled not to exceed certain levels. Available settings are:
 ON/OFF: turns the compressor on/off (green button/grey button). In OFF
mode, the other section controls are disabled.
 THRESHOLD: compression threshold. Composed of a potentiometer and a
numerical value, and used to specify the input signal level at which
compression begins to occur. This parameter ranges from +18dB to –36dB.
 RATIO: compression ratio. It also includes a potentiometer and its
associated numerical value. This parameter determines the output volume
reduction ratio when the input signal level rises above the threshold. A
value of 1:1 states that the signal level does not undergo changes, while the
extreme value of inf:1 represents a signal limiter, with which any signal
above the threshold will be limited to that threshold level.
 ATTACK (potentiometer and numerical value): attack time. Determines the
time the compressor takes to respond when the input level rises above the
threshold. The range extends from 0.1 ms to 500 ms.
 RELEASE (potentiometer and numerical value): determines how quickly the
compressor stops acting once the signal input level drops below the
threshold. In this case, the range covers from 1msec to 5sec.
 KNEE (HARD / SOFT): determines how compression is applied in the transition zone or "knee"
once the compression threshold has been crossed, giving a response curve with a rounded edge
or a sharper angle
 MAKE-UP gain: additional gain applied to the channel signal once compressed, with the aim of
recovering the decibels lost due to the compression, for a maximum signal level
Correctly setting compressors’ ATTACK and RELEASE times is not an easy task: too short release or
attack times result in excessive and perceptible low frequencies distortion; on the other hand, too long
times could make a limiter useless if damages already occurred before limitation starts.
In order to help you to correctly set these values, the AUTO parameter automatically select ATTACK and
RELEASE values, using the crossover high-pass filter cut-off frequency as internal reference.
When AUTO is enabled, the editing with ATTACK and RELEASE controls is
disabled, but used values are still displayed.
Additionally, the compressor function can be displayed in voltage peak limiter
mode, changing the GUI appearance, as shown in the screenshot beside.
In this mode, the limiting threshold appears in volt units and the other controls are
disabled (right screenshot).