PRESONUS ACP22 User Manual page 20

your mixer or multi-tracks meters read 0dB (in the case of some digital
recorders this is -14dB).
This would be a basic, very simple but useable setting for recording
a vocal. Things to vary to suit your taste might be: adjusting the ratio and
threshold for more/less dynamic range. Push the Soft button in and
check out the Soft Knee compression curve. Take the compressor out of
Auto mode and adjust the Attack and Release times to taste. Get a new
vocalist (just kidding).
Patching Using a Patch Bay
When using a patch bay to extend the ACP-22's patch panel for
easier access, the following should be considered:
1. Lowest noise is achieved when using balanced patch bays.
2. The input and output jacks should not be normalled (the send routed
back to the return).
3. The sidechain jacks must be normalled.
Compressing and gating drums or percussion instruments.
Limiting the dynamic range of a drum kit may or may not be
something you want to do to your drum tracks, but there are some other cool
things the ACP-22 can do to make your drums really happening.
· If you think about how a snare drum sounds, it has a beginning loud sound
followed by a usually short decay. Patch a channel of your ACP-22 for
compressing the snare drum as described above and we can explore some
dramatic changes that good compression has on the snare.
For a simple setup, make sure that the: Soft button is out, Auto
button is out, Ratio is set to 4:1 on the legend, Attack is fully
counterclockwise, Release is straight up at 12:00 o'clock, Gate threshold
is fully counter-clockwise, Link button is out and Bypass button is out.
Adjust the threshold until you see about -1 dB on the gain reduction meters.
At this point, the snare's volume is simply lowered by 1 dB. Now slowly
raise the Attack time by turning the attack knob clockwise. You should
notice that the beginning 'transient' of you snare sound is starting to jump out
Basic Setup & Applications