dbx 160S Owner's Manual page 27

quency. Additional signal delays beyond this zero time will then cause the compressor to finish reduc-
ing the gain before the leading edge of the loud passage even enters the signal input. This will suppress
the program material preceding this loud passage. The 160S will then begin to release (recover from
compression) before the loud passage has ended.
Source
Device
(mixer)
non-delayed signal fed to sidechain. Sidechain triggers compression before signal is heard.
Mixing Board
If you wish to compress a particular track of a multi-track recording or one channel of a live perfor-
mance mix, the 160S output can be directly connected to a line input jack (balanced or not), or wired
to an Insert point. In the latter case, the signals could be unbalanced or balanced.
Musical Instruments (i.e., Electric Guitar, Bass, Keyboards)
The output of an electric guitar is sometimes not hot enough to drive the 160S's input. When this is the
case, you should use the PREAMP OUT of your guitar amp (if so equipped), or the output of some other
device that is designed to accept low-level instrument inputs (including various stomp boxes and rack
mount audio products). Such sources can be balanced or unbalanced; this is no problem for the 160S.
Microphones and bass guitars, like guitars, typically have low-level outputs and must be pre-amplified
before feeding the line level inputs of the 160S.
Instruments like keyboards typically produce a line-level signal and can be connected directly from the
instrument's output to the 160S's input.
Patch bay
In the studio, the 160S may be connected to a patch bay to allow it to be used anywhere in the studio
system. In some cases where a balanced source drives the 160S, a 6dB difference in level will occur
when the BYPASS switch is engaged. This is normal.
Sound Reinforcement
To compress a live mix or to protect loudspeakers, connect the 160S between the source (mixing board
or distribution amp) and the power amp(s). If multi-way loudspeakers with low-level electronic
crossovers are used, the 160S(s) should go after the crossover(s). For a stereo system, you can separately
stereo couple the two high band crossovers, low band crossovers, etc. If limitations require that you use
a single 160S before a crossover, adding an equalizer to the sidechain may provide some additional pro-
tection to your high frequency components.
Audio
Outputs
Common "ducking" setup: delay is inserted into audio input,
DELAY
notes
Operating
160S
Sidechain
Send
160S
Sidechain
Return
Audio Audio
Inputs Outputs
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