Bewildered from Horsham here! Just got one of these here Behringer MDX2600 compressor limiter thingys, there's a lot of lights and knobs on it

HELP

This may help HERE

Gary also did a functions list somewhere but can't seem to find it.

Hi Brian, I use one of these for the bands. Why do you feel you need one for your disco, are you having problems?

Just wondering, as thery are not the sort of thing you would normally use.

PM me any probs or post them here, see if I can help.

To my best recall (busy weekend) I think I only did the review of the MDX2600, rather than a separate functions list - but then again...

Incidently, I'm now about to start using a 2nd MDX-2600 on my setup, PURELY as a stunningly good Auto-music-ducker for when I want the music to subtlely dip automatically, whilst I'm talking on the mic, or radio mic - out in the audience.

The MDX 2600, as well as having connectors for music coming in, and music going out, has a feature called Sidechain which has a mono in, and a mono out for a 2nd sound source eg: Mic. When the 2600 detects mic signals over a certain level in its sidechain input, it fades the music away (adjustable speed) to an adjustable lower level as you talk, then...when it detects the mic signal level is lower (eg: you've stopped talking) it fades the music back up to the previous volume again at an adjustable speed. eg: takes .5 of a second to dip the music when you start talking and takes 1.5 seconds to fade the music back up after you stop talking.

I use one on my disco set-up mainly to compensate for the standard DJ problem of hearing threshold shift - eg: where, after a couple of hours in a venue, the DJs hearing makes him think that the volume needs to go louder, then an hour or so later that it needs to go louder still etc... only evident when you walk out of the room for a couple of minutes, then walk back in and think "Gah! its loud in here." and turn the volume down again.

As far as your settings of your MDX2600 goes, I'd suggest that you stick everything on bypass first - then only take things off of bypass as you adjust them.

Start with the Peak Limiter - this is a crass'n'brash "last resort" (A bit like Weymouth ) . Consider the peak limiter to be there so that if all else fails (to keep the levels nice in a subtle fashion) the Peak limiter will BASH the signal levels over the head to stop them going past the peak limit that you set (the audience and you will both notice when the peak limiter kicks in, if it has to - the sound will be "strained"). Set this to the highest maximum level that you want the signals to ever reach, and never exceed.

Your compressor settings however, should mean that the levels are always dealt with neatly, discretely and almost inaudibly before the levels ever reach the levels where the peak limiter ever cuts in. To begin with, set your mixer up so that the signals are all iquite loud, just bouncing very (very, very) occasionally into the red, then try using the AUTO button on the Compressor section and adjust the Threshold rotary, until the signal meters on the compressor limiter are showing bouncing green LED only...the moment you see RED LEDS, it means that the compressor section of the 2600 is having to actively apply compression to the signal...if you get RED LEDs, turn the Threshold setting until only the green LEDs bounce.

Aaaahhh, many thanks Gary, I will play when I get home. I have connected it between my mixer and my amplifier in my studio so I can 'learn' how to use it before it gets racked into the amp sleeve for the disco.

if you set it up correctly you should be able to turn the amps up full. and then when you get to a certain level on your mixer, no matter what you do you shouldnt be able to go any louder.. the trick is to set this up so you dont notice it...

these setings are dependant on your system. so lots of messing about and listening is needed to perfect it....

Oooh, looks good, it's working in here! I'll play some more

Yes - its an excellent unit, especially for the price.

The auto gain control is most useful you want to set this along with the limiters and compression so that everything is at one level.

I currently don't have one and it shows - request for Boh Rap by Queen a few weeks back and went down a storm but the quiet parts could barely be heard over crowd noise. And such a recording needed a bit of enhancing anyway.

I only use the limiter function on mine to prevent the amp from clipping. (Especially good when the drunken host grabs your mic to say a few "thank yous")

Interesting point about using the side chain to duck the music when using the mic - I must go and play around with it some more.

Cheers,

Jack.