User manual ALESIS MODFX SMASHUP

[. . . ] Reference Manual This page intentionally left blank 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% © 2002 Alesis. 7-51-0121-A 8/2002 Table of Contents Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Welcome!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 About the Smashup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Important features of your Smashup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Smashup Key Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 How to Use This Manual. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Safety Instructions/Notices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Important Safety Instructions (English). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 CE Declaration Of Conformity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 FCC Compliance Statement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Instructions de Sécurité Importantes (French) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Lesen Sie bitte die folgende Sicherheitshinweise (German) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 If you can't wait to get started. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Hook it up to a synthesizer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 A quick overview of the controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Rear Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Quick Start Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Unpacking and Inspection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Installing in a Rack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Power. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Connecting to the Channel Inserts of a mixing console: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Connecting to the Main Outputs of a mixing console: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Connecting to the inserts on an instrument amplifier: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Connecting to equipment with XLR inputs and outputs:. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 About audio cables. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Using the ModLink. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Using the Smashup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 What is a compressor?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 What the controls do . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 How the Smashup goes beyond "just compression" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Operational advice. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Gain structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Description of Controls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Threshold. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Attack. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Look Ahead. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Release. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Sizzle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Type Select Switch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Bypass. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Using the Foot Switch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Sample Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Blank Settings Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Troubleshooting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Troubleshooting Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Avoiding ground loop noise. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 1 Table Of Contents Line conditioners and spike protectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Care and Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Refer all servicing to Alesis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Obtaining repair service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Specifications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Audio Input . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Audio Output. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Audio Performance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Mechanical . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Warranty/Contact Alesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Alesis Limited Warranty. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Alesis Contact Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 2 Introduction Welcome! Thank you for making the Alesis Smashup a part of your studio. [. . . ] Almost every lead vocal on a pop record is compressed during tracking or mixdown. Often the entire stereo mix is compressed or limited during the mastering process. A compressor/limiter like the Smashup is essentially an automatic volume control. Imagine an engineer with his hand on a fader and his eyes on an input level meter. As long as the meter stays below a certain point (the threshold), he leaves the fader up and the gain is unchanged. But the instant the sound gets louder, the engineer pulls down the fader by a certain amount. After the sound gets soft again, the engineer will push the fader back up. That's what the Smashup is doing, except much faster and more accurately than humanly possible. Paradoxically, by cutting the peak levels, the Smashup allows you to raise the average level of a sound using the [OUTPUT] control and make the overall sound louder. By coordinating the [THRESHOLD] and [OUTPUT] controls, you can set a stable sound that will hold its position in the mix regardless of the dynamics of the instrument or vocal. Compression is the tool to use when you want a lead vocal to go from a scream to a whisper and not get buried behind the instruments. 23 3 Using the Smashup What the controls do Let's go back to the "engineer with his hand on a fader and eyes on the meter" analogy. The top panel controls simply tell the "engineer" what rules he should follow. [THRESHOLD] tells him how high the input level can rise before he has to start pulling down the fader: if it's turned full clockwise, he won't pull down his fader at all; if it's turned full counter-clockwise, he'll have his hand on the fader even for very faint sounds. For example, in Classic mode, Smashup acts as a compressor/limiter with a ratio of 4:1. That means that if the input rises above the threshold by 8 decibels, the output will only be allowed to rise 2 decibels. In Transparent mode, the compression ratio is a gentler 2:1, so an input 8 dB above the threshold will be allowed to rise 4 dB. In most modes, the detector of the Smashup looks at peak levels, not the average level of the signal. In addition, each compressor has its own "knee" characteristic (hard or soft). Soft-knee compressors allow signal levels near the threshold to be compressed more gradually. The [ATTACK] and [RELEASE] controls involve the speed of the engineer's response, as does the [LOOK AHEAD] switch. Short attack times may order the engineer to pull down the fader 1/10, 000th of a second after he sees a too-loud signal; long attack times tell him to let transients less than about 1/5th of a second pass. [RELEASE] tells the engineer how quickly he should push the fader back up again after a loud signal has stopped; when it's turned counter-clockwise, he pushes the fader back up instantly, and when it's full clockwise, he may take take a few hundred milliseconds to push his fader back up to unity gain. [. . . ] Customers outside of the USA and Canada are not covered by this Limited Warranty and may or may not be covered by an independent distributor warranty in the country of sale. Do not return products to the factory unless you have been given specific instructions to do so. 42 Specifications Audio Input Input Connectors: Maximum Input Level: Nominal Level: Input Impedance: Input Converter Resolution: 2 unbalanced 1/4" jacks +10 dBV -10 dBV 470k 24-bit, 48 kHz sampling All measurements done over a 22Hz ­ 22kHz range with a 1kHz sine wave at -1dBFS input. Impedances are measured at 1kHz. Audio Output Output Connectors: Maximum Output Level: Output Impedance: Output Converter Resolution: 2 unbalanced 1/4" jacks +9 dBV 500 24-bit, 48 kHz sampling Audio Performance (Analog In to Analog Out) Signal To Noise Ratio: THD+N: Frequency Response: Internal DSP Resolution: Power Consumption: >100 dB A-weighted < 0. 005% ± 1dB from 22Hz to 22kHz 28-bit 7 Watts max (9VAC Alesis P3) Mechanical Size: 2. 1" H x 5. 8" W x 3. 9" D (53mm H x 148mm W x 98mm D) 12. 6oz. (357 g) Weight: 43 6 Specifications This page intentionally left blank. 44 Index amplifier, 20 Attack, 16, 24, 28 BYPASS, 16, 32 with foot switch, 32 cables, 21 Classic, 24, 30 clipping, 29 compression defined, 23 compression ratio, 30 defined, 24 De-Ess, 31 digital converters, 32, 43 digital signal processing, 4 DSP, 43 Fat, 31 feedback, 26 FOOT SWITCH, 16, 32 Ground Loop, 39 grounding, 7 guitar, 18 hard knee/soft knee, 30 Hums and buzzes, 39 INPUTS, 15 INPUTS and OUTPUTS, 16 Insert Cables, 19 knee, 24 levels, 21, 26 Look Ahead, 16, 24, 28 mixing console hookup, 20 ModFX, 4, 22 ModLink, 4, 16, 22 and Bypass, 32 noise, 26 Opto, 30 Output, 23 knob, 16 knob, 24, 29 OUTPUTS, 15 on ModLink slave units, 22 power adapter, 17 Power cable, 7 Pump, 31 pumping and breathing, 26, 28 Rack mounting, 17 Release, 16, 24, 28 Safety, 7 SIGNAL LED, 15, 16, 18, 21 Sizzle, 16, 29 stereo, 18, 19, 26 Threshold, 16, 23, 24, 27 transformers, 21 Transparent, 24, 30 TRIM, 15, 16, 18 active in bypass mode, 32 Type, 16, 24, 25 Type Select Switch, 30 XLR, 21 45 Warranty / Contact Alesis Alesis Limited Warranty ALESIS CORPORATION ("ALESIS") warrants this product to be free of defects in material and workmanship for a period of one (1) year for parts and for a period of one (1) year for labor from the date of original retail purchase. 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