DRAWMER DS201 – Dual Noise Gate

The DS201 is a sophisticated dual channel noise gate incorporating a number of features pioneered by Drawmer, which are invaluable to the sound engineer, and not found on conventional noise gates.

• Variable high pass and low pass filters for "frequency conscious" gating.
• Comprehensive envelope control, attack, hold, decay, and range.
• Key input for external triggering.
• “Key Listen" facility.
• Extremely fast attack time, to preserve the natural attack of the sound.
• Balanced inputs and outputs.
• Stereo linkable.
• Can be used for "Gating" or "Ducking“.
• High audio specification.

These features and its "user friendliness" have made it the "industry standard" throughout the world.

Setting up noise gates can be tedious and unrewarding. For example, when attempting to separate a signal from unwanted noise or crosstalk that is relatively high in level, spurious triggering of the gate by unwanted components within the sound can be a serious problem. This can often be experienced in the studio when recording a drum kit. If a gate is used to clean up the snare drum sound it is quite likely that the nearby hi-hats will spill into the snare drum microphone and cause the gate to open. Increasing the threshold level may cure this problem, but then there is a very real danger that any quieter snare drum beats may not cause the gate to open at all and the performance can easily be ruined.

The DRAWMER solution to this problem is the inclusion of two variable filters, one high-pass and one low-pass, which act upon the side-chain keying circuitry. By setting the output switch to key listen the user can hear the action of the filters and adjust them to reject high frequency spillage from the hi-hats. This now enables the gate to only open on the lower frequencies present in the snare drum.

Drawmer pioneered the concept of frequency conscious gating, and the Drawmer DS201 was the first noise gate to include this feature. 

The very fast attack of the DS201 means that it can open in a matter of micro seconds, thus preserving the natural attack of whatever sound is being gated and the comprehensive envelope controls mean that the gain can be changed at whatever rate best suits the material being processed. With vocals for example, a fairly fast attack is needed so as not to clip the leading consonants but a slower release time will prevent the end of words being clipped off and will also fade out any noise gradually rather than cutting it off abruptly. This latter point is very important as the human ear is far more sensitive to rapidly changing noise levels than to a constant low level noise.

Another important role played by the gate is in the reshaping of existing sounds. An example of this might involve a simple sampling delay line used to store a sound to be re-triggered later and added to a mix. A gate can be used to impart a slower attack or faster decay to the sound and careful setting of the decay envelope can effectively hide any noise present at the end of the sample. When using a sampler or drum machine the gate can be considered a triggered envelope shaper, and the wide range allowed by the envelope controls make the DS201 ideal for this application.

The unit can be switched to accept a key input, which allows the gate to be triggered externally. An example of this would be to use a snare drum signal to open the gate on a separate ambient microphone to create a natural alternative to gated reverb.

Each channel can be individually switched from Gating to Ducking for \'voice over\' applications or the removal of \'clicks\' and \'pops\'.

OPTIMOD-FM 5500 puts coveted five-band and two-band OPTIMOD processing into a single rack unit package and brings it to you at the most affordable price ever.

Quality sound is what 5500 is all about-sound that attracts audiences by providing a polished, professional presentation regardless of format and source material. Exceptional versatility allows you to adjust the processor's audio texture to brand your audio, knowing that the resulting signature sound will remain consistent, cut-to-cut and source-to-source. Branding builds businesses and no other processors have the consistency to brand your sound like OPTIMOD.

With the 5500, your signature sound is just a preset away. An easy, one-knob Less/More adjustment allows you to customize any factory preset, trading cleanliness against processing artifacts according to the requirements of your market and competitive environment. Full Control gives you the versatility to customize your audio further. And, if you're a hard-core processing expert, you can explore Advanced Control to tweak presets at the same level as Orban's factory programmers. This versatility makes the 5500 a superb choice for any format. Its five-band processing is ideal for any pop music format (even the most competitive and aggressive CHR), while phase-linear two-band processing yields ultratransparent sound for classical, classic jazz, and fine arts formats. Regardless of your choice, 5500's optimized technology ensures unusually high average modulation and coverage for a given level of subjective quality. Unlike many lesser processors, the 5500 handles speech particularly well. It's always clean, even when you process for loudness.

If you're concerned about latency because you need to feed live talent headphones off air, be assured that the 5500's ultra-low-latency (5 ms delay) processing will keep the most finicky talent happy. Or use optimum latency (15 ms delay) processing for the most competitive sound with delay that's still low enough to satisfy most any talent.

The 5500 can also be used as a superb stand-alone stereo encoder with latency as low as 2 ms and full overshoot limiting in both the left/right and composite baseband domains.

When used in this mode, the 5500 must be driven (usually via an STL) by a full-featured FM audio processor (like Orban's 8600) that incorporates pre-emphasis aware HF limiting and peak control. In both modes, the 5500's stereo encoder helps deliver a transmitted signal that's always immaculately clean and perfectly peak limited, with full spectral protection of subcarriers and RDS/RBDS regardless of the amount of composite limiting.

It is the ideal choice for network broadcasters who process with Orban's flagship OPTIMOD-FM 8600 at the network origination point and who need a processor at every transmitter to eliminate STL overshoots (using the 5500's stand-alone stereo encoder mode) and/or to process local insertions while also eliminating network STL overshoots (using the 5500's audio processor / stereo encoder mode). Moreover, the 5500's two modes make it easy for large government and network broadcasters to manage its inventory of spares because any 5500 can be used as a stereo encoder with or without audio processing.

Available in both modes, the built-in, defeat-able ITU-BS412 multiplex power controller allows the 5500's output to meet even the most stringent European government regulations.

A 10 MHz frequency reference input allows the stereo pilot tone frequency to be locked to GPS or another high-accuracy frequency standard. This improves the performance of single-frequency networks in areas where coverage of the transmitters overlaps.

The 5500's built-in stereo encoder, AES/EBU digital inputs and outputs, and analog I/O permit hasslefree interfacing to any broadcast plant, whether the 5500 is located at the studio or the transmitter. Tight band limiting to 15 kHz means you can use any uncompressed digital STL to pass 5500- processed audio from studio to transmitter without compromising on-air loudness - there's no need to use STL's having 44.1 or 48 kHz sample-rate.

The stereo encoder's stereo sub-channel modulator can operate in normal double sideband mode and in an experimental compatible single sideband mode (SSB/VSB) that is offered to enable users to compare and assess the two modes.

Analog Fallback to Digital control that allows Silence Sense to switch the active input from Analog to Digital if silence is detected in the analog input signal but not on the digital input signal. This function works vice versa as well on both analog and digital AES input. The silence sense parameters apply to both simultaneously and both detectors are available to drive the 5500's tally outputs and sending SNMP Traps/Alerts.

If you want to locate the 5500 away from the studio, you'll be pleased by its three separate remote control ports - GPI contact closures, RS232 serial and built-in Ethernet for TCP/IP networks. The serial and Ethernet ports are supported by the supplied 5500 PC Remote Control application. This Windows® 2000/XP/Vista/7/8 application allows you to do even more with the 5500 than you can do through its front panel, making remote control a pleasure.

5500 PC Remote software allows you to access all 5500 features and allows you to archive and restore presets, automation lists, and system setups (containing I/O levels, digital word lengths, GPI functional assignments, etc.)

Built-in clock-based automation lets you automatically day-part the processing. You can control many other 5500 operating parameters too.

The 5500's feature set fully exploits the processor's DSP and computer-based control architecture. To ensure absolute accuracy, you can automatically synchronize the clock to an Internet timeserver. It has a cool-running, energy-efficient switching power supply and uses the latest dual-core DSP chip technology from Freescale Semiconductor.

Product Features:

Ultra-high resolution 24-bit/96 kHz mastering processor featuring 32/40-bit floating-point DSP technology
Audiophile 24-bit/96 kHz A/D- and D/A converters offering 113 dB dynamic range
4 concurrently selectable EQ modules (31-band graphic EQ, 10-band parametric EQ, Feedback Destroyer plus 3 Dynamic EQs per stereo channel)
Ultra-high resolution 61-band real-time FFT analyzer with additional auto EQ function for room and loudspeaker equalization
Unique VPQ (Virtual Paragraphic EQ) option allows parametric control of graphic EQs
State-of-the-art compressor/expander with peak limiter per stereo channel, additional stereo imager and stereo delay for delay line applications
Multi-functional level meters (peak/RMS, VU and SPL meter with dBA/dBC weighting via RTA/Mic input)
64 user memories for complete setups and/or individual module configurations
Separate mic/line input with phantom power for RTA and Auto-EQ applications
Balanced inputs and servo-balanced outputs with gold-plated XLR connectors, stereo aux output, AES/EBU and S/PDIF inputs and outputs (XLR and optical)
Professional Wordclock input and MIDI connections for full remote control, preset dumps and system updates
Open architecture allowing future software updates via MIDI
"Planet Earth" switching power supply for maximum flexibility (100 - 240 V~), noise-free audio, superior transient response plus low power consumption for energy saving
High-quality components and exceptionally rugged construction ensure long life
Conceived and designed by BEHRINGER Germany