Specifications

Chapter 11: Dynamics III 69
Unlike scales on analog compressors, metering
scales on a digital device reflect a 0 dB value that
indicates full scale (fs)—the full-code signal
level. There is no headroom above 0 dB.
Compressor/Limiter III Graph
Display
The Dynamics Graph display lets you visually
see how much expansion or gating you are ap-
plying to your audio material. See “Dynamics III
Graph Display” on page 67.
Compressor/Limiter III
Threshold Control
The Threshold (Thresh) control sets the level
that an input signal must exceed to trigger com-
pression or limiting. Signals that exceed this
level will be compressed. Signals that are below
it will be unaffected.
This control has an approximate range of –60 dB
to 0 dB, with a setting of 0 dB equivalent to no
compression or limiting. The default value for
the Threshold control is –24 dB.
An orange arrow on the Input meter indicates
the current threshold, and can also be dragged
up or down to adjust the threshold setting.
The Dynamics Graph display also shows the
threshold as an orange vertical line.
This control ranges from –60 dB (lowest gain) to
0 dB (highest gain).
Compressor/Limiter III Ratio
Control
The Ratio control sets the compression ratio, or
the amount of compression applied as the input
signal exceeds the threshold. For example, a 2:1
compression ratio means that a 2 dB increase of
level above the threshold produces a 1 db in-
crease in output.
This control ranges from 1:1 (no compression)
to 100:1 (hard limiting).
Compressor/Limiter III Attack
Control
The Attack control sets the attack time, or the
rate at which gain is reduced after the input sig-
nal crosses the threshold.
The smaller the value, the faster the attack. The
faster the attack, the more rapidly the Compres-
sor/Limiter applies attenuation to the signal. If
you use fast attack times, you should generally
use a proportionally longer release time, partic-
ularly with material that contains many peaks in
close proximity.
This control ranges from 10 s (fastest attack
time) to 300 ms (slowest attack time).
Threshold arrow on input meter
Threshold indicator on Dynamics Graph display