DBX 286S Mic Preamp/Compressor

Product Information

The mic preamp gain is the overall volume and application of your microphone. When the level is set correctly when you speak you're not going to clip the red light, but the 2 green lights should be on when talking. Individual LED displays for compression threshold, gain threshold, and gain reduction. This allows for speedy, easy set up. Compressor Distortion: Typically <0.05%THD, 20Hz-20kHz, 15dB G/R, +10dBu Output, DENSITY @ 0 IMD SMPTE: <0.05%; 60Hz/7kHz 4:1, 15dB G/R, +10dBu Output Level, DENSITY @ 0 The meter then shows you the true peak gain reduction in decibels. If the Red LED at the far left lights up, no further gain reduction is available. De-Esser LF Detail: Characteristic Bell-shaped boost at 80Hz, bell-shaped cut at 250Hz, ratio is approximately 2:1

To wrap up, I'm happy with the results I'm getting from this to boost the gain of my microphone plus add a simple compressor, gate, and de-esser. The dbx 286s microphone processor is a direct replacement for the renowned dbx 286A, offering the same exceptional sound quality, rugged reliability and great value, but updated with a new sleek, silver face plate and the latest electronic components for even better performance. The 266xs is the cheaper device of the two. It has a sleek, silver design that measures 48.26cm x 14.61cm x 4.45cm, which would take up very little room in your audio set-up. I am a beginning voice actor and have slowly been building my home studio and equipment. Prior to purchasing and implementing the DBX 286s into my signal chain I was having to edit out miscellaneous sounds, compress, remove breaths, etc. using plugins in my DAW. It could be very time consuming. I researched and found a lot of experienced voice artists are using this. heheh yeah how I wish I could... let just say around 1Ks. I'm really looking for the "enhancer" and "gate" functionality in it or a sort of "upgraded version" of the dbx 286s like preamps. ThanksI would never recommend gating on the way in. Why would you? Just delete extraneous noise in the DAW.

If the green lights aren't being hit then you're talking too quietly, so try and find that perfect balance. Phantom Power The de-esser has two controls: one for the frequencies between 800 Hz and 10 kHz, and the other one for the threshold. This way, you can control both the frequencies and the intensity at which they get filtered out. For vocals, the best setting is somewhere between 4 and 8 kHz. What is an "enhancer" exactly? I'm not aware of many, other channel strips that would feature a function. If you want an exciter - again, better done in mix in software (or hardware I suppose). The expander, or gate, allows some rudimentary excessive noise removal. Aside from the threshold and ratio controls, there are also a couple of LED indicators in this section. Nothing too fancy, but, again, it’s nice to have and gets the job done. The best way to set this is to say " S-ssss", then adjust it until you're happy with the result and it works with your voice. Enhancer

In fact, it may very well be the best. That’s what we aim to find out in this review. We want to know if you can do any better at this price range. Let’s find out. Personally I'd recommend just saving your money and using plugins for musical processes. If you need a hardware vocal chain… save your money. Treat/dampen your room for reflections. Buy a high quality mic, preamp, compressor etc. HF Detail: Characteristic Program-controlled shelving equalizer, approximately 15dB maximum HF boostIf an item can not be repaired, a similar alternative product or cash discount (as defined in this policy) will be offered The most exciting thing about the DBX 286S is that it can be used in both amateur home studio settings and professional settings. It is affordable even for non-pro users who are just seeking a little more versatility in their setup, but it delivers enough quality that professionals will happily use it too. As it stands I can only recommend this channel strip to one group of users: podcasters/streamers for non professional use. The DBX 286s offers a full compliment of metering and status LEDs to visually guide you to achieving the right sound. The floating balanced XLR Mic Input accepts balanced or unbalanced inputs to easily connect to professional and home studio microphones.

Well, if it works it works - as I said, I don't really see how but I can certainly see it might not cost you any in that circumstance! The de-esser is quite a useful and most definitely a welcome addition. With it, you’re able to smooth out any excessive high-end noise caused by sibilant consonants in vocals. The compressor makes a real difference to your voice. It adds a punch to what you're saying, it crunches and compresses your voice so it's at 1 level. The process bypass disables all other settings mentioned below. It's recommend you disable this setting when you don't want to highly process your audio. CompressorNext up, is the +48-volt phantom power, as well as the high-pass filter that gets rid of the lowest part of the spectrum—everything below 80 Hz. This comes in handy for those great condenser microphones that don’t have an additional high-pass filter on them. I bought the dbx 286s as a way to, relatively inexpensively, upgrade my home voiceover recording setup from a simple mic preamp to something with signal processing capability. All I can say is, this was money well spent! For the gain knob, talk into your microphone or play other input device like an guitar and watch the lights while you turn up the knob until you are consistently hitting the -10 level. You don't want to hit 0 and you definitely don't want to hit clip. For the Shure SM7B I have my gain set to 55.