Introduction - dbx 266XL Owner's/Operator's Manual

2
I
NTRODUCTION
Congratulations on choosing the dbx 266XL Compressor/Gate. The 266XL provides
traditional dbx sonic quality and performance for the working musician, DJ, studio
operator or anyone who needs a friendly compressor/gate to achieve quality compres-
sion, gating and downward expansion quickly and easily. We recommend that you take
a moment and read through the manual as it provides information that will assist you
in using your unit to its fullest potential.
The 266XL's compressor is packed with just the right features to effectively reduce
and control the dynamic range of your audio, add punch to flabby, loose sounds, or
add sustain to instruments. The 266XL begins with the classic dbx compression made
famous by our 160 line of compressors. Just set the 266XL's Attack and Release con-
trols to 12:00 to get the same response as those units. But there's more. We scaled the
program-dependent Attack and Release controls with dbx's new AutoDynamicª cir-
cuitry, so that the 266XL's full range of controls produce voicings that extend from
slow leveling to aggressive peak limiting.
Common Compressor Applications:
¥ Fattening a Kick Drum or Snare Drum
¥ Adding Sustain to Guitar or Synthesizer String Sounds
¥ Smoothing Out a Vocal Performance
¥ Raising a Signal Out of a Mix
¥ Preventing Sound System Overload
¥ Digital to Analog Transfers
The 266XL's gate is ready to tackle all your gating needs, whether you need to remove
unwanted noise or other background sounds, tighten drum sounds, or change the char-
acteristic envelope of an instrument. The 266XL's gate provides more flexibility than
traditional switch gates because it actually functions as a combination gate/expander.
Where switch gates are generally only suitable for a limited number of uses (e.g., gat-
ing percussion), the gate on the 266XL acts as a gentle downward expander at low
Ratio settings (suitable for vocals, guitar, mixed program, etc.), and can effectively
work as a switch gate when used at high Ratio settings.
Common Gating Applications:
¥ Gating Dry Percussive Sounds (e.g., Snare Drum, Kick Drum)
¥ Gating Sounds That Have Longer Decay (e.g., Cymbal, Piano)
¥ Gating Hum or Buzz From Live Instruments or Recorded Tracks
¥ Downward Expansion to Reduce Noise Under Smooth Sounds (e.g., Vocals,
Woodwinds)
Refer to the following pages for suggested initial settings. These settings should suf-
fice for traditional compressing and gating requirements. However, the 266XL can
accomplish many more changes to sound quality. We recommend that you experiment
with the 266XL's controls; take our suggested settings and run with them, try totally
different settings, and try unorthodox combinations of compressor and gating controls.
You might be surprised at what you hear. Best of all, you may create the perfect sound
quality for your needs.
266XL
Compressor / Gate