DigiDesign Bomb Factory, Manual

Page: 24 / 84

Bomb Factory Plug-ins Guide 18
How BF-2A is Used
One beautiful side effect of the LA-2A’s elegant
design is that it’s easy to hear the compression
action. When the BF-2A’s two knobs are set
properly, you know you got it right. It’s a great
unit for learning the art of compression!
Setting the Compression Action
The Peak Reduction and Gain controls combine
with the Comp/Limit switch to determine the
amount and sound of the compression.
Peak Reduction controls the amount of signal
entering the side-chain, which in turn affects
the amount of compression and the threshold.
The more Peak Reduction you dial in, the more
“squashed” the sound. Too little peak reduction
and you will not hear any compression action;
too much and the sound becomes muffled and
dead sounding.
Gain provides makeup gain to bring the signal
back after passing through peak reduction.
The Comp/Limit switch affects the compression
ratio. The common setting for audio production
is Comp, which provides a maximum compres-
sion ratio of approximately 3:1. In Limit mode,
the unit behaves more like a broadcast limiter,
with a higher threshold and compression ratio
of approximately 12:1.
Using the Side-Chain Filter
The BF-2A provides an extra parameter, a side-
chain filter, that does not have a control on the
plug-in interface, but that can be accessed on-
screen through Pro Tools automation controls.
In addition, the side-chain filter can be adjusted
directly from any supported control surface.
This side-chain filter reproduces the effect of an
adjustable resistor on the back panel of the
LA-2A. This control cuts the low frequencies
from the side-chain, or control signal, that de-
termines the amount of gain reduction applied
by the compressor.
By increasing the value of the side-chain filter,
you filter out frequencies below 250 Hz from the
control signal, and decrease their effect on gain
reduction.
‹
A setting of zero means that the filter is not
applied to the side chain signal.
‹
A setting of 100 means that all frequencies be-
low 250 Hz are filtered out of the side chain sig-
nal.
To access the side-chain filter on-screen:
1
Click the Plug-in Automation button in the
Plug-in window to open the Automation Enable
window.
2
In the list of controls at the left, click to select
Side-Chain Filter and click Add (or, just double-
click the desired control in the list).
3
Click
OK
to close the plug-in automation win-
dow.
4
In the Edit window, do one of the following:
• Click the Track View selector and select
Side-Chain Filter from the BF-2A sub-
menu.
– or –
• Reveal an Automation lane for the track,
click the Automation Type selector and se-
lect Side-Chain Filter from the BF-2A sub-
menu.
5
Edit the breakpoint automation for the BF-2A
side-chain filter. Control range is from 0 (the de-
fault setting where no filtering is applied to the
side-chain) to 100% (maximum side-chain fil-
tering).