OVERVIEW
1.2 FEATURES
The following is a summary of your ACP-88’s features:
• Eight Compressors/Limiters.
Each channel of your ACP-88 contains an audio Compressor that can also be setup as a Limiter by varying the ratio of compression. You have broad control over Threshold, Ratio, Attack and Release for each processor. You can select between Auto or Manual Attack and Release curves and Hard or Soft Knee compression types (refer to the application section of this manual for a quick tutorial on compression/limiting). The Compressor will prove to be very useful in many situations such as recording instruments or vocals that vary in loudness, or setting it up as a limiting device before your digital recorder to prevent distorting your digital recorder’s inputs. Live sound system processing is another great application where your ACP-88 can really take control.
• Eight Dynamic Noise Gates.
Each channel of your ACP-88 has a separate dynamic noise gate that can be used to Gate an entire drum kit, clean up a noisy tape machine, isolate an instrument or separate a vocal from background noise. Each noise Gate provides control over Attack, Threshold, Release and Gate close Range. The Gate close range can be useful in creating a more natural sounding blend or mix when gating many instruments at once.
• Comprehensive Channel Linking.
Using the Link function allows you to combine any combination of ACP-88 channels effectively forming a subgroup. When linked, all processors follow the setting of the Master processor which is always the processor furthest to the Left in a Link group. For example, you could Link together channels 7 and 8 to form a Stereo pair, channels 3, 4 and 5 to form a subgroup of processors, while channels 1, 2 and 6 remain available for independent applications such as compression, limiting, or gating as the situation dictates.
• Separate Bypass and Gain for Every Channel.
Each Channel has a separate Bypass for auditioning a signal ‘before and after’ processing with the compressor, limiter, or the Gate and a Gain control to make up any loss in signal level resulting from the amount of compression being applied.
• Compressor Sidechain Jack on Every Channel.
Each channel of your ACP-88 was designed with a special jack for spectral processing, compression keying and ducking applications. Sidechaining is useful for removing annoying sibilance from vocal tracks (de-essing) or automatically ducking tracks behind a narrator for ‘auto mixing” a service, broadcast or performance. When multiple channels are Linked together, the Send of the Sidechain jack of the Master channel contains a mix of all the channels in the Link: a very cool feature allowing control over multiple channels of processing with one Sidechain send/return. (See the section on Sidechaining for application notes.)
• Separate Gate Sidechain/keying Jacks for Each Channel.
Your ACP-88 also includes a separate jack on each channel for Gate sidechain/Keying. This is useful for synching an external sound to a snare track, for example, or putting equalizers or filters before the Gate key to enable Gating only the lower frequency of a kick drum, etc.
• Balanced/Unbalanced Inputs and Outputs.
Your ACP-88 accepts either balanced or unbalanced inputs and outputs using tip-ring-
sleeve (TRS) connectors.
• + 4dBu or – 10dBV.
The internal operating level of your ACP-88 can be switched between +4dBu (pro levels) to –10dBV (line levels), making it possible to use in any situation.