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Overview
The JOEMEEK mc2 is a professional studio-quality stereo compressor in
a compact half-rack format.
Simple to use yet extremely powerful, the mc2
will bring out the best in any line-level stereo material and
a professional studio production to all your performances. It can be used
both for recording, mastering and live work.
Think of the stereo mc2 as three separate items of equipment:
A line-level stereo Preamplifier.
A stereo JOEMEEK Optical Compressor.
A stereo Width Processor
Preamplifier
The front end to the mc2 accepts any type of line level (ie: preamplified)
audio signal. The inputs are electronically balanced.
Line inputs are not normally used directly with microphones, they may be
suitable for some high output unbalanced microphones, such as battery
powered Electret types.
The Line input jacks are balanced and wired as follows:
Tip: + (hot)
Ring: - (cold)
Sleeve: ground
The "Input Gain" control covers a range of amplification from -6dB to
+15dB. This enables the mc2 to be matched to sound sources at both
-10dBv to +4dBu operating levels.
clipping, so occasional brief flashes are OK but if it's on all the time you
need to back the Input Gain off!
Compressor
The hardest device to understand, yet one of the most useful, the
PhotoOptical Compressor is what gives Joemeek products their unique
character. Its job is to make quiet sounds louder and loud sounds quieter,
or in other words to reduce the dynamic range of the programme material.
It's a bit like manually riding the volume control, except the compressor
does it automatically, responding far quicker and more accurately than you
ever could by hand. The compressor is applied in several ways:
1. Make Sounds Stand Out
Because compressors make loud sounds quieter, you can boost the
volume of the quiet bits without the loud bits getting even louder. That
means you can raise the average level of an instrument or vocal in the mix,
which has the effect of lifting it and bringing it forwards. This can actually
improve vocals for example, bringing them out in front of a mix, making
them sound denser, more even, and more confident!
2. Crank Up The Volume
Raising the average volume of whole mixes means they can be heard in
noisy environments, such as vehicles and factories. Boosting the average
level is what makes radio stations sound LOUD and the same technique is
used on TV commercials too, which is why they always seem annoyingly
louder than the movie you were trying to watch!
3. Protection
Fast response times are generally used to control brief transients. In other
words if an occasional peak sticks its head above a maximum permitted
level, the compressor clobbers it; this is known as limiting and a
compressor designed solely for this purpose is known as a Limiter.
Limiters are primarily used to protect recorders and monitor systems from
overload, radio transmitters from overmodulation, etc. The Joemeek
compressor is not primarily intended for this purpose as the Attack is not
really fast enough to satisfy radio station requirements, although it is
generally good enough to protect recorders and monitors, where the effect
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give the gloss of
Note: although the
The PEAK LED lights 6dB below
Insert Point
This is simply an unbalanced "Send and Return" jack on the rear panel. It
allows you to patch other pieces of equipment into the compressor's
control side chain, such as an equalizer or filter. To use it you will need a "Y"
lead wired as follows:
Tip: send
Ring: return
Sleeve: ground
When no jack is inserted, the socket is internally linked, or "normalled", so
that the control signal flows uninterrupted.
VU Meter
The LED VU Meter shows signal level at the outputs. It covers the range
-24dB to +12dB in eight steps. Note that this is relative to the selected
operating level of "+4dBu" or
"-10dBv". In other words if you have selected
"4dBu" and the meter reads "0", then you have +4dBu coming out of the
output sockets. If you have selected "-10dBv" and the meter reads "0",
then you have -10dBv coming out of the output sockets.
of transients is less critical. Normally you should not hear a limiter
operating but if it is driven hard constantly, it can render a mix somewhat
flat and lifeless.
4. Accommodation
The dynamic range of the human ear is phenomenal, extending from the
threshold of hearing (eg: a pin dropping onto soft carpet) to threshold of
pain (eg: standing next to a jet aircraft) - some 120dBA in all. By contrast,
vinyl, cassette tape and radio broadcasts all have a dynamic range of
about half that. Since the advent of the CD, the dynamic range of the
medium is far less of an issue and compressors are used more to give a
certain "feel" to a production. AM and FM radio however, is still very much
compressed to fit its restricted dynamic range.
5. Modification
A compressor can change the dynamics, or "envelope" of the track and it is
here that the Joemeek Compressor excels!
Types of Compressor
Most compressors work in essentially the same way: a volume-controlling
element or "gain cell" is inserted into the audio signal path. The level of the
signal at any given moment is measured and that information is used to
control the gain cell. So if the signal gets bigger, the volume is turned down.
Various types of gain cell in common use include FETs, valves (tubes),
light-dependent-resistors (photoelectric), digital potentiometers and
voltage-controlled-amplifiers, better known as VCAs.
The mc2 Compressor is a unique recreation of the sort of photoelectric
compressor used by record producer Joe Meek in the 1960's. Using
modern components for consistency and reliability, it nonetheless
reproduces faithfully the same punchy sound that was so characteristic of
the pop records of that time.
Compression Ratio
What?? OK, it's simpler than it sounds. If the input gets 10dB louder but the
output only increases by 5dB then the compression ratio is "2 to 1". If the
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