New Style Compression - C400Xl - TC Electronic C400XL User Manual

C400XL - New style
compression
- an innovative approach to compression
Do you recognize the situation where you read
about a technology, maybe even in details, and
feel that you really understand the concept?
Then, once you are in a stressed environment
and try to apply you new found wisdom you
loose the overview and though it looked really
good on paper you now don't seem to pull its
full potential.
Parallel compression could actually be one
those "understandable when read" technologies
that you tend to mess up in a real life situation.
With the C400XL New Style Compression
NSC™ you can avoid this unsatisfactory
situation. C400XL gives you a totally new
approach and some stunning results based on
the thoughts behind parallel compression in a
one touch operation with no unintended side
effects.
Furthermore you don't have to deal with
complex un-tweakable relations between time
constants, gain structures and ratio settings.
The optimized presets do the job for you. Just
add music, tweak a few parameters and you
are flying.
Parallel Compression
As described earlier, compression is a matter of
controlling the peaks in the signal in a way that
doesn't decrease the quality of the incoming
audio signal. An example could be if you
experience peaks in the vocal or the instrument
signal that changes the feeling of the incoming
source's position in the final mix, or if the preset
materials you are working with are way too
different in volume. A good example would be a
snare drum drum with various outputs from
beat to beat.
Or how about the situation where you have an
extremely dynamic vocal with significant
differences from the highest to the lowest
peaks. At the same time you want to enhance
the singer's breath and the low-end frequencies
to make it more present and sounding as if the
singer is just a few inches away.
You still want to maintain the signal's dynamic
range and keep the peaks in the signal to make
C400XL PROCESSING
it more musical to listen to.
How is this done?
Well the answer is complex parallel
compression. Normally this is setup on the
mixing console.
When setting up a traditional "parallel
compression", you
- route the direct and uncompressed signal to
a stereo bus (bus A)
- simultaneously you route the signal to a
stereo bus with a stereo compressor
inserted.
- then you route the processed signal to bus A
also.
Seems pretty simple, but there are definitely
downsides to that method. - If you make any
level changes on the compressed or the direct
signal it will affect your stereo mix due to the
lack of level-compensation in the two signals.
Also - you cannot mix digital and analog
devices in the chain unless time-align all
signals correctly. So there are several pitfalls
that invites to mistakes, - especially in stressed
situations.
DON'T WORRY. The C400XL New Style
Compression will assist you in setting up
parallel compressions fast and easy. A unique
feature that so far is unseen in a compact unit.
The main object
- is mixing the unprocessed signal with the
compressed signal. Mixing is easily done using
the MIX knob. Setting MIX to 100% lets the
C400XL operate as a regular compression.
Setting MIX in any position between bypass
and 100% applies "new style compression".
Why?
What does it do to the sound? The higher
dynamics are better preserved and at the same
time the details from the lower dynamic parts of
the signal.
Try to apply parallel compression on a
drum kit. You will discover that all the
lower details are smack in the face,
while all the bells and high dynamics of the
snare and cymbals are preserved and
"uncompressed", so to speak.
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