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I purchased a Behringher UltraDrive DCX 2496 to use as a delay unit for a convention where we have multiple loudspeakers. I would like to use a bit of compression to the live sound. This unit has something called "Dynamic EQ" whereby it can boost or cut certain frequencies depending on the volume level. Can this Dynamic EQ be configured so that all frequencies are cut if the volume exceeds a threshold like a compressor? If not in what kind of situations is "Dynamic EQ" used? Thanks.
Edits: 06/05/08Follow Ups:
This unit is totally different then a compressor limiter
If you have the Dynamic unit cut all the freqs as the volume increases
your basically turning the overall output down and keeping it at
a level like a limiter
You dont have compression and an attack and release time
Ive seen Behringer compressors used on huge live sound systems with
large sound companies
They are usable and you can get one cheap
If it fails throw it out and buy a new one
Get a compressor limiter and use the other unit for what it was intended for.
In spite of what Mr Grumpy says, Behringer actually is a good deal for the money. The alternatives would cost at least 10x more. There is an issue about reliability with the Behringer stuff, so keep that in mind.
The DCX is really a crossover with time delay and a little bit of EQ.
Behringer does offer other things that would meet your needs. A popular one would be the DEQ 2496. This can feed a digital signal to the DCX so there would not be an extra conversion(s). The street price is about $275. Of course, you can also spend considerably more if you would like. Or simply buy a second one as a back up. It would also provide some noise reduction and quite a bit of EQ possibilities.
Having been a former distributor when they were ripping AKG/Aphex, Mackie and everyone else off, I can say that their imitation/replication stuff was much better than the self engineered crap. We saw high failure rates. They swapped parts big-time, so the quality varied from run to run. They were cheaper to replace than service, which is why they generally went into the compactor.
Sound wise, their converters have issues with ringing.
Their manuals are terrible.
Their factory support is worse.
Sorry for you for purchasing Behringer. For compression you should look at quality audio equipment.
With just a little tweaking the DCX can reach audiophile quality.
All you need is:
1) Direct-to-board properly terminated 75ohm connection for SPDIF
2) Output stage mods (or just replace with passive)
3) Power supply mods
4) New clock circuit (and get rid of the CS8420)
5) Mods to grounding scheme (analog and digital grounds, coupling caps)
I've done 1 and 2 and I'm still not happy with the thing, although the sibilance and high-end dreck is largely gone. With the sibilance gone, one can hear how much detail is ACTUALLY there... and it's good but no great hell.
I think one must do 1 through 4 at least, and all five to really clean things up and make the piece audiophile worthy.
It's a highly sophisticated device for the money, but unfortunately, all the money went into tech and not into important things like power supply, digital inputs, analog outputs, and the ground plane scheme.
Until I modded mine it was just shelved and sat there collecting dust. A $100 soundcard in my PC sounded better than the unmodded DCX.
Cheers,
Presto
I'm new to this field and was attracted by the lower cost.
For another project, I am now considering the dbx Driverack 260. That seems to be have more and better features but is more expensive.
I'm not clear on what the dynamic EQ is for. Maybe emulate a "Bag End" subwoofer processor? Automatically correct for the Fletcher-Munson curve at higher volumes?
But, I think the regular compressor/limiter feature in the DCX2496 will do what you want.
I don't see any compressor options; only a hard limiter options in the menu and the manual! Am I missing something?
The price is excellent and the 96/24 sampling gives non-digitized sound. But the lack of compression seems to be very unfortunate, reducing it's scope of usefulness.
Recently, i found myself back at FOH for a once a month local non profit group jam band. I was in need of a system proccessor and i looked at everything from mild to wild. I ended up buying the DCX2496 as much as it pained me to do so. The DCX just had so much more in terms of flexibility and control then anything else on the market shy of several K. it was the best bang for the buck i could find. and as a Pro A/V designer i have access to almost anything.The Software for the driverack stuff sucks. sorry but it does. what was the final clencher for me was how many DIY'ers there are out there rolling there own stuff for the DCX. the core of the DCX system isn't bad.
As my situation was a once a month gig. this unit fit the bill quite nicely. Add a wireless serial card to a tablet PC and you can walk the room while making adjustments to the DCX. nice slick setup.
The DCX has 2 compressor sections. Overall compression and frequency selective compression plus a 3rd section for brick wall limiting.The frequency selective compression is nice for various situations. for example you can add compression to the low end only. this allows open clean clear vocals and yet will tighten up the bottom end a bit without killing the vocal dynamics etc.
Or, lets say you are using the DCX as the main system processor and using the sum feature to send a mono feed out to the lobby where the speakers are of the 8" crappy paging quality type. the freq selective compression can really help bring forward the vocals or speech and help control the dynamics from popping and rattling those poor crappy ancient paging speakers to death.
Or, i also use a DCX as my monitor chain processor. a little trick i play on the singer who can never have the monitors loud enough is to add a little bit of compression across the midrange of his monitor channel at a level where the monitors are loud but within control and 9 times out of 10 during sound check when we get to that level where the compressor starts kicking in, he stops asking me to turn it up and we are a good 6-9 db or more, quieter then where he would normally stop without the compressor. I have since been able to crank it back another 2-3 db or so in small increments and he has never said anything about it! same thing could be done elsewhere int he chain as well im sure. but this way the settings are locked in and repeatable.
Another function of the DCX i like is being able to back up my settings to a card and recall them later when we return to each venue. I really wish that they used a USB stick instead of a PCMCIA card.
The DCX is the one piece of Behringer gear in my system and the one Behringer piece i would buy over again!
Thanks for that very informative post. You say:
"The DCX has 2 compressor sections. Overall compression and frequency selective compression plus a 3rd section for brick wall limiting."
Is it possible to do frequency independent compression? It seems that compression is frequency dependent :-(
I'm not really sure how you manage the paging or vocal setups! Assume you compress the frequencies from 500Hz to 5kHz wouldn't the other un-compressed frequencies get louder? For example in the paging scenario, if it is setup so that the vocal frequencies are compressed and I play music, wouldn't the uncompressed sounds from the bass guitar be louder than the compressed vocals and ruin the speakers? Am I missing something? Maybe you could post the EQ settings you use?
When you compress something. the differences between quiet sounds and loud sounds becomes less. Quiet sounds get louder, loud sounds get quieter so to speak in simple terms.
Every scenario is different so me posting my settings would be completly useless to anyone not in the same room with the same PA etc.
But you are right about the frequency ranges. when you compress say 500-5K everything in those bands gets louder in relation to everything else. With a paging application this helps everything in those ranges be heard at low volume levels. and helps limit loud surges. Everything below is at a lower volume level and I usually do a little EQ to roll off the bottom end anyway to protect the speakers.
Lets say you have a snare drum. everytime the drummer whacks that drum there is a very large peak. if you try and record this. you have to turn the level way down so those peaks don't distort. If you put a compressor in front, then those large peaks get squashed a bit and what happens is now you can turn the input to your recorder up a bit more before it distorts. everything else in the background then comes up with that level. the difference between the quiet background noises and the peaks is now much smaller.
For guitars this can help bring out harmonics and help hold sustain longer.
In the instance of my singer. he is used to hearing the monitors compress a bit when they get real loud. so to trick him, i set the compressor lower in overall volume level. he hears the compressor kick in and he thinks its louder then it really is!!!
The overall compression in the DCX is frequency independent. the frequency selective section you can compress frequency ranges and bring the overall level of that range then up or down. so i squash a section then bring that level up to to compensate or sometimes higher to bring that section to the front. this is all old school sound guy tricks that i picked up years and years ago by guys that really knew how to get the most out of old altecs and 30 watt mac tube amps for PA use cause thats all they had!
Thanks for the quick reply but it is still unclear :-(
Yes, I understand how compression works and it is generally used on individual mic signals (before being mixed) if issues like vocalist or snare drum compression is needed. In the case of the DCX 2496, my assumption is that the compression is happening after the final mix (since it is usually connected between the mixer & amplifier) and that the compression is frequency dependent. So if no other compressors are used and the Behringer is set to do dynamic EQ from 500-5000 Hz (approx vocal range) for -6db gain and a -20db threshold, when the vocalist goes to 0db in the mix, the output from the DCX 2496 is -6db. But if there is a bass guitar at 0db, (assuming that most of it's signal is below 500hz) it will not get compressed and be output to at 0db and hence overdriving the cheap paging speaker. Is this correct?
Is the compression on the DCX 2496 frequency dependent or not? You say it is frequency independent. Then why do we key in the frequency? Unfortunately I do not have access to the unit at the moment. I could access it after a few days if necessary.
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