4: Element Operations • 49
©2008 Axia Audio — Rev. 3.0
Knob adjusts the amount of gain or cut applied
to the low EQ band; note that the Shelf/Peak in-
dicator next to the onscreen control automatically
shifts to Peak mode when boost is applied, and
shifts to Shelf mode when cut is applied. Press-
ing this knob toggles EQ between Active and
Bypass.
Rotating the Lo Freq knob adjusts the center fre-
quency of the low EQ band (20 - 320 Hz).
Rotating the Mid Gain and Mid Freq SoftKnobs
adjust gain and center frequencies of the mid-
range EQ band (125 Hz - 2 kHz).
The Hi Gain knob adjusts the boost/cut of the
high frequency band (1.25 kHz - 20 kHz).
Hi Freq/Shelf/Peak: Rotating this SoftKnob
adjusts the center frequency of the high EQ band
(1 kHz - 16 kHz). Pushing this knob toggles the
high-band EQ method between Peak and Shelf
modes.
Pressing EQ & Dynamics again displays the Dy-
namics screen.
Note: High, Mid and Low band adjustments
provide up to 25 dB of cut and 15 dB of boost.
Element EQ features SmartQ™ automatic band-
width system that varies the Q of the selected
parametric band to provide the most pleasing
EQ effect. For details on SmartQ, please refer
to Page 44 of this manual.
Dynamics controls are available if the selected
source is a Mic, Codec or Phone input. Pressing the Dy-
namics & EQ key twice invokes the Dynamics menu.
From here, you can add Gating, Compression and De-
essing to a microphone channel. Normally, these values
are part of a pre-set Show Profile; however, on-the-fly
control is provided for talent to make adjustments when
needed.
What is this stuff? Radio engineers don’t need
a lesson in dynamics processing, but for the ben-
et of any jocks reading this, here’s a quick ex-
planation of what these controls can do.
A Gate is a dynamics device whose function
is to remove unwanted audio material below a
certain threshold. A gain circuit is employed to
raise or lower the volume of the audio signal;
when the signal falls below a certain set thresh-
old, the audio level drops down to a predeter-
mined level. The reason they are called gates
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is because when they “close” it sounds as if
the audio has suddenly stopped, or has been
“gated.” You might use this on a mic channel to
eliminate background noise during times when
you’re not speaking.
Threshold settings determine at what level the
processor will begin working. For example, on
a compressor, when signal level exceeds the
threshold setting, it will be compressed; below
the threshold the signal will remain uncom-
pressed. On a gate, threshold determines the
minimum input level required to cause the gate
to open up and pass signal; when input level
drops below the threshold, the gate will be closed
preventing signal from passing. Carefully setting
the threshold allows you to very specically con-
trol when processing is being applied to a signal.
Compression controls the dynamic range of an
audio signal. It generally reduces the volume of
very loud audio, helping to keep from “blowing
out” the mic channel with too much volume. It
can be used to make your mic channel sound
“fatter,” evening out the highs and lows of your
vocal pattern. It can also increase the overall
perceived fullness of your voice. Too much com-
pression, however, can make your voice sound
hard and “squashed.” Use it sparingly!
To use compression, you must rst set your
threshold value (usually expressed in dB). When
the audio signal is louder than this threshold, its
gain is reduced. The amount of gain reduction
applied depends on the Compression Ratio
setting. For example, with a 2:1 ratio, for every
Figure 4-9: Dynamics menu screen.
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