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User’s Guide
19
Stereo and Mono Sidechain Compressors for Tracktion
Soft Clip On and Threshold
The Soft Clip switch activates a soft-clip limiter
circuit. There is also a threshold slider. When
the output level goes above this threshold, the
soft-clip circuit kicks in. This circuit starts add-
ing analog-style distortion, which rounds off
transient peaks, and avoids the harsher sound
of a straight digital clip. The lower the thresh-
old, the more analog-style distortion is added. If
the threshold is set too low, you hear this as a
very crunchy distortion sound. It is best to keep
the threshold between –3 dB and –1 dB unless
you are going for a special sound effect.
The Soft Clip LED (next to the slider) activates
when the signal is above the soft-clip threshold,
so keep an eye on it.
The soft-clip circuit is the last thing in the sig-
nal processing chain.
Node Editing
So far, we have just shown the use of the
threshold and end point controls to set up a
simple compressor.
One of the very powerful features of the com-
pressor, is it allows you to draw your own curve
between the threshold and the end point, and
really shape that Jello mold. Up to four nodes
can be added to the curve. This depth of editing
is helpful in defi ning detailed nuances in your
curve such as hard knee, soft knee, and expan-
sion.
The fi gure below shows 3 extra nodes – labeled
1, 2, and 3. These nodes are being used, in
this case, to essentially draw a knee for the
compressor curve. This gives a nice smooth
transition from applying minimal compression
at low input levels, to much higher compression
at higher levels.
Nodes can be added to the contour graph by
right-clicking the mouse on the contour graph.
Right-clicking on the graph where there is no
node adds a node, up to a maximum of 4. Right-
clicking on an existing node removes it.
The four numbered nodes always appear in
order from left to right. You can't add a node be-
tween, for example, nodes 1 and 2, even if they
are the only nodes active.
Node Selector Knob
You can also add or remove nodes by using the
Node Edit Selector knob and toggling the Active
Node switch. Click on the knob and move the
mouse either vertical or horizontal to rotate it
and select a node. Use the Active Node switch
to turn a node on or off.
The position of a selected node can be adjusted
by using the Input and Output level sliders.
These sliders do not appear for the threshold
and End Point nodes, just nodes 1 to 4.