Bypass Section
On the left lower corner is the ENGAGE button. The unit is
IN
when its engage led is LED. When
the
ENGAGE
button is
OUT
, the entire unit is bypassed. To hear any changes the Compressor may
be making, the
ENGAGE
button must be
IN
. The unit will also pass signal in bypass when fully
disconnected from mains power. When you use it in Unlink mode, remember that it the
ENGAGE
will be unlinked too, this way you will be able to bypass only one channel.There is one exception
to the rule: When you work in M/S mode, unlinking the compressor will not unlink the Engage
button and it will still remain lnked.
Clip Indicators
Two red LEDs illuminate if the headroom has been exceeded. This can occur by driving a signal
too hard into the Compressor, or by applying too much boost woth the make up gain. Clip
detectors are located at the output of the compressor. If clipping does occur, lower the input level
feeding into the unit until the LEDs stop blinking.
Presets
On the lower right corner is the
PRESET
section (pictured above), which saves and recalls the
entire state of the unit. The multi-purpose knob can rotate as a digital encoder and be pressed as
a menu selector button in tandem with the 3-digit LED Read-out. Operation is described in detail
below in
Part V, Software
.
Stereo / Dual Mono / MS
Over the preset section is a stereo/dual mono selector button (pictured above). This unlinks the
channels ofthe C502V to allow dual mono and MS processing. For example, during tracking, one
channel could equalize the main vocal, and the other the bass. In mastering, one channel could
have a di
ff
erent setting than the other (with caution to
avoid dynamics and image shift if making extreme changes). Or, an built in MS converter may be
used to separately compress the M and S channels during mastering. You can even use di
ff
erent
modes on Mid and Side.
Currently the
CH
button cycles through three states. A long press (about 1 second) switches
between LINK (stereo) and UNLINKED (dual mono) mode. A short press switches channels when
in UNLINKED mode.
For example:
1) Unit is in stereo operation and
LINK
is illuminated.
2) Press
CH
to switch the unit to dual mono; the indicator now displays
1
showing you are in
control of channel 1. The state of channel 1 is remembered from the last time the dual mono state
was used, so no information will be lost when switching back and forth between Linked and Dual
Mono states. When unlinking, both channels receive the same setting (setting of channel 1). So If
you use the dual mono mode, be aware that linking it back will copy channel 1 setting to channel
2.
3) Press
CH
(a short brief touch) and the indicator displays
2
showing you are in control of channel
2. You can alternate between controlling channel 1 or 2 by a simple short press of the
CH
button.
4) Press and hold
CH
(for about 1 second) and the equalizer returns to
LINK
mode
USB Activity
The USB LED lights up when the equalizer is connected to a host computer. Activity shows up as
USB LED
blinking.
Front panel DIM.
The fornt panel LEDs have 20 levels of brightness. To change the brightens of the fornt panel,
push and hold the Attack/Release button and adjust with the preset encoder.
