280 lines
10 KiB
HTML
280 lines
10 KiB
HTML
<h2 id="ace-compressor">ACE Compressor</h2>
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<p>
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The job of this filter is to make an audio recording perceivably louder by
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reducing the dynamic range, that is, the difference between the loudest and
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the quietest parts. ACE compressor lowers the volume of loud sounds above a
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user-defined threshold measured in dB, then the gain of all the sound gets
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increased to make up for lost loudness.
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</p>
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<figure>
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<img style="width:50%;" src="/images/a-compressor.png" alt="ACE Compressor">
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<figcaption>
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ACE Compressor
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p>Available settings are:</p>
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<ul>
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<li><strong>Threshold</strong>. This setting defines the loudness at which the compressor
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will start working.</li>
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<li><strong>Knee</strong>. Whether the transition from uncompressed to compressed is soft
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or hard. The effect is more noticeable with larger ratios.</li>
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<li><strong>Ratio</strong>. How much the gain is reduced above a certain threshold.
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If the ratio is e.g. 5:1, 5dB will become 1dB.</li>
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<li><strong>Attack</strong>. How long (in ms) it takes to apply maximum compression.</li>
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<li><strong>Release</strong>. How long it takes to return to zero compression.</li>
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<li><strong>Makeup Gain</strong>. How much the overall level should be increased after
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reducing loud sections.</li>
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<li><strong>Sidechain</strong>. Whether the effect should be activate by the loadness
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of audio signal in another track passing a certain threshold.</li>
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</ul>
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<p>The plugin also provides an opt-out inline display that shows input signal,
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threshold, and resulting gain reduction:</p>
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<figure>
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<img style="width:75%;" src="/images/a-compressor-inline.png" alt="Inline ACE Compressor display">
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<figcaption>
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Inline display
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<h2 id="ace-expander">ACE Expander</h2>
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<p>
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Contrary to compressors, expanders increase the dynamic range either
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by making quite sounds quieter (downward expanders) or by making loud
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sounds louder (upward expanders). <em>ACE Expander</em> is a downward
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expander. It reduces the level of a signal below a user-defined threshold
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by user-defined ratio, then optionally increases the overall gain to make
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up for lost loudness.
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</p>
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<figure>
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<img style="width:50%;" src="/images/a-expander.png" alt="ACE Expander">
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<figcaption>
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ACE Expander
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p>Available settings are:</p>
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<ul>
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<li><strong>Attack</strong>. How long (in ms) it takes to apply maximum
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reduction of the quiet sections.</li>
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<li><strong>Release</strong>. How long it takes to stop reducing the quiet
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signal at all.</li>
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<li><strong>Knee</strong>. Whether the transition from non-reduced to
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reduced signal level is soft or hard. The effect is more noticeable with
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larger ratios.</li>
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<li><strong>Ratio</strong>. How much the gain is reduced below a certain
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threshold. If the ratio is e.g. 3:1, -10dB will become -30dB.</li>
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<li><strong>Threshold</strong>. The loudness at which the expander will
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start working.</li>
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<li><strong>Makeup Gain</strong>. How much the overall level should be
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increased after reducing quiet sections.</li>
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<li><strong>Sidechain</strong>. Whether the effect should be activated by
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the loudness of audio signal in another track passing a certain threshold.</li>
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</ul>
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<p>
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<em>ACE Expander</em> also comes with an inline widget for mixer channels
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that displays the input signal level, the threshold, and the amount of
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reduced signal.
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</p>
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<figure>
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<img style="width:75%;" src="/images/a-expander-inline.png" alt="Inline ACE Expander display">
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<figcaption>
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Inline display
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<h2 id="ace-delay">ACE Delay</h2>
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<p>
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Delay effects repeat original signal after a user-defined interval.
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In <em>ACE Delay</em>, the interval is calculated from the tempo and the
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divisor — a musical time unit like a 1/4th note or a dotted 1/16th note.
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When using a delay in music production, it's usually best to sync to
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project's tempo, especially if there are tempo ramps in a song.
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</p>
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<figure>
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<img style="width:50%;" src="/images/a-delay.png" alt="ACE Delay">
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<figcaption>
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ACE Delay
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p>Available settings are:</p>
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<ul>
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<li><strong>Tempo</strong>. Amount of beats per minute.</li>
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<li><strong>Sync</strong>. This toggles the syncing to project's
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tempo.</li>
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<li><strong>Divisor</strong>. The interval between the original sound and
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its delayed copy, expressed in whole or fractional notes
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(1/4th, 1/8th etc.)</li>
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<li><strong>Dotted</strong>. When enabled, adds half the divisor unit
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to the delay interval, e.g. a 1/8th note becomes a dotted 1/8th note.</li>
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<li><strong>Time</strong>. The final delay time expressed in milliseconds.</li>
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<li><strong>Feedback</strong>. How much of the processed signal goes back
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into the delay effect's input.</li>
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<li><strong>Low-Pass Filter (LPF)</strong>. This helps simulating analog
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delay effects where the repeated signal gets dull.</li>
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<li><strong>Invert</strong>. This option inverts the polarity of the output
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signal.</li>
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<li><strong>Output Gain</strong>. Reduces or increases the level of the
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output signal.</li>
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</ul>
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<h2 id="ace-reverb">ACE Reverb</h2>
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<p>A reverb effect emulates sound waves reflecting off the walls in a closed
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space which could be a a small room or a cathedral. The effect is usually
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applied to a "dry" audio recording, that is, one typically made in a
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very small room with acoustic absorption treatment so that there are little-to-no
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reflections. That way, a reverb effect makes the most sense as it gives you a
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clean slate and more freedom to shape your sound.</p>
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<p>The <em>ACE Reverb</em> effect is a very simple one, based on early research to
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artificial reverberation by Manfred Schroeder and Ben Logan (<a href="https://ccrma.stanford.edu/~jos/pasp/Schroeder_Reverberators.html">see
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here</a> for technical details). There are just two controls:</p>
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<ul>
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<li><strong>Blend</strong>. This control changes the mix in favour
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of either "dry" unprocessed signal that is being fed into the
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effect or the "wet" processed by the effect. 0 means you only
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hear the unprocessed signal, 1 mean you only hear the processed signal.</li>
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<li><strong>Room Size</strong>. This control changes the size of the virtual
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room and therefore the amount of decay.</li>
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</ul>
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<h2 id="ace-high-low-pass-filter">ACE High/Low Pass Filter</h2>
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<p>
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High-pass and low-pass filters reduce the signal below and above a certain
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frequency respectively. The <em>ACE High/Low Pass</em> filter combines the
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two filters in one.
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</p>
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<figure>
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<img style="width:50%;" src="/images/a-lpf-hpf.png" alt="Inline ACE High/Low Pass Filter display">
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<figcaption>
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ACE High/Low Pass Filter
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p>Each of the two bandpass filters has three controls:</p>
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<ul>
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<li><strong>Steepness</strong>. How much the filter reduces the signal per
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each step (12dB/oct to 48dB/oct). Setting steepness to <em>Off</em>
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disables the filter entirely.</li>
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<li><strong>Cutoff frequency</strong>. The base frequency where the filter
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begins cutting off the data.</li>
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<li><strong>Resonance</strong>. How much the signal around the cutoff
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frequency is suppressed (lower values) or emphasized (higher values).
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The plugins defaults to 0.707 which roughly translates to "do nothing".</li>
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</ul>
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<p>
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The plugin also comes with an inline display visualizing the effect that
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the filters have.
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</p>
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<figure>
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<img style="width:75%;" src="/images/a-lpf-hpf-inline.png" alt="Inline ACE High/Low Pass Filter display">
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<figcaption>
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Inline display
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<h2 id="ace-eq">ACE EQ</h2>
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<p>
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Equalizers are commonly used to shape the sound, change timbre of an
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instrument and generally help it sit better in a mix.
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</p>
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<p>
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ACE EQ is a simple 4-band equalizer with a low and a high shelves.
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All bands and shelves are optional and can be disabled by clicking on
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the outer border of respective parameters boxes.
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</p>
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<p>
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For each band it's possible to set the base frequency, the gain level,
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and the bandwidth. The latter defines how much frequencies around the base
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frequency are affected by the gain adjustment. In an example below, the first
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band has the narrowest bandwidth of 0.1, and the third band has the default
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banwidth of 1.0. While both bands have a gain of +10dB, the first one is very
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narrow, but the third one is wide enough so that changes begin affecting
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frequencies that belong to neighboring frequency bands.
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</p>
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<figure>
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<img style="width:50%;" src="/images/a-eq-bandwidths.png" alt="ACE EQ bandwidths">
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<figcaption>
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ACE EQ bandwidths
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p>There are three ways to adjust both frequency, gain, and bandwidth:</p>
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<ol>
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<li><p><strong>Directly on the diagram</strong>. Dragging the band mark
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(1 through 4) left and right changes the frequency, dragging it up and down
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changes the gain. Scrolling the mouse wheel over the band mark changes the
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bandwidth.</p>
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</li>
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<li><p><strong>In the bottom parameters boxes</strong>. Scrolling the mouse
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wheel over a setting changes its value. This is also where and how the master
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output can be adjusted.</p>
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</li>
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<li><p><strong>Numerically via the generic plugin UI</strong>. This user
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interface can be displayed by right-clicking on the plugin in the mixer
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channel and choosing the <em>Edit with generic controls…</em> option.</p>
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</li>
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</ol>
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<p>ACE EQ also provides an inline display for mixer channels:</p>
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<figure>
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<img style="width:75%;" src="/images/a-eq-inline.png" alt="Inline ACE EQ display">
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<figcaption>
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Inline display
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<h2 id="ace-notch-bank">ACE Notch Bank</h2>
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<p>
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This is a very basic harmonic filter that suppresses a user-defined number
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of harmonics (stages) starting at a user-defined base frequency. The filter
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is mostly useful as a demonstration for Ardour's built-in biquadratic filter
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that can be used in Lua scripts.
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</p>
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<figure>
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<img style="width:50%;" src="/images/ace-notch-bank.png" alt="ACE Notch bank">
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<figcaption>
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ACE Notch Bank
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p>
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An example below is a sine wave at 120Hz with added harmonics, each
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at a lower magnitude than the previous one. Applying the ACE Notch Bank
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filter starting at 120Hz with 8 stages completeles silences the signal
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(the purple line for processed signal is not even visible):
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</p>
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<figure>
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<img style="width:75%;" src="/images/ace-notch-bank-before-after.png" alt="Results of applying ACE Notch Bank">
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<figcaption>
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Results of applying ACE Notch Bank
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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