Brands:

• AMX
• BSS Audio

Models:

• AVX Suite

Overview:

This article explores the VIRTUAL view of AVX Architect with a look at the Ducker object. 

To see a video of this article, click HERE.

Description:

The Ducker object is found in the VIRTUAL view, under the Dynamics section of the audio processing objects.

The Ducker object will reduce the level of an audio signal depending on the level of a different control signal. A common application is to reduce the level of background music as a paging microphone is making an announcement. It features an exponential attack and linear recovery for natural sounding fades.

The default block will have one input for the main audio source, one for the control audio source labeled Duck, and one output.

Factory P​anel

The ENABLE button will turn the Ducker processing on and off, acting as a bypass.

The THRESHOLD control adjusts the threshold level where the ducking will occur. The level reduction to the main audio signal occurs when the control signal level rises above this threshold level.

RANGE is how much gain reduction occurs to the main audio signal.

DUCK TIME adjusts the time it takes for the main audio signal to come down when the control signal is above the threshold.

HOLD is additional time the main audio signal will remain ducked in order to prevent rapid volume fluctuations.

RECOVER time is the time that it takes for the main audio signal to fade back to its original level. Remember that like compressors, the ducker can cause distortion if attack and release times are too fast, so set these to reasonable values.

The GAIN REDUCTION meter will display the amount of gain reduction being applied.

At the top of the factory panel, we have the object name, lock button, and selection mode switch.

On the right, the PROPERTIES window has the naming, workspace location, and DSP allocation settings.

The OPTIONS section contains the channel count of the object block.

The Ducker can have upto 128 channels. When using a multi-channel ducker, controls and processing affect all channels. 

The “Mic feed to output" selection will send the control signal [mic In] directly to the output of the block. When this is off, the mic will trigger the gain reduction of the music input, but will not be heard on the output of the object.