User manual KLARK TEKNIK DN530

[. . . ] DN530 Creative Quad Gate Operator Manual Klark Teknik, Klark Industrial Park, Walter Nash Road, Kidderminster. Tel: +44 1562 741515 Fax: +44 1562 745371 Email: info@midasklarkteknik. com Website: www. klarkteknik. com DN530 Creative Quad Gate -- Operator Manual DOC02-DN530 Issue B -- February 2010 © Red Chip Company Ltd. In line with the company's policy of continual improvement, specifications and function may be subject to change without notice. E&OE. IMPORTANT SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS The lightning flash with arrowhead symbol within an equilateral triangle is intended to alert the user to the presence of uninsulated "dangerous voltage" within the product's enclosure that may be of sufficient magnitude to constitute a risk of electric shock to persons. [. . . ] This style of metering provides an intuitive moving LED indication that ramps up and down as the signal level moves around the threshold point. The metering comprises the following LEDs: Label CLIP ACC THR HLD REL SHUT Colour Red Blue Green Yellow Orange Red Function Clip LED for showing when the signal is being clipped. Accent LED for showing when the ACCENT control is applying positive signal gain. Over threshold LED for showing when the signal has gone over threshold. Release LED for showing when the RELEASE control is delaying gate closure. Shut LED for showing when the gate is closed to the level set by the RANGE control. DN530 Operator Manual 15 Chapter 4: Front Panel Sidechain section The signals that feed the gate's sidechain are called the "sidechain". The sidechain section for each channel can be broadly divided into two areas: filter and solo. The filter section comprises the FREQUENCY control knob and the FILTER and EXT pushbuttons, and the solo section consists of the SOLO pushbutton. 7 6 5 4 Item 1 2 Type LED (yellow) Pushbutton Label Not applicable EXT Function 1 2 3 On/off status indicator for the EXT pushbutton. Switches the source of the signals that feed the sidechain from incoming gate signal to external input connection, and vice versa. On/off status indicator for the SOLO pushbutton. 3 4 5 6 7 Control knob Pushbutton LED (green) Pushbutton LED (yellow) FREQUENCY FILTER Not applicable SOLO Not applicable 16 DN530 Operator Manual Chapter 5: Rear Panel The rear panel of the DN530 (shown below) has three main connector sections: mains input, solo bus and the four channels. Mains input Solo bus Four channels Mains input The mains input section has a mains IEC socket, below which is a fuse drawer. The mains input is an auto-voltage sensing switch mode power supply that operates where normal mains voltage is in the range 100V AC to 240V AC. The fuse drawer houses the mains fuse Fuse drawer at the rear of a two-compartment drawer. Always replace the mains fuse with one of the same type and rating, as printed to the right of the fuse drawer. Mains IEC socket Channels There are four similar channel sections on the rear of the DN530. Each section comprises an input and an output XLR chassis connector, and a 1/4" TRS connector. These are used for connecting to external line level signals, such as a mixing console's insert connections. Input (female XLR connector) External sidechain input (1/4" TRS jack) Output (male XLR connector) DN530 Operator Manual 17 Chapter 5: Rear Panel Solo bus The solo bus section comprises an input and an output XLR chassis connector. These are connected to an external monitor input, such as a mixing console, or they can be daisy-chained to other units being monitored (see Figure 3, "Daisy-chaining the DN530s (solo bus), " on page 23). Input (female XLR connector) Output (male XLR connector) Solo connections 18 DN530 Operator Manual Chapter 6: Gate Control Functions This chapter gives details of the control functions of the DN530 gate. Attack Attack is the time taken for the gate to open after an over threshold signal. The shape of the attack is fixed and has been carefully tailored to produce a transparent gating action. Hold Minimises chattering in conjunction with the internal hysteresis. Once the signal has been detected as having fallen below threshold, this control defines a waiting period before the gate starts to close. This is particularly useful for low frequency material and instruments with oscillating or unpredictable decay envelopes. Release Release is the time taken for the gate to close after the programme material falls back below threshold. As with attack, the shape is crucial to the sound and has been tailored to produce the most transparent gating action possible. Range Controls the amount of gain reduction that is applied to signals below threshold. The gain reduction can be infinite, but things often sound more natural when it is backed off to only 10dB or 15dB. With this type of setting, the background noise and spill remain at a reduced level, but become less noticeable because they do not noticeably switch in and out with the gating action. [. . . ] (An unbalanced connection only has two cables, one of which, the grounded shield, is also used for signal return. ) As the hot and cold cables are of equal voltage (and the same source impedance), but of opposite polarity, when they are subtracted any noise voltages -- caused by interference and noise pick-up -- appearing identically on both cables is cancelled out; the difference between them being the resultant signal. However, in practice the electrical noise on both cables will never be identical, and the degree to which it is reduced is measured by the common mode rejection ratio (CMRR). The electronically balanced input and output connections of the DN530 have the benefit of high common mode rejection (CMR), which eliminates externally induced interference such as mains hum etc. CMR is the ability of a balanced input to reject the part of the incoming signal that has the same amplitude and opposite phase on both input terminals, referenced to ground. [. . . ]