Yamaha EMX312SC Owner's Manual - Page 18

BASIC Making the Most of Your Mixer the way down, then gradually bring the reverb into the mix until you can just hear the difference. Any more than this normally becomes a "special effect." You don't want reverb to dominate the mix unless you are trying to create the effect of a band in a cave-which is a perfectly legitimate creative goal if that's the sort of thing you're aiming for. The Modulation Effects: Phasing, Chorus, and Flanging All of these effects work on basically the same principle: a portion of the audio signal is "time-shifted" and then mixed back with the direct signal. The amount of time shift is controlled, or "modulated", by an LFO (Lowfrequency Oscillator). When we say "time shift," however, we're not talking in terms of minutes or even seconds. For phasing effects the shift is very small indeed - a difference measured in degrees of phase shift rather than time units. The phase difference between the modulated and direct signals causes cancellation at some frequencies and reinforces the signal at others - a "comb filter" effect - and this causes the shimmering sound we hear. Phasing is the subtlest of all these effects, producing a gentle shimmer that can add life to a wide range of sources without being too obtrusive. For chorus and flanging the signal is actually delayed by several milliseconds (a millisecond is a thousandth of a second), with the delay time modulated by an LFO, and recombined with the direct signal. In addition to the combfilter effect described above, the delay modulation in these effects causes a perceived pitch shift which, when mixed with the direct signal, results in a harmonically rich swirling or swishing sound. The difference between chorus and flanging effects is primarily in the amount of delay time and feedback used - flanging uses longer delay times than chorus, whereas chorus generally uses a more complex delay structure. Chorus is most often used to thicken the sound of an instrument, while flanging is usually used as an outright "special effect" to produce otherworldly sonic swoops. Compression Have you ever wondered why professionally produced recordings sound so different from your own? There are numerous reasons, of course, but one important factor is the judicious use of compression. One form of compression known as "limiting" can, when properly used, produce a smooth, unified sound with no excessive peaks or distortion. Compression can also OUTPUT be used within a mix to make a voice or instrument seem to come forward, or simply to even out level differences. Compression can be used to make a mix seem bigger and louder by producing a more "saturated" sound. Professional compressors have numerous parameters that need to be carefully adjusted: attack, release, threshold, level, and sometimes more. A professional sound engineer might need to spend a considerable amount of time, based on a considerable amount of experience, to set each of these parameters to achieve the desired sound. The EMX compressor makes achieving great sound much easier. All you need to do is set a single "compression" control and all of the pertinent parameters are automatically adjusted for you. The engineers who designed this fine compressor paid careful attention to achieving the best sound quality possible so that you can quickly achieve pro-quality compression without having to (Min) (Max) INPUT 18 EMX512SC/EMX312SC/EMX212S