Klark Teknik DN540 manual

Klark T eknik, Klark Industrial Park, W alter Nash Road, Kidderminster . Worcestershire. DY1 1 7HJ. England. T el: +44 1562 741515 Fax: +44 1562 745371 Email: info@midasklarkteknik.com Website: www .klarkteknik.com DN540 Creative Quad Compressor Operator Manual DN540 Creative Quad Compressor — Operator Manual DOC02-DN540 Issue B — February 2011[...]

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IMPORT ANT SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS The lightning flash with arrowhead symbol within an equilater al triangle is intended to alert the user to the presence of uninsulated “dangerous voltage” within the product's enclosure that may be of sufficient magnitude to constitute a risk of electric shock to persons. The exclamation point within an equil[...]

INSTRUCTIONS DE SÉCURITÉ IMPORT ANTES Le symbole représentant un éclair fléché dans un triangle équilaté ral a pour but d'alerter l'utilisateur de la présence d'une "tension dangereuse" non isolée à l'intérieur du boîtier , pouvant être d'une force suffisante pour constituer un risque d'électro[...]

EC-Declaration of Conformity Klark Teknik DOC04-DN540 ECDOC Rev. C EC-Declaration of Conformity The undersigned, representing the following manufacturer Manufacturer: Address: Midas Klark Teknik Ltd. Klark Industrial Park, Walter Nash Road, Kidderminster. Worcestershire. DY11 7HJ. hereby declares that the following product Product Type Number Produ[...]

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DN540 Operator Manual vii Precautions Before installing, setting up or operating this equipment please ensure that you have read and fully understand all of this section an d the “IMPORTANT SAFE TY INSTRUCTIONS” at the front of this manual. This equipment is supplied by a mains volt age that can cause electric shock injury! The following specia[...]

Precautions DN540 viii Operator Manual Installation Before installing the equipment: • Power plugs must be inserted in socket outlets provided with protective earth contacts. The electrical supply at the socket outlets must prov ide appropriate over-current protection. • Both the mains supply and the quality of earthing must be adequate for the[...]

Precautions DN540 Operator Manual ix Safety equipment Never remove, for example, covers, housings or any other safety guards. Do not operate the equipment or any of its parts if safety guards are inef fective or their eff ectiveness has been reduced. Optional equipment Unless advised otherwise, optional equipment must only be installed by service p[...]

Precautions DN540 x Operator Manual[...]

DN540 Operator Manual xi Contents Chapter 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Features . . . . . . . [...]

Contents DN540 xii Operator Manual Auto mode with hard knee (exponential RMS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24 Auto mode wi th soft knee (exponential RMS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24 Limiter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24 Simple compressio n (auto mode) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [...]

DN540 Operator Manual 1 Chapter 1: Introduction Thank you for purchasing a Klark Teknik DN540 Creative Quad Compressor. The DN540 is a user-friendly, high-performance , four-channel (quad) analogue compressor designed for live sound reinforcement primarily on tour, in theatres and at corporate events, with applications in both front-of-house and mo[...]

Chapter 1: Introduction DN540 2 Operator Manual The presence control progressively reduces compression in the 5kHz region. Attenuation depth and input level meters are provided, plus a switch that changes the output level meter to mo nitor the input signals. A external sidechain input on the rear panel is switchable via the front panel. Application[...]

Features DN540 Operator Manual 3 Features The DN540 has the following features: • Great sounding compressor that provides good audio performance at extremely low noise and distortion levels. • Easy to use basic compressor , requiring minimum set up to produce excellent results. • Advanced envelope gener ator with manual controls that can be e[...]

Chapter 1: Introduction DN540 4 Operator Manual[...]

DN540 Operator Manual 5 Chapter 2: What Is A Compressor? The natural sounds of everyday life, which can be caused by anything from, say, the falling of a leaf to the roar of a jet engine, vary extremely widely in sound level. This variance is known as the “dynamic range” and is the difference — expressed in decibels (dB) — between the loude[...]

Chapter 2: What Is A Compressor? DN540 6 Operator Manual The level of a vocal may vary widely. As shown in the typical example in Figure 1 “Compression - signal level graphs”, the unprocessed signal has a large dynamic range between the highest and lowest levels. Applying compression reduces the highest levels, thus reducing the dynamic range, [...]

Unwanted side effects DN540 Operator Manual 7 Providing controls for threshold, attack, re lease and ratio, and providing responsive metering can go along way towards helping with suitable parameter set up for any signal source, such that most of the negative effects above can be reduced or eliminated. However, this is a complex and cr itical task [...]

Chapter 2: What Is A Compressor? DN540 8 Operator Manual[...]

DN540 Operator Manual 9 Chapter 3: Getting Started Observing the IMPORTANT SAFETY INSTRUCTIO NS at the front of the manual and the guidelines in "Precautions" on page vii, carry out the following to get your DN540 unit fully operational. Unpacking Carefully unpack your DN540 equipment package. Then, inspect the DN540 unit carefully for an[...]

Chapter 3: Getting Started DN540 10 Operator Manual Connecting the power cable Making sure that the mains power at the po wer outlet is off, connect the mains cable supplied with your DN540 to the mains power outlet and then to the mains socket at the rear of your unit. Connecting the audio cables Making sure that all equipment is switched off, con[...]

Connecting the audio cables DN540 Operator Manual 11 Sidechain inputs The electronically balanced sidechain inputs are on stereo 1/4” TRS connectors. Inserting a mono jack plug will automatica lly unbalance the input. The following diagram shows the sidechain input connection details. The 1/4” TRS co nnector wiring details are as follows: Tip R[...]

Chapter 3: Getting Started DN540 12 Operator Manual Connecting to un balanced equip ment Ideally, you will be making the best use of the DN540’s low-noise high-headroom balanced inputs by connecting to similarly balanced equipment. However, if you do have to connect to unbalanced devices, the following wiring is recommended for best results (see [...]

DN540 Operator Manual 13 Chapter 4: Front Panel Overview The front panel of the DN540 has four m ain channel sections, each containing a number of control knobs, pushbuttons and LEDs. All of the switches on the front panel are of the latching pushbutton type and have two positions, in (on) and out (off ). Each of these switches have an associated L[...]

Chapter 4: Front Panel DN540 14 Operator Manual Compressor section Each compressor section houses six compressor parameter control knobs, a bypass switch and a hard knee switch, and two sets of six-LED meters (attenuation and level). Item Type Label Function 1 Control knob ATTACK Adjusts the time taken for the compressor to respond after an over th[...]

Switch section DN540 Operator Manual 15 Switch section The switch section has four switches for: changing the compressor mode; switching the signal level meter from output signal to input signal; external sidechain; and channel linking. 11 LED (red) Not applicable On/off status indicator for the BYPASS pushbutton. 12 LED meter LEVEL Signal level me[...]

Chapter 4: Front Panel DN540 16 Operator Manual[...]

DN540 Operator Manual 17 Chapter 5: Rear Panel The rear panel of the DN540 (shown below) has a mains input section and four channel connector sections. Note: Although the rear panel of the DN540 has cutouts for two solo bus connectors, these are unused on this unit and are therefore blanked off. Mains input The mains input section has a mains IEC s[...]

Chapter 5: Rear Panel DN540 18 Operator Manual[...]

DN540 Operator Manual 19 Chapter 6: Compressor Control Functions This chapter explains the control functions of the DN540 compressor. Attack Attack is the time it takes for the compre ssor to respond once the threshold has been exceeded. Attack may be set so that the initial transient of the instrument passes through unaltered, or set to a faster v[...]

Chapter 6: Compressor Control Functions DN540 20 Operator Manual Release time plays a very important role in compression. During periods of high signal level, gain is reduced. When the signal level falls below the threshold, the gain will increase at a rate determined by the RELEASE control knob. If the release time is short, the gain will rise qui[...]

Threshold DN540 Operator Manual 21 Threshold The compression threshold is the point at wh ich the compressor begins to operate. Signals that exceed this point, that is, go over threshold , will be affected by compressor actions. However, signals below the threshold do not trigger any co mpression, but may still be affected by compression releases f[...]

Chapter 6: Compressor Control Functions DN540 22 Operator Manual Soft knee and hard knee The point where the slope of the compressor curve changes is known as the “knee”. The DN540 can be set to operate as either a soft knee or hard knee compressor; the effects of both can be seen in Figu re 5 “Soft knee and hard knee graphs”. Figure 5: Sof[...]

DN540 Operator Manual 23 Chapter 7: Using The Compressor The DN540 is a dynamics processor that utilises premium quality, high precision components to achieve a high degree of accuracy and control. Th e DN540 has been designed primarily for creative use as front of house (FOH) or monitor. However, it is just as effective when used in the studio whi[...]

Chapter 7: Using The Compressor DN540 24 Operator Manual Manual mode with hard knee (linear peak) With the HARD pushbutton switched on, the compressor is peak sensing with manually adjustable linear attack and second order release envelope characteristics. For limiter applications, a high ratio combined with fast attack times are best; set the rele[...]

Modes of opera tion DN540 Operator Manual 25 Figure 6: Compression - limiting signal level graphs If a compression effect is required together with limiting of high level transients, two channels of the DN540 may be cascaded. The output of Channel 1 (compression) is fed to the input of Channel 2 (limiting), which gives powerful two stage control ov[...]

Chapter 7: Using The Compressor DN540 26 Operator Manual Simple compression (auto mode) For many every day compression jobs an RMS compressor with automatic time constant set up (attack and release) is the best solution, providing quick and easy set up. The RMS compressor slows the time constants on relatively steady state signals, reducing distort[...]

Stereo and multiple ch annel operation - linking DN540 Operator Manual 27 Stereo and multiple channel operation - linking Using the intermediate LINK switches (in channels 1, 2 and 3), you can link to the adjacent channel on the right for stereo or multi-channel operation. Linked channels form a group, with the lowest numb ered channel in the group[...]

Chapter 7: Using The Compressor DN540 28 Operator Manual When LINK is switched on, the compressor sidechains of the linked channels are combined by a true power law summer such that a single source panned from left to right will not change the compression le vels that have been applied to it. Sidechain For most applications the DN540 is triggere d [...]

DN540 Operator Manual 29 Appendix A: Application Notes The compressor of the DN540 can perform various compression styles for different applications. Drums and percussive instruments Drums require a slow attack time to thicken the sou nd. Try the compressor in manual mode with high ratios, slow attack, medium release and soft knee. Stringed acousti[...]

Application Notes DN540 30 Operator Manual compressor relaxes there is no gain re du ction — but the upper frequency boost remains, increasing noise and making microphonic feedback much more likely . The DN540’s presence accentuation corrects the tendency for dull sound during compression, without changing the sound of un compressed signals. It[...]

DN540 Operator Manual 31 Appendix B: Functional Block Diagram The following page contains the signal flow diagram for the DN54 0.[...]

Functional Block Diagram DN540 32 Operator Manual LEVEL 2 -1 0 -6 6 8 1 2 1 0 1 A TTEN 6 20 1 2 3 AUTO LINK MTR I/P HARD BYPASS AT TAC K 0. 1ms 1ms 6ms 20ms :1 RATIO 5:1 2:1 1:1 PRESENCE MIN MAX RELEASE 50ms 0.2 0.8 2s Envelope control Auto Attack/Release Knee Peak Cap RMS Detector + _ + _ + _ VCA LEVEL 2 -1 0 -6 6 8 1 2 1 0 1 A TTEN 6 20 1 2 3 AUT[...]

DN540 Operator Manual 33 Appendix C: Balanced/Unbalanced Audio Balancing refers to the type of input or output signal connection s in an audio system. These connections are specifically designed to reject external noise, such as from mains wiring and internal interferen ce from adja cent signal cables. Unlike unbalanced lines, which are more suscep[...]

Balanced/Unbalanced Audio DN540 34 Operator Manual[...]

DN540 Operator Manual 35 Appendix D: Technical Specification This appendix contains the technical specifications specific to the DN540. Inputs Four Ty p e Impedance Maximum input level Common mode rejection Analogue, electronically balanced female XLRs (Pin 2 hot) 10k ohms +22dBu T ypically , -80dB at 1kHz Outputs Four Ty p e Signal drive capabilit[...]

Technical Specification DN540 36 Operator Manual Due to a policy of continual improvement, Klark Teknik reserves the right to alter the function or specification at any time without notice. Weight Net Shipping 4.6 kg 5.6 kg Operation T emperature +5°C to +45°C Storage T emperature -20°C to +60°C[...]

DN540 Operator Manual 37 Appendix E: Crib Sheet The following page contains a crib sheet, whic h you can photocopy (or print) if you want more copies.[...]

Crib Sheet DN540 38 Operator Manual Application: 0 1 THRESHOLD PRESENCE ATTA C K RELEASE BYP ASS HARD MTR I/P EXT LEVEL AUTO -20 -50 25 0dB GAIN 6 0dB MIN 18 MAX 12 :1 RATIO 5:1 2:1 1:1 2 -1 0 -6 6 6 20 1 2 3 8 1 2 1 50ms 0. 1ms 0.2 1ms 0.8 6ms 2s 20ms COMPRESSOR - CHANNEL 1 COMPRESSOR - CHANNEL 2 COMPRESSOR - CHANNEL 3 COMPRESSOR - CHANNEL 4 DN540[...]

DN540 Operator Manual 39 Appendix F: Service Information This appendix contains routine service and maintenance instructions. Routine maintenance To help keep your DN540 unit in good working order and to make sure it gives you optimum performance, we recommend that y ou carry out the following at monthly intervals: • Clean the unit (see “Cleani[...]

Service Information DN540 40 Operator Manual Equipment disposal When this equipment has come to the end of its useful life, its disposal may come under the DIRECTIVE 2002/96/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAM ENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 27 January 2003 on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). Hazardous substances in WEEE contaminate water, soil a[...]

Thank you for reading through this Operator Manual. We hope you found it useful. Please feel free to send us your comments. Our contact details and website address can be found at the front of this manual.[...]

Klark T eknik Klark Industrial Park , W alter Nash Road, Kidderminster . Worcesters hire. DY11 7HJ. England. T el: +44 1562 74151 5, F ax: +44 1562 745371 Email: info@midasklarkte knik.com W ebsite: www .klarkteknik.com © 2011 Red Chip Co mpany Ltd.[...]