Mackie DL806 and DL1608 Reference Guide
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Vintage Output Compressor / Limiter Introduction
Many of our audio engineer friends and other pro audio gear heads yearn for the ease of use and sound
of yesteryear. That’s right, the vintage output compressor / limiter was created with you in mind...but every
user will love using it! It meticulously recreates the feel and sound of output compressor / limiters of classic
consoles. The vintage output compressor / limiter provides a lightning-fast attack, non-linear attack / release
and program dependent release.
Dynamics may be dialed in on each channel, but the output compressor / limiter will change
the sound of the entire output. It’s best to switch between the modern and vintage output
compressor / limiter settings and use the one that sounds best to your ears. The screen shot
below displays the default vintage output compressor / limiter settings.
Vintage Output Compressor / Limiter Display and Settings
Each channel’s threshold and gain levels may be changed by dragging up [increases level] and down
[decreases level] over their respective knobs until the desired level has been achieved. To the right
are three horizontal rows of buttons for the attack, release and ratio. Simply tap the button you desire
for the attack, release and ratio. The current selection will illuminate green. The threshold and gain
settings (but not the attack, release and ratio settings) may also be manually entered via the current
parameter display. The compressor may be adjusted whether the compressor is on or off.
Threshold
— Threshold
sets the threshold of the compressor in dB below 0 dBFS.
The range of the threshold setting varies from –80 dBFS to 0 dBFS.
Gain
—
Gain adds make-up gain to the output of the compressor. This is useful to make the
apparent volume of the signal the same with the compressor in and out of the signal chain.
The range of the make-up gain varies from 0 dB to 20 dB.
Attack
—
Attack determines how quickly the compressor reacts once the signal is above threshold.
Short attack times allow compressing on short transients, while longer attack times cause these
transients to be ignored. Choose between a fast, medium or slow attack time.
Release
—
Release determines how long it takes for the compressor to end gain reduction once
the signal drops back below the threshold. Choose between a fast, medium or slow release time.
Ratio
—
Ratio sets the amount of gain reduction applied as the signal exceeds the threshold level.
Choose between 2:1, 4:1, 8:1, 12:1 and 20:1.
Vintage Output Compressor / Limiter VU Meter
To complete the classic look, the vintage output compressor / limiter is outfitted with a VU meter.
What’s more, underneath the VU meter is a set of three buttons to select between displaying the
input level, amount of gain reduction or output level. The input and output meters range from
–20 dBu to 0 dBu. The reduction meter ranges from 0 to 20 dB.
