Audible Distortion, Etc; Sound Cutting Off; Lispy Vocals; Shrillness / Excessive Brightness - dbx 286A Owner's Operation Manual

Mic preamp/ processor

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Specification sheet (2 pages)

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For multitrack studio applications, consider gating out the hiss during the initial

recording, then adding HF DETAIL enhancement afterwards, during mixdown.

With certain combinations of controls, especially when they are used at more extreme

settings (towards fully clockwise), distortion or artifacts may occur. In this case,

lessen one of more of the controls in use. For example, higher DRIVE settings on

the compressor often add gain to low-level signal, especially when used in conjunc-

tion with other controls. To reduce distortion, simply reduce the compression setting.

If you still want more compression, return the compression to its previous setting,

and reduce one or more of the other controls which commonly increase gain (e.g.,

Enhancer DETAIL controls, MIC GAIN, etc.).

Setting the DENSITY control higher than the 12:00 position can sometimes cause

audible distortion in the bass because the very fast release time begins to modulate

each individual cycle of the bass waveform. If this occurs, turn down the DENSITY

control. (Patented circuitry in the 286A greatly reduces this effect when compared to

many other compressors operated at equally fast release times).

Higher Expander/Gate settings can cut off sounds prematurely, specifically after a

sudden transient or loud note has decayed. This could result in unintelligible vocals,

incomplete chords, inferior cymbal splashes, lost reverb tails, etc. To retain the com-

plete input signal, but still maintain required expansion and gating (e.g., to reduce

settings until the complete signal is adequately restored. This means that you should

set the Expander/Gate controls so that the red (-) THRESHOLD LED (located to the

right of the EXPANSION RATIO control) does not light until the required signal is

finished.

With higher settings of the De-Esser THRESHOLD or Expander/Gate THRESHOLD

controls, a vocal performance can be marred by resultant lisps (i.e., where s and z

sounds are heard as th sounds). Lisps can usually be corrected by reducing the De-

Esser THRESHOLD, or the Expander/Gate THRESHOLD, or both.

If high frequency energy in the audio is producing shrillness or excessive brightness,

try reducing the HF DETAIL or increasing the De-Esser THRESHOLD (if the audio

is a single track), as appropriate.

Although the HIGHPASS button works effectively to reduce hum, rumble, wind

noise, etc., at the input, LF DETAIL can restore low frequency power to objection-

able levels if used too liberally. This is especially true if the rear panel INSERT is

used; this places a unit (e.g., an equalizer) directly between the Mic Preamp Section

and Processing Section of the 286A - hum or other undesirable low frequencies

"inserted" by the device cannot be corrected by the HIGHPASS button. In most

cases, make sure the LF DETAIL is used conservatively.

Increase MIC GAIN or Compressor DRIVE.

Mic Preamp/

Processor

286A