Clean up your acts. New DP548 firmware features!

The very observant of you will have seen the new banner on our website extolling the virtues of the DP548 as your means of making the best of your sound no matter what the application may be – live sound, club install, theatre, cinema, karaoke bar (if you are Chinese  this seems to be an increasingly popular choice!).

Well, excuse me for this cliche, but the best has just got better.  To coincide with the Frankfurt ProLight+Sound show in Frankfurt (6-11 April – what do you mean you aren’t going?  We’re in Hall 8.0, Stand F60 – thanks for asking), there is a new release of firmware for this, our flagship processor.

Anyone who has played with a SiDD, or a D2, you’ll be aware of the fact that the dynamic EQ filter could be switched to a high or low shelf response as well as working like a traditional parametric band.  In the  case of the D2 ”outside” bands could also be set to full range allowing the band to work as a compressor or expander as well.

This functionality has now been added to all bands of dynamic EQ in the DP548, greatly increasing the flexibility of the dynamics on the input side of things.  Let me explain further…

Switching an band of DEQ to full range and changing the mode to cut below the threshold, transforms this band into a downwards expander, so can be used for soft gating.  Change the mode to cut above the threshold and stay with full range, and you’ve got a compressor.

Switch two bands to boost below the threshold and set one to low shelf and one to high shelf and you’ve got a dynamic loudness control that will progressively end up at a flat response above the threshold you choose.  If you set very slow attack and release times on these bands, and make use of the ”max gain” setting to limit the amount of shelving emphasis, this will provide very effective compensation at low levels then disappear as the night gets louder…

Switch one band to cut below the threshold and turn it into a high shelf – using a reasonably fast envelope (attack at about 50mS, release at about 100mS) and you have a handy single ended noise reduction system to curtail HF noise and clean up hissing mic channels.

All but the auto-loudness application only use one of the three bands on an input so you’re still left with a couple of DEQs to tidy up any other problems.  Remember that the sidechains can be linked (as long as the channels are control linked) so your stereo image will be preserved.

If you’ve any suggestions for other uses we’d be interested in hearing about them 🙂