Studer OnAir 500 Modulo, Operating Instructions Manual

Page: 78 / 118

OnAir 500 Digital Mixing Console
Dynamics 6-1
Date printed:
30.07.04
6 DYNAMICS
The OnAir 500 offers gating, compression and limiting capabilities to each
input channel on the console. The choices are:
• Gate
• Compressor
• Compr Gate (comp gate)
• Limiter
• LimiterGate (l gate)
When the
DYN button is selected, the four-character input display on any
channel having a dynamics processor active will automatically switch to
showing gain reduction and/or gate open/closed activity.
6.1 Gate
A gate (also referred to as “noise gate”) is used to control unwanted back-
ground noise. This is achieved by setting a threshold level, where loud sig-
nals will be able to pass through (gate open), while the softer ones will not
(gate closed).
A typical example might be a low-level noise coming from an air condition-
ing unit in the studio that is picked up by the presenter’s microphone. When
the presenter is talking into the microphone, his voice is sufficiently loud to
“mask” the sound of the air conditioning unit, but when he stops speaking
the unwanted sound can be clearly heard.
A gate could be set-up to only remove the low-level noise coming from the
air conditioning unit, i.e., when the presenter stops speaking, the gate closes
and no signal is passed.
Gate Parameters: Threshold As mentioned above, the threshold is the point at which the gate closes, which
results in the noise signal being muted. Signals above the threshold level
pass through unaffected. Signals below the threshold level will not be able to
pass through the gate.
Attack
The attack time determines how fast the gate opens when a signal exceeds
the threshold level.
Hold
The hold time determines how long the gate stays open after the input signal
has dropped back below the threshold level.
Decay The decay time determines how fast the gate will close after the hold time
has expired.
Depth The depth control determines to what level the gate closes . A level of 0 dB
will mean that the gate does not close at all, and all signals pass through. A
level of –80 dB will mean that the gate closes completely whenever the sig-
nal level drops below the threshold setting. This control can be used to pre-
vent the gate’s action being too abrupt and noticable.
Gate Display: When a gate is assigned to a channel and the
DYN
button is pressed, the input
display will show gate open/closed activity by illuminating the first two
blocks of its lower line when the gate is closed .