User manual DIGITECH VCS1

[. . . ] WARNING FOR YOUR PROTECTION, PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING: Water and Moisture: Appliance should not be used near water (e. g. near a bathtub, washbowl, kitchen sink, laundry tub, in a wet basement, or near a swimming pool, etc). Care should be taken so that objects do not fall and liquids are not spilled into the enclosure through openings. POWER SOURCES: The appliance should be connected to a power supply only of the type described in the operating instructions or as marked on the appliance. [. . . ] The LED shows when sibilants are being attenuated. ··· 6 ··· PEAK LIMITER THRESHOLD The Peak Limiter puts an instantaneous "ceiling" on the transient peak levels of your audio material without affecting dynamics below the threshold. This feature is essential for digital recording and speaker protection for live sound. In the furthest clockwise position, the limiter is off. Turning the control counter-clockwise engages the peak limiter. The LED shows when peak limiting occurs and the VU meter (in the G. R. switch position) will show the amount of attenuation. COMPRESSOR THRESHOLD The compressor threshold control is used to set the minimum level at which you want gain reduction to occur. Turning this control counter-clockwise from the rightmost +20 dBu position brings the threshold lower so that more of the program material is compressed. The Green (-) LED shows that the audio signal is below the threshold and is not being compressed. The Red (+) LED shows that audio has exceeded the threshold and is being compressed. Note: The legend around this control are calibrated for the Hard Knee setting. When you switch to Soft Knee, you should turn this control 10 dB in the clockwise direction to achieve equivalent gain reduction due to the increased gain of the soft knee detector circuit. COMPRESSOR RATIO This control varies the amount of "squeeze" you need for the audio material that exceeds your threshold setting. Turning the control clockwise from the 1:1 (off) position increases the ratio from gentle compression (2:1 to 8:1) to hard limiting (>8:1). Compression is expressed as a ratio to show that, for a specified increase in input level, there will be 1dB increase in output. For example, a ratio of 10:1 means that for a 10 dB increase in input level, the output will only increase by 1 dB. ATTACK TIME The Attack Time control allows you to tailor how fast the compressor acts on audio exceeding the threshold. Slowing the attack time allows a little of the input transient from a drum or guitar to slip through before compression sets in. This can preserve punch while keeping levels under control. Faster attack times tend to cause a more obvious compression effect. RELEASE TIME Release Time is the time it takes for the compressed signal to return to its original level once the input signal is no longer above threshold. The VCS-1 uses a true logarithmic timing circuit called "TLC" (True Logarithmic Compression) that more closely matches the response curve of human hearing and results in very natural-sounding dynamic control. [. . . ] A common usage is to feed a bass drum track into the sidechain return while a send from a bass guitar track is connected to the VCS-1's line input. The line output of the VCS-1 is fed to another mixer channel at a slightly higher level so that when the gate opens in time with the bass drum, there is a little dynamic boost in the bass track. ··· 10 ··· Creative effects are possible with sidechain gating as well. Sustained sounds from a synthesizer can be layered onto real drums without MIDI using the technique described in the preceding paragraph. Run a synth tone such as noise, or a pure sine wave into the line input of the VCS-1 and out to a mixer channel. [. . . ]