MW Leveler Response Knob?

hammerman · Post by **hammerman** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 6:23 am

Can anyone tell me exactly what this knob does? It seems to decrease the compression effect when turned up? I am loving the sound of this BTW. I think it may be the best plug MOTU has ever made

mongoose · Post by **mongoose** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 7:24 am

I believe it puts some kind of a filter on the compressor's (internal) sidechain, a HPF IIRC. This lets you focus on higher transients and not, say, squash an entire drum kit every time the kick rumbles. It's a really useful parameter.

If I have remembered this incorrectly (not at the studio machine right now), then my apologies.

Jim · Post by **Jim** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 8:02 am

My initial impression was that it appears to be a high pass filter. At 100%, it passes all frequencies.

magicd · Post by **magicd** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 8:13 am

On the rear panel of the original hardware LA2A, there is a machine screw. That machine screw is the Response control on our MW Leveler. Like everything else on the MW Leveler, the Response control is a faithful model of the parameter on the original hardware.

Input signal is sent to a detector circuit. The detector circuit controls the gain reduction circuit.
The LA2A was a funky bit of gear and those quirks are what makes up it's overall sound. One of those quirks is that the signal going to the detector circuit is not flat frequency response.

The set screw on the back of the original hardware and the Response control on the MW Leveler affect the frequency response of the signal that is sent to the detector circuit.

As you turn the knob from left to right, you are introducing a notch filter to the signal (that is triggering the detector circuit). The notch starts at around 4k and at the full right position is around 2k. As you sweep the knob from left to right, you increase and widen the notch, as well as lower the frequency of the notch.

What this means is that as you notch out 2-4k going into the detector circuit, the circuit responds less to those frequencies. The detector circuit become more sensitive to frequencies above and below the notch.

Examples:
Leveler is applied to snare. The wires of the the snare decay slower than the drum head response and at a higher frequency. Therefore with flat detector response, the Leveler continues to reduce gain based on the decay of the snare wires. If you pull down the Response, the detector circuit is less sensitive to the snare wires and more responsive to the drum head itself. You get faster and more accurate tracking of the overall snare drum.

A vocal track has sibilance and maybe some low frequency pops. However, the dominant frequencies of the vocal track are upper midrange, and the leveler is most responsive to the body of the vocal and less responsive to sibilance and the pops. By increasing the Response control, less of the body of the vocal is sent to the detector circuit and the detector becomes more sensitive to sibilance and pops. You get better control over sibilance and low frequency junk.

Ain't this stuff too cool?

Dave

MIDI Life Crisis · Post by **MIDI Life Crisis** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 8:32 am

magicd wrote: Ain't this stuff too cool?

Dave

Man, that just makes me Dizzy!

hammerman · Post by **hammerman** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 8:54 am

Dave, you and MOTU are just too cool!

Thanks for the thorough explanation! I will copy and file that

groove · Post by **groove** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 8:56 am

hammerman wrote:Dave, you and MOTU are just too cool!

Thanks for the thorough explanation! I will copy and file that

Ditto.

Thanks Dave

kassonica · Post by **kassonica** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 9:11 am

Most excellent Thanks a bunch for this.

monkey man · Post by **monkey man** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 9:55 am

magicd wrote:Ain't this stuff too cool?
Dave

IMHO, it's you and MOTU who're too cool.

Eleventh Hour Sound · Thu Jul 17, 2008 10:58 am

magicd wrote:On the rear panel of the original hardware LA2A, there is a machine screw. That machine screw is the Response control on our MW Leveler. Like everything else on the MW Leveler, the Response control is a faithful model of the parameter on the original hardware.

Input signal is sent to a detector circuit. The detector circuit controls the gain reduction circuit.
The LA2A was a funky bit of gear and those quirks are what makes up it's overall sound. One of those quirks is that the signal going to the detector circuit is not flat frequency response.

The set screw on the back of the original hardware and the Response control on the MW Leveler affect the frequency response of the signal that is sent to the detector circuit.

As you turn the knob from left to right, you are introducing a notch filter to the signal (that is triggering the detector circuit). The notch starts at around 4k and at the full right position is around 2k. As you sweep the knob from left to right, you increase and widen the notch, as well as lower the frequency of the notch.

What this means is that as you notch out 2-4k going into the detector circuit, the circuit responds less to those frequencies. The detector circuit become more sensitive to frequencies above and below the notch.

Examples:
Leveler is applied to snare. The wires of the the snare decay slower than the drum head response and at a higher frequency. Therefore with flat detector response, the Leveler continues to reduce gain based on the decay of the snare wires. If you pull down the Response, the detector circuit is less sensitive to the snare wires and more responsive to the drum head itself. You get faster and more accurate tracking of the overall snare drum.

A vocal track has sibilance and maybe some low frequency pops. However, the dominant frequencies of the vocal track are upper midrange, and the leveler is most responsive to the body of the vocal and less responsive to sibilance and the pops. By increasing the Response control, less of the body of the vocal is sent to the detector circuit and the detector becomes more sensitive to sibilance and pops. You get better control over sibilance and low frequency junk.

Ain't this stuff too cool?

Dave

I don't think it's far fetched to pay $200 for the Leveler. When you add in the Proverb, I think these two plug ins alone justify the cost of the upgrade for DP users...

Tomrabbit · Post by **Tomrabbit** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 4:19 pm

Thanks Dave, I was very curious about that.

+1 on what RecordingArts said.

DP6 is working nicely here.

MIDI Life Crisis · Post by **MIDI Life Crisis** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 5:31 pm

Tomrabbit wrote:
DP6 is working nicely here.

It rally is. I just have to learn the new interface. This old dog needs ot sit and RTFM - again!

Shooshie · Post by **Shooshie** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 12:47 am

Dave, thanks for the information about the notch filter in the Leveler. It's great to get the inside story. I don't think that was in the manual, though the manual did say that you might get different results on different passes, which I thought was cool. I guess it depends on the speed of the return to normal.

Also, thanks for a job well-done in DP6. I've found only a few glitches, but have yet to determine whether they were yours or mine; very likely just mine. And yes, I think a lot of us probably are going to want to chat with you guys about the interface, but it's not bad, and 90% of it is fantastic. I like the look. The speed increase is amazing, too.

I'd sure like to know one thing: was this the big Cocoa rewrite?

Shooshie

kassonica · Post by **kassonica** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 1:18 am

shooshie Wrote:

'd sure like to know one thing: was this the big Cocoa rewrite?

I'd like to know as well

Tim · Post by **Tim** » Fri Jul 18, 2008 4:37 am

Shooshie wrote:
I'd sure like to know one thing: was this the big Cocoa rewrite?

Real Hershey's Cocoa!