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Using the Smashup
24
What the controls do
Let's go back to the "engineer with his hand on a fader and eyes
on the meter" analogy. The top panel controls simply tell the
"engineer" what rules he should follow. [THRESHOLD] tells him
how high the input level can rise before he has to start pulling
down the fader: if it's turned full clockwise, he won't pull down
his fader at all; if it's turned full counter-clockwise, he'll have his
hand on the fader even for very faint sounds.
How far does he pull the level down? That depends on the
[TYPE] setting, as will be explained later. For example, in Classic
mode, Smashup acts as a compressor/limiter with a ratio of 4:1.
That means that if the input rises above the threshold by 8
decibels, the output will only be allowed to rise 2 decibels. In
Transparent mode, the compression ratio is a gentler 2:1, so an
input 8 dB above the threshold will be allowed to rise 4 dB. In
most modes, the detector of the Smashup looks at peak levels, not
the average level of the signal. In addition, each compressor has
its own “knee” characteristic (hard or soft). Soft-knee
compressors allow signal levels near the threshold to be
compressed more gradually.
The [ATTACK] and [RELEASE] controls involve the speed of the
engineer's response, as does the [LOOK AHEAD] switch. Short
attack times may order the engineer to pull down the fader
1/10,000th of a second after he sees a too-loud signal; long attack
times tell him to let transients less than about 1/5th of a second
pass. [RELEASE] tells the engineer how quickly he should push
the fader back up again after a loud signal has stopped; when it's
turned counter-clockwise, he pushes the fader back up instantly,
and when it's full clockwise, he may take take a few hundred
milliseconds to push his fader back up to unity gain.
The [OUTPUT] control is simply a gain control located after our
"automatic engineer in the box". Since the engineer will pull the
fader down when he “sees” levels above the [THRESHOLD]
setting, it’s up to you to compensate for that action by raising the
output level, if that’s necessary to restore the average level after the
peaks have been removed.
The most important controls are the [THRESHOLD] and
[OUTPUT] knobs. They both interact to get the effect you want,
and that requires some experimenting.
A
ttack/Release times
vary by Type
I
n fa ct, e ac h Typ e h as its own
A
ttac k/Relea s e be ha v io r a nd
tim e ra n ge s.