Antares TA-1VP Manuale Utente

Used on a vocal track, this setting will compress only hot 

peaks in the voice, while gating out the room sounds, 

mike stand sounds, and breath noises in the track. 

Precisely what gets compressed and gated is a function of 

the compressor and gate threshold settings.
The graph below shows a dynamic expander. In this 

application, the gate threshold and ratio are set to gently 

expand the program material at a 1 to 1.5 ratio. The 

compressor ratio is set to 1 to 1. The setting is useful for 

repairing over-compressed material or for adding some 

punch to drums or other percussive sounds.

OUTPUT

LEVEL

INPUT LEVEL

LOUDER

LOUDER

GATE THRESHOLD

1 TO 1.5 EXPANSION RATIO

COMPRESSOR

THRESHOLD

The graphs shown above have what are described as 

“hard knees” in their gain curves. This means that as the 

signal passes through the threshold, the gain reduction 

it receives will begin abruptly. In settings where the 

compression or expansion ratios have high values, the 

abrupt change can be heard and often sounds artificial.
To make it possible to create settings where the 

dynamic effects are more natural sounding, the TA-1VP 

incorporates a Knee control which allows you to soften 

the transition between sections of the gain curve. The 

graph below shows a curve which has “soft knees,”making 

the dynamic transitions more subtle.

OUTPUT

LEVEL

INPUT LEVEL

SOFT KNEES

KNEE = 100

 COMPRESSOR THRESHOLD

 GATE THRESHOLD

The attack time of a compressor is how long it takes for 

the compressor to react once the input level has met 

or exceeded the threshold level. With a fast attack time, 

the signal is brought under control almost immediately, 

whereas a slower attack time will allow the start of 

a transient or a percussive sound to pass through 

uncompressed before the processor begins to react.
For sounds without percussive attacks (voices, synth pads, 

etc.), a fairly short attack time is usually used to ensure 

even compression. For instruments with percussive 

attacks (drums and guitars, for example), a slower attack 

time is typically used to preserve the attack transients 

and, hence, the characteristic nature of the instruments.
The illustration below shows the effect of various the 

attack times.

UNCOMPRESSED INPUT

COMPRESSED
1 mSEC ATTACK

COMPRESSED
10 mSEC ATTACK

The release time of a compressor is the time it takes for 

the gain to return to normal after the input level drops 

below the threshold. A fast release time is used on rapidly 

varying signals to avoid affecting subsequent transients. 

However, setting too quick a release time can cause 

undesirable artifacts with some signals. On the other 

hand, while slower release times can give a smoother 

effect, if the release time is too long, the compressor 

will not accurately track level changes in the input. Slow 

release times may also result in audible level changes 

known as “pumping.”