15
Using CA-2A T-Type Leveling Amplifier
CA-2A T-Type Leveling Amplifier is suitable for just about any audio material. It sounds
especially good on vocals, and also works great on guitar, electric and upright bass, guitars,
piano, wind instruments, and other tracks that need gentle compression. It even works well on
full-program mixes.
Percussive instruments that have a lot of peaks, such as drums, may require more care.
Although CA-2A T-Type Leveling Amplifier works great for certain kick drum sounds, you may
want to combine CA-2A T-Type Leveling Amplifier with another compressor with a faster
release time and more precise control. For details, see
“Using CA-2A T-Type Leveling Amplifier
on drums”
on page 16.
Unlike a traditional compressor that has Ratio, Threshold, Attack, Release and Make-up Gain
controls, CA-2A T-Type Leveling Amplifier is very straightforward with only two primary controls:
Gain
and
Peak Reduction
.
Peak Reduction
controls the amount of compression and
Gain
controls the post-processed output level.
The most common problem caused by the use of a compressor/limiter is excessive distortion.
This normally indicates that the limiter is active too much of the time (threshold is too low). To
correct the distortion, turn the
Peak Reduction
knob counter-clockwise.
Typical workflow
1.
Insert CA-2A T-Type Leveling Amplifier on a track or bus, normally before effects like
reverb and delay.
2.
While listening to the project, adjust the
Peak Reduction
control until the compressor
exhibits the desired amount of compression. You may want to set the VU meter to show
gain reduction (GR). A good target is to keep the gain reduction around 4-8 dB
continuously.
3.
If desired, adjust the
R37
(pre-emphasis) control according to the amount of high frequency
content in the audio material. Turn the knob counter-clockwise to increase compression of
high-frequency content, such as vocal sibilance.
4.
Adjust the
Gain
control to achieve the desired output level. You may want to set the VU
meter to show output level (dBFS, +10 or +4).
5.
If your host program has an effect bypass toggle, use the toggle to compare the
compressed signal with the unprocessed signal.
