Compressor Controls
The P3S ME panel can be broken down into 4 major groups of objects:
Rotary controls
> "Attack" control varies the attack time of the compressor when the AR
pushbutton is pressed. (CCW for shorter attack, CW for longer attack)
> "Release" control varies the release time of the compressor when the AR
pushbutton is pressed. (CCW for shorter release, CW for longer release)
The Attack control has a range of 1.5ms to 150ms at 10dB of compression
The Release control has a range of 15ms to 750ms at 10dB of compression
**Note that the AR timing circuit operates in the peak domain**
> "Threshold" Control varies the compression threshold between -8dB and
+15dB @ 4:1
> "Ratio" control varies the amount of compression between 1:1 to 4:1
> "Gain" control adds up to 11.5dB to the output signal.
C/A control pushbutton switch
> "C/A" pushbutton engages the Class A driver and custom wound FCS
output transformers.
The Class A board uses Foote Control Systems’
discrete op amp, the FCS OA1 which operates in Class A mode down to 600
ohms.
Sidechain control pushbutton switches
> "HPF" pushbutton enables a -6dB @ 70Hz high pass filter into the
sidechain when pressed to prevent low frequency content from dominating
the compression action.
> "F/B" pushbutton sets the topology of the compressor to feedback when
pressed. When this switch is out, it is in feedforward mode. While in
feedback mode you will notice that the Gain knob now has influence on the
ratio of the compressor, as it is interactive with the Ratio knob.