TC Electronic Gold Channel manual

USERS MANUAL Gold Channel DIGIT ALL Y ENHANCED MIC-PREAMP[...]

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T ABLE OF CONTENTS 3 FOREW ORD WELCOME INTRODUCTION THE FRONT P ANEL THE REAR P ANEL THE SIGNAL FLO W CONNECTING THE GOLD CHANNEL QUICK REFERENCE SIGNAL GAIN LEVEL RECALL AND LIST ST ORE ROUTING AND LA Y OUT EDIT THE BLOCKS UTILITY MIDI THE RESET MENU SELF TEST TECHNICAL SPECIFICA TIONS MIDI IMPLEMENT A TION CHAR T TROUBLE SHOO TING CER TIFICA TION[...]

FOREW ORD 4 Micr ophones as Ears by Bruce Botnick I've always felt that microphones were colors on a sound painter's palette. Colors that can be used to bring out the many sounds that we record and help us to create different textures used in the mix. Many recording engineers have their favorite microphones and don't necessarily use [...]

FOREW ORD 5 sounded just like what I remembered, minus Miles Davis of course. As time has advanced forward I am always on the lookout for this printed information as well as photographs and film documentaries of recording sessions. Seeing the masters at work and their use of the pallet is the best way to learn. Not only can you see and hear what th[...]

WELCOME 6 Congratulations Congratulations on the purchase of your new Gold Channel. We hope that you have as much pleasure using it as we had making it. The Gold Channel is carefully designed to make perfect recordings of your precious music directly to your digital storage media. There are three essential steps in the recording process: Microphone[...]

INTRODUCTION 7 General Intr oduction The Gold Channel is designed so that all its main functions are available directly on the front panel: Input select, +48V phantom, gain setting with P AD, Lo-Cut, Phase Invert, Mute, Soft Clipper and Meter select. These combined with separate bypass buttons for each processing block and a user friendly display ,[...]

8 POWER Press and hold the Power switch until the Gold Channel logo shows, then release. CARD SLOT The PCMCIA slot can be used for storing and loading presets. Use T ype 1 PC Cards with a minimum 64 KBytes of SRAM, or up to 2MB. CHANNEL 1 AND 2 The Gold Channel has direct access to all primary functions on the mic- preamp for each channel: Input ga[...]

9 < > MENU KEYS In many of the displays you can select different menus by pressing the arrow keys, for instance, in the Edit display you can select between Meter , Edit, Routing and Layout. THE P ARAMETER WHEEL Use the Parameter wheel to change the position of the cursor in the display THE V ALUE WHEEL Use the V alue wheel to change the value[...]

THE REAR P ANEL 10 Main Power Switch Serial no. MIDI In,Thru,Out External Control Input Balanced Mic/Line XLR Inputs Balanced Analog XLR Outputs ADA T and T os-link In/Out Word Clock Input RCA Digital AES/EBU S/PDIF In/Outs Notes Pin 2 is “Hot” on all XLR’s (IEC and AES standards). Y ou must use balanced XLR-XLR cables to get the +48V phantom[...]

THE SIGNAL FLO W 11 On this p age you can see the signal flow through the Gold Channel presented in a technical drawing.[...]

12 CONNECTING THE GOLD CHANNEL Recording setup The normal recording or tracking setup, where you connect one or two microphones directly into the Gold Channel and have all outputs available simultaneously . For example: Use the analog outputs for monitoring the artist, and the digital outputs for recording directly to your digital storage media. P [...]

QUICK REFERENCE 13 General Contr ol General control of the Gold Channel display is accomplished by dialing the Parameter wheel to change position of the cursor , and the V alue wheel to change values. In many of the displays you can select different menus by pressing the < > Menu keys, as in the Edit display where you can select between Meter[...]

SETUP - Signal 14 The Signal Display Whenever you touch one of the Input selectors on the front, the Signal display will pop up, and disappear after a few seconds. If you don’t want the display to go back automatically , you can set the Auto Pages parameter in the Utility/Config display to OFF . NOTE: This will also af fect the Gain display . Inp[...]

SETUP - Signal 15 ADA T - When using an ADA T , use the Parameter wheel to move the cursor to the channel 1 or 2 input boxes, and the V alue wheel to select channel number . It is possible to select two ADA T channels, process them and send them out on two different - or the same - ADA T channels. The incoming sample rate will be displayed in the D[...]

SETUP - Gain Generally about the Gain Display Whenever you touch one of the Input gain encoders on the front, the Gain display will appear , and disappear after a few seconds. If you don’t want the display to go back automatically , you can set the Auto Pages parameter on the Utility display to OFF . Gain At the left of the display , there are tw[...]

SETUP - Le vel 17 The Le vel displa y On the Level p age you can adjust the Digital Input level, the Master Level for all output s and the Analog Output level for channels one and two. T o view the Level display , press the SETUP key if you are not already there, and use the < > Menu keys to select the Level page. Basic operation is accomplis[...]

PROGRAMS - Recall 18 The Recall and List Displa ys Here you can Recall a Factory , User or Card preset, and you can load a separate channel of processing or even a single processing block from one preset to another . T o get to the Recall page press the PROGRAMS button, if you are not already there, and use the < > arrow keys to select Recall[...]

PROGRAMS - Recall 19 The List Displa y This is another way of recalling and displaying the preset lists (Factory , User and Card), and is very useful when you are looking for a specific preset name but cannot remember the preset number . Y ou can Recall a preset directly from the List by scrolling with the Parameter wheel. The preset name/number th[...]

PROGRAMS - Stor e 20 The Stor e Displa y When you have made a preset, you can go to this p age, give it a name and store settings in a space in the User bank. T o get to the Store page press the PROGRAMS button, if you are not already there, and use the < > Menu keys to select STORE Basic operation is accomplished by using the Parameter wheel[...]

Exercise 3 : How to name and store a preset 21 PROGRAMS - Stor e Exercise 2: How to Store a preset with the existing name When you want to store a Factory preset, the Gold Channel automatically selects the first free storage space in the User bank. If you try to re-store a User preset, the Gold Channel will automatically select the same storage spa[...]

EDIT - Routing and La y out 22 Setting up the pr ocessing blocks In the Routing display you can freely select the order of the processing blocks in the Gold Channel. With the Layout p age you can select if you want to run two channels or one channel at 96 kHz and where to place the Insert block. T o get access to the Routing display , press the EDI[...]

Mode Rate Mode - This is where you decide what basic layout of the grid you want to work with. There are three dif ferent setups: 1) T wo channels with four processing positions on each channel (44.1/48kHz) 2) One processing position on both channels. (88.2/96kHz) 3) Three processing positions on Ch.1 and none at Ch.2 (88.2/96kHz) The difference be[...]

EDIT - Edit and Meter 24 Editing the digital pr ocessing The Edit display is the place where you have a general overview of what processing blocks, Insert and Links are set up in the current preset, and it is where you get access to edit the different p arameters in the digital processing section of the Gold Channel. T o get access to the Edit disp[...]

EDIT - Edit and Meter 25 NOTE: The Panner settings of the output also have influence on the output phase, therefore this Phase Correlation meter is also shown at the Output page along with the Panner controls. The OUT Block The Output block contains M/S matrix, Panners for each channel, Phase Correlation meter and indication of total processing del[...]

THE BLOCKS 26 The Blocks On the following p ages you will find a description of the ten processing algorithms, and the p arameters you can control in them. Expander There are two different exp ander/gate sub types in the Gold Channel. They are running from the same sub-algorithm, but with different p arameters available, fitted for different applic[...]

THE BLOCKS 27 Bandwid th Sets the Bandwidth of the Sidechain bandpass filter . Monitor Here you can monitor the Sidechain signal, which is very useful for getting the right settings of the Sidechain filter . Input When placed on Channel 1, you can select the Sidechain Input to be either the Same (Ch.1) or Channel 2. Example: If you select to have S[...]

THE BLOCKS 28 Soft Compr essor This is a feed forward compressor .. It sounds very smooth and works well on acoustic and electronic instruments. Threshold When the input level exceeds the Threshold, the Compressor will be activated. This means that the lower the Threshold, the more compression you will get. Ratio The Ratio of the gain reduction. E.[...]

THE BLOCKS 29 Att ack The Attack time is the response time that the Compressor uses to reach the gain reduction specified by the Ratio parameter . Example: If the input signal suddenly increases to 4 dB above threshold in no time with the Ratio set to 4:1 and the Attack set to 20 ms, the Compressor will use 20ms to reach the gain reduction of 1 dB.[...]

Input When placed on Channel 1, you can select the Sidechain Input to be either the Same (Ch. 1) or Channel 2. Example: If you select to have Sidechain input from Ch. 2, you can go to the Layout page and select Ch. 1 Pre, as input to Ch. 2. Now you have all the blocks on Ch. 2 for processing the sidechain signal on Ch. 1. Y ou can also have a compl[...]

THE BLOCKS 31 Att ack The Attack time is the response time that the Compressor uses to reach the gain reduction specified by the Ratio parameter . Example: If the input signal suddenly increases to 4 dB above threshold in no time with the Ratio set to 4:1 and the Attack set to 20ms, the Dynamic EQ will use 20ms to reach the gain reduction of 3 dB. [...]

UTILITY 32 The Utility Displa y In Utility you can choose between CONFIG , CARD and MIDI. Use the < > Menu keys to select between the three displays. The Config. P ag e In the Config. page you can set up a number of global parameters for the Gold Channel such as memory protect, MIDI bulk dump etc. Display Viewing Angle Adjust for best contras[...]

UTILITY 33 Copy Select whether you want to copy from User bank to card or from card to User bank. Execute Copy Select this parameter and press Enter twice to carry out the copy action. The MIDI pag e Basic Channel The basic MIDI channel of the Gold Channel. This is the channel that you should transmit Program changes on to change Presets in the Gol[...]

RESET MENU 34 Store and load your setup to or from card Enter User Data page Reset system parameters Clear all user presets T est Programs T ype your name here and your phone number The Reset page The User data page Ho w to enter the Reset Menu Hold the Programs key pressed during power-up. Move the cursor using the Parameter wheel and press Enter [...]

SELF TEST 35 PRESS AND HOLD THE PROGRAMS KEY WHILE POWERING UP , T O ACCESS THE RESET MENU AND SELECT »RUN TEST PROGRAM« T urn the V alue Wheel to scroll thr ough Self tests Key test Select Key test by pressing Enter . The keys must be pressed in the order they are requested by the Gold Channel to pass the test. Press Exit to leave Key test. In k[...]

TECHNICAL SPECIFICA TIONS 36 ANALOG LINE INPUTS Connectors: Impedance (balanced): Phantom supply: Max. Input Level (balanced): Sensitivity , @ 12 dB headroom (balanced): Dynamic Range (unweighted): THD+N: Frequency Response: Crosstalk (Line to Mic. Pad 0), worstcase: (Line to Line or Mic. Pad 20/40/60), worstcase: Common Mode Rejection, RS = 40 Ohm[...]

37 MIDI IMPLEMENT A TION CHAR T Digitally Enhanced Mic-preamp, Gold Channel - May 1998 V ersion 1.0 Function T ransmitted Recognized Remarks Basic Channel Default 1(-16) 1(-16) Changed 1-16 1-16 Mode Default Messages X X Altered Note Number XX T rue V oice X X V elocity Note ON X X Note OFF X X After T ouch Key’ s X X Ch’ s X X Pitch Bend XX Co[...]

38 Y ou press Power switch, but there is no reaction. - The power switch on the rear panel is switched of f. Y ou cannot turn the power off. - Press and hold the Power switch for 3 seconds, then release to power off No sound through the Gold Channel - Y ou are using Analog input, but the input selected is Digital, or some send/return has been selec[...]

39 Certificate Of Conformity TC Electronic A/S, Sindalsvej 34, 8240 Risskov , Denmark, hereby declares on own responsibility that the following product: Gold Channel, Digitally Enhanced Mic-preamp Is covered by this certificate and marked with CE-label conforms with following standards: EN 60065 Safety requirements for mains operated Electronic and[...]

40 F A CT OR Y PRESET LIST 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 Female V ocal Lead V ocal Male V ocal El Gtr Clean Rthm Gtr D/I Acoustic Gtr Helper Kick L BassDI R Rock 909 BD/SD Insert Drum Room MS-Rec S tring Quartet MS V ox Eq/Comp Male V ocal[...]

41 F A CT OR Y PRESET LIST 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 Flamenco Gtr Viola Da Gamba Irish Mandolin Wire Harp El Cajon Hi/Lo Piezo Guitar Wide Piezo Guitar Pickups Dynamic Piezo Pickup Kick L Snare R Rock Kick L Snare R Dark Kick[...]

WHERE GREA T RECORDINGS BEGIN 42 by Loren Alldrin Have you ever thought about where recordings really begin? If this question brings to mind a t ape deck, mixer or analog-to-digital converter , you're a bit too far down the signal path. While these component s are crucial part s of many recording chains, they're not where the process actu[...]

WHERE GREA T RECORDINGS BEGIN 43 A bi-directional pattern is impractical to create in a dynamic design, which explains why most dynamic mics are either omni or some form of cardioid. Ribbon mics are bi-directional by default, though some ribbon mics are available in a cardioid pattern. Condenser mics cover the whole gamut of directional patterns, a[...]

WHERE GREA T RECORDINGS BEGIN 44 Miking distance works in concert with directional pattern to affect the amount of ambient sound recorded. Moving a mic closer to a sound source makes it louder in relation to competing sounds. T o the listener, this reduction of ambient sound makes the instrument or voice appear to be closer . Pulling the mic back a[...]

WHERE GREA T RECORDINGS BEGIN 45 The third common stereo miking approach is mid-side or "M/S." M/S miking uses a forward-facing directional mic and a side-facing bi- directional mic. M/S recording offers very good stereo imaging with the added benefit of excellent mono compatibility . Through some electronic processing: M/S-encoding and d[...]