Operating Instructions
INPUT LEVEL and LED signal meter
The input level controls the signal running through the SRE330. It affects both the wet and
dry signals. With the pot fully counter clockwise the signal is completely shut off.
The signal meter shows the audio signal level going to the bucket brigade delay (BBD)
circuitry. If the signal is too high then the BBDs will be overdriven and produce significant
distortion. If the signal is too low then the inherent noise produced by the BBD circuits will
become very noticeable. The aim then is to have as large a signal as possible without
introducing too much distortion.
The input level should be set so that the yellow HIGH LED on the signal meter will pulse in
time with the input signal. If the red PEAK LED lights up the BBDs will be distorting.
However, depending on the signal that is going through the SRE330, overdriving the BBDs
for very short intervals may be acceptable. Indeed, sonically this can produce some interesting
artefacts. No harm will come to the unit if the unit is run continually in the red.
It should be noted that the input signal is compressed prior to be being sent to the BBDs to
reduce the likelihood of overdriving the BBDs and to improve overall signal to noise ratio.
The signal meter is monitoring the signal after it has been compressed, so the SRE330's meter
will behave slightly differently to normal LED meters such as that found on your audio mixer.
Any compressor takes a certain time to react to the input signal so very fast transient signals
will cause the higher signal LEDs to light even when the apparent volume is quite low. Since
the signal meter monitors the signal going into the BBDs it may be necessary to set the input
level lower for, say, drum loops, than for synth pads, to avoid any unwanted distortion.
INPUT MODE (Switch)
The SRE330 is a stereo in – stereo out effects unit. However, sometimes it may be useful to
allow the left and right audio inputs to be summed together to mono before sending them to
the BBD circuits. Consider, for example, a synth producing a piano type sound which is
typically spread across the stereo field with lower notes panned left and higher notes panned
right. If the SRE330 were used to add a little stereo chorus to this sound it is effective to have
all notes treated equally and let the chorus enhance the stereo imaging. The input mode can
then be switched to MONO which removes the stereo information from the input before
applying it to the chorus circuitry. The input mode switch does not affect the dry signal which
is left as a stereo signal.
The SRE330's stereo inputs can be used with mono sources. Simply connect the jack plug to
the right hand input socket and the input signal will be applied automatically to both the left
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