Lexicon CP-3 Plus Supplementary Manual page 32

PLUS
CP-3 Digital Surround Processor
PLUS
The CP-3 allows you to create
virtually any acoustic space you desire.
It is extremely simple to walk through the
parameters of a program, vary them to
your liking, name the space, and store it.
For this example, let's do a fairly radical
redesign — changing a church into a
hall. We'll start with the biggest, most
reverberant mode: Preset 9, CATHE-
DRAL.
Think about a nice concert hall
where you would enjoy going out to see
your favorite performer. Consider a hall
of approximately 2,700-3,000 seats
with a balcony (and, of course, valet
parking). Get your performer's CD, cue
it up in the CD player, but don't start it yet
— We'll design the hall first.
First, let's decide how long the hall is,
as this will influence the reverb time and
the overall character. Press the PARAM
button to select room size and set it to
50 meters (meaning the simulated hall
will be 50 meters long).
How close to the stage do you want
to sit? Might as well go to the good
seats— how about row M in the center of
the orchestra section? Predelay ap-
proximates the amount of time between
the original sound of the performer and
the sound of the hall. The closer you are
to the stage, the longer it will take for the
sound to bounce off the back walls and
get back to you. Let's add a little extra.
(Some predelay is inherent in the mode
to keep the direct sound distinct.) Press
PARAM to adjust PREDELAY to
24ms.
We'll assume you have side speak-
ers and skip the Panorama Effect para-
meters.
The Speech Detection feature is ac-
tually a special dialog recognition pro-
gram which reduces the reverberation
on spoken voice. As we aren't using the
radio (and, therefore, have no announc-
ers or commercials), let's turn Speech
Detection off by pressing PARAM
Think about what the walls look like
in a good concert hall. Many irregularly
shaped objects like elaborate columns,
carved panels, draping and light fixtures
come to mind.
Creating a Custom Concert Hall Seat
These objects absorb and diffuse
the sound. A good sounding space
never has a lot of high frequencies
bouncing back at you. Press PARAM to
select TREBLE ROLLOFF to manipu-
late this part of the hall. Change the
value to 2.2kHz and then press PARAM
again to go to the next parameter.
Skip the BASS BOOST parameter
for now. You can set this to taste, after
you've finished designing the hall.
Press PARAM to select MID RT. The
reverb time of a space helps describe
how large it is. For example, a cathedral
has a much longer reverb time than a
living room. Let's modify the reverb time
of our factory preset to an appropriate
value. A hall of the size we are creating
will have a reverb time of approximately
2.00 seconds for the mid frequencies.
Press PARAM until the display shows
MID RT 3.2 SEC. (indicating it will take
the midrange reverb 3.2 seconds to
decay 60dB). Press PARAM
change the value to 2.16 SEC. and
immediately press PARAM to go to the
next parameter.
.
CP-3
and Design
BASS RT describes how long the
low frequencies of the hall stay around
relative to the midrange. You have three
choices: 1.25 (warm), 1.0 (neutral), and
0.7 (dry). Typically, a hall of this size will
have a little longer bass reverb time.
(Hence, the preset value of 1.25.) This
one is your choice — use PARAM
and to change the value.
Lastly, hold the Back BALANCE but-
ton down to move the balance all the
way to the back. Now it's time to listen to
your creation. Start your CD. It should
sound like you are standing in the lobby
of the hall with the doors closed. Slowly
move the balance to the front of the hall
one step at a time by repeatedly press-
ing Front BALANCE. (Don't hold it
down.) You are now walking down the
aisle to take your seat. When the sound
feels right, stop pressing the balance
key and "take your seat." If you want to
make the effect even more dramatic,
increase the EFFECT LEVEL (bottom
to
left section of the remote.)
If you want to give your new hall a
name and save it, press STORE, then
press PARAM to select SET MODE
NAME. Press PARAM
the current program name. Now, use
PARAM to select any character in the
current name and use PARAM
to select new characters. Once you've
named your hall, press SETUP to return
to the Store menu. Press PARAM to
select STORE THIS MODE, then use
PARAM and to step to the register
where you want this mode stored. Once
you have selected a location, press
STORE.
It's fun, and pretty easy, to create
almost any acoustic space you want.
For the megalomaniacs among you try
creating your own private Taj Mahal —
in the Cathedral preset, increase MID
RT to 11.2 and turn EFFECT LEVEL all
the way up. Play a CD for a couple
seconds, then hit pause and close your
eyes ... Just remember, you can't hurt
anything by experimenting, and the fac-
tory presets can't be permanently modi-
fied, so don't worry about losing them
forever.
Enjoy!
PLUS
Theory
or to display
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