Compressor Switch (12 Band); Low Band Rotary Control (12 Band) - TRACE ELLIOT AH1200-12 Owner's Manual

The compressor in the 7 Band series uses studio quality, dedicated dynamics controller integrated circuits and
has been specifically designed for bass guitar due to the common problems often experienced when using a
normal, single band compressor in this application.
With a standard compressor, the transition from non-compressed to compressed, i.e. crossing the threshold,
can often be abrupt and unnatural sounding, especially at high ratio settings. Also, the normal pre-set attack
and release times always have to be a compromise between having it work fast enough to catch rapidly
changing signal levels (i.e. transients such as slapping techniques) or too fast which can cause low frequency
distortion.
To tackle these issues, the compressor on the 7 Band range has been designed as a soft-knee compressor with
programme dependant adaptive attack and release times.
Soft-knee means that, above the threshold, compression is applied gradually, with the ratio increasing as the
input level goes up. The result is a smoother sounding compression than the normal hard-knee type.
Adaptive attack and release means that these settings are automatically and constantly adjusted by the
circuitry depending on what is being played. It will adjust to be slow to prevent distortion at low frequencies
and then readjust to be fast to catch transients. It enables a bass player to switch between various playing
styles such as finger style, slapping or plectrum, and the compressor will self-adjust its attack and release times
accordingly.
The simple single control makes setting the desired amount of compression easy as it is effectively controlling
the threshold, ratio and make-up gain simultaneously. This is considerably less complicated than setting up
a studio compressor from scratch as most of the hard work has been done by our engineers and incorporated
into the circuitry.
The circuit has been tuned so there should be little nominal signal level difference when switching the
COMPRESSOR on and off, however this is dependant on the correct setting of the INPUT GAIN control. If
you find that the level increases too much when switching the COMPRESSOR on, then slightly turn up the
INPUT GAIN. The opposite applies if the compressed sound is too low.
Compression is good for generally controlling the dynamic range and preventing distortion, and also as an
effect. It sounds great for slapping techniques, for making harmonics more prominent, and for fattening up
grooves or smoothing out notes in a run.
Please be aware that due to the nature of any compression circuit that then adds make-up gain to bring the
nominal level up, dialling in high levels of compression will increase high frequency hiss between notes.
This is not hiss added by the compressor circuit, but hiss that is already present in the signal and then being
amplified. However, as this is only really noticeable when not actually playing, if high levels of compression
are desired it is possible to prevent the noise from being heard too much by using the footcontroller to turn off
the compression or muting the signal when nothing is being played.

(14) COMPRESSOR switch (12 Band)

Pressing the switch will add the dual band COMPRESSOR to the signal chain. The blue LED above the
switch shows its status. It can also be switched on and off using the supplied footcontroller.

(15) LOW BAND rotary control (12 Band)

This adjusts the amount of compression applied to the low frequencies in the signal; the further clockwise the
control is set, the more the dynamic range of the low end will be squeezed.
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