Technical data

15
Soft Clip
Gain Reduction
MS Mode
Active
Channel Link
Mix
Gain
EQ Freq
Hz
SC Gain
dB
SC Freq
EQ Gain
Auto Fast
Feed Forward
On
Auto Fast
x10
On
Transformer
Direct
Compressed
On
Thresh
Attack
Release
Ratio
Soft Clip
Mix
Gain
EQ Freq
SC Gain
dB
EQ Gain
Auto Fast
Feed Forward
On
Auto Fast
x10
On
Transformer
Direct
Compressed
On
Thresh
Attack
ms
Release
ms
Ratio
1:X
Soft Clip
SC Freq
Soft Clip Limiter
The Soft Clipper was designed to limit short, loud transients, and thus protecting subsequent AD
converters from clipping. However, the circuit does not behave like a classic brick wall limiter, but
more like an analog tape machine driven into saturation: it rounds the peaks instead of making
hard cuts.
The Soft Clip modules are placed directly in front of the output stages. Their settings are not inu-
enced by the Mix and Gain controllers. This is also the case in MS mode, because the limiters are
located after the MS decoder and therefore are always assigned to the left and right stereo chan-
nels. Note that the channel link does not aect the circuit either – because of this the settings of
the Soft Clip controllers for both channels should always be identical!
If the alpha compressor is the last unit in the signal path before the AD converter, it is only once
that the setting of the Soft Clip limiter has to be adapted to the converter. The best would be to
use a fast, sample-accurate PPM meter to nd the right setting, because it is an accurate method
of benchmarking the resulting decrease in level.
The Soft Clip LEDs located on top of the Gain reduction meters should only light up shortly, as
noticeable distortion appears if you drive this circuit too hard. Particularly with regard to acoustic
and classical music, this feature should be used with care and moderate settings only.
BASICS - Soft Clip Limiter
Left
Input
Soft Clip
Limiter
Left
Output
Right
Input
Soft Clip
Limiter
Right
Output