1 <h2>ACE Compressor</h2>
4 The job of this filter is to make an audio recording perceivably louder by
5 reducing the dynamic range, that is, the difference between the loudest and
6 the quietest parts. ACE compressor lowers the volume of loud sounds above a
7 user-defined threshold measured in dB, then the gain of all the sound gets
8 increased to make up for lost loudness.
12 <img style="width:50%;" src="/images/a-compressor.png" alt="ACE Compressor">
18 <p>Available settings are:</p>
21 <li><strong>Threshold</strong>. This setting defines the loudness at which the compressor
22 will start working.</li>
23 <li><strong>Knee</strong>. Whether the transition from uncompressed to compressed is soft
24 or hard. The effect is more noticeable with larger ratios.</li>
25 <li><strong>Ratio</strong>. How much the gain is reduced above a certain threshold.
26 If the ratio is e.g. 5:1, 5dB will become 1dB.</li>
27 <li><strong>Attack</strong>. How long (in ms) it takes to apply maximum compression.</li>
28 <li><strong>Release</strong>. How long it takes to return to zero compression.</li>
29 <li><strong>Makeup Gain</strong>. How much the overall level should be increased after
30 reducing loud sections.</li>
31 <li><strong>Sidechain</strong>. Whether the effect should be activate by the loadness
32 of audio signal in another track passing a certain threshold.</li>
34 <p>The plugin also provides an opt-out inline display that shows input signal,
35 threshold, and resulting gain reduction:</p>
38 <img style="width:75%;" src="/images/a-compressor-inline.png" alt="Inline ACE Compressor display">
47 Contrary to compressors, expanders increase the dynamic range either
48 by making quite sounds quieter (downward expanders) or by making loud
49 sounds louder (upward expanders). <em>ACE Expander</em> is a downward
50 expander. It reduces the level of a signal below a user-defined threshold
51 by user-defined ratio, then optionally increases the overall gain to make
56 <img style="width:50%;" src="/images/a-expander.png" alt="ACE Expander">
62 <p>Available settings are:</p>
65 <li><strong>Attack</strong>. How long (in ms) it takes to apply maximum
66 reduction of the quiet sections.</li>
67 <li><strong>Release</strong>. How long it takes to stop reducing the quiet
69 <li><strong>Knee</strong>. Whether the transition from non-reduced to
70 reduced signal level is soft or hard. The effect is more noticeable with
72 <li><strong>Ratio</strong>. How much the gain is reduced below a certain
73 threshold. If the ratio is e.g. 3:1, -10dB will become -30dB.</li>
74 <li><strong>Threshold</strong>. The loudness at which the expander will
76 <li><strong>Makeup Gain</strong>. How much the overall level should be
77 increased after reducing quiet sections.</li>
78 <li><strong>Sidechain</strong>. Whether the effect should be activated by
79 the loudness of audio signal in another track passing a certain threshold.</li>
83 <em>ACE Expander</em> also comes with an inline widget for mixer channels
84 that displays the input signal level, the threshold, and the amount of
89 <img style="width:75%;" src="/images/a-expander-inline.png" alt="Inline ACE Expander display">
98 Delay effects repeat original signal after a user-defined interval.
99 In <em>ACE Delay</em>, the interval is calculated from the tempo and the
100 divisor — a musical time unit like a 1/4th note or a dotted 1/16th note.
101 When using a delay in music production, it's usually best to sync to
102 project's tempo, especially if there are tempo ramps in a song.
106 <img style="width:50%;" src="/images/a-delay.png" alt="ACE Delay">
112 <p>Available settings are:</p>
115 <li><strong>Tempo</strong>. Amount of beats per minute.</li>
116 <li><strong>Sync</strong>. This toggles the syncing to project's
118 <li><strong>Divisor</strong>. The interval between the original sound and
119 its delayed copy, expressed in whole or fractional notes
120 (1/4th, 1/8th etc.)</li>
121 <li><strong>Dotted</strong>. When enabled, adds half the divisor unit
122 to the delay interval, e.g. a 1/8th note becomes a dotted 1/8th note.</li>
123 <li><strong>Time</strong>. The final delay time expressed in milliseconds.</li>
124 <li><strong>Feedback</strong>. How much of the processed signal goes back
125 into the delay effect's input.</li>
126 <li><strong>Low-Pass Filter (LPF)</strong>. This helps simulating analog
127 delay effects where the repeated signal gets dull.</li>
128 <li><strong>Invert</strong>. This option inverts the polarity of the output
130 <li><strong>Output Gain</strong>. Reduces or increases the level of the
136 <p>A reverb effect emulates sound waves reflecting off the walls in a closed
137 space which could be a a small room or a cathedral. The effect is usually
138 applied to a "dry" audio recording, that is, one typically made in a
139 very small room with acoustic absorption treatment so that there are little-to-no
140 reflections. That way, a reverb effect makes the most sense as it gives you a
141 clean slate and more freedom to shape your sound.</p>
143 <p>The <em>ACE Reverb</em> effect is a very simple one, based on early research to
144 artificial reverberation by Manfred Schroeder and Ben Logan (<a href="https://ccrma.stanford.edu/~jos/pasp/Schroeder_Reverberators.html">see
145 here</a> for technical details). There are just two controls:</p>
148 <li><strong>Blend</strong>. This control changes the mix in favour
149 of either "dry" unprocessed signal that is being fed into the
150 effect or the "wet" processed by the effect. 0 means you only
151 hear the unprocessed signal, 1 mean you only hear the processed signal.</li>
152 <li><strong>Room Size</strong>. This control changes the size of the virtual
153 room and therefore the amount of decay.</li>
156 <h2 id="ace-high-low-pass-filter">ACE High/Low Pass Filter</h2>
159 High-pass and low-pass filters reduce the signal below and above a certain
160 frequency respectively. The <em>ACE High/Low Pass</em> filter combines the
165 <img style="width:50%;" src="/images/a-lpf-hpf.png" alt="Inline ACE High/Low Pass Filter display">
167 ACE High/Low Pass Filter
171 <p>Each of the two bandpass filters has three controls:</p>
174 <li><strong>Steepness</strong>. How much the filter reduces the signal per
175 each step (12dB/oct to 48dB/oct). Setting steepness to <em>Off</em>
176 disables the filter entirely.</li>
177 <li><strong>Cutoff frequency</strong>. The base frequency where the filter
178 begins cutting off the data.</li>
179 <li><strong>Resonance</strong>. How much the signal around the cutoff
180 frequency is suppressed (lower values) or emphasized (higher values).
181 The plugins defaults to 0.707 which roughly translates to "do nothing".</li>
185 The plugin also comes with an inline display visualizing the effect that
190 <img style="width:75%;" src="/images/a-lpf-hpf-inline.png" alt="Inline ACE High/Low Pass Filter display">
199 Equalizers are commonly used to shape the sound, change timbre of an
200 instrument and generally help it sit better in a mix.
203 ACE EQ is a simple 4-band equalizer with a low and a high shelves.
204 All bands and shelves are optional and can be disabled by clicking on
205 the outer border of respective parameters boxes.
208 For each band it's possible to set the base frequency, the gain level,
209 and the bandwidth. The latter defines how much frequencies around the base
210 frequency are affected by the gain adjustment. In an example below, the first
211 band has the narrowest bandwidth of 0.1, and the third band has the default
212 banwidth of 1.0. While both bands have a gain of +10dB, the first one is very
213 narrow, but the third one is wide enough so that changes begin affecting
214 frequencies that belong to neighboring frequency bands.
218 <img style="width:50%;" src="/images/a-eq-bandwidths.png" alt="ACE EQ bandwidths">
224 <p>There are three ways to adjust both frequency, gain, and bandwidth:</p>
227 <li><p><strong>Directly on the diagram</strong>. Dragging the band mark
228 (1 through 4) left and right changes the frequency, dragging it up and down
229 changes the gain. Scrolling the mouse wheel over the band mark changes the
232 <li><p><strong>In the bottom parameters boxes</strong>. Scrolling the mouse
233 wheel over a setting changes its value. This is also where and how the master
234 output can be adjusted.</p>
236 <li><p><strong>Numerically via the generic plugin UI</strong>. This user
237 interface can be displayed by right-clicking on the plugin in the mixer
238 channel and choosing the <em>Edit with generic controls…</em> option.</p>
242 <p>ACE EQ also provides an inline display for mixer channels:</p>
245 <img style="width:75%;" src="/images/a-eq-inline.png" alt="Inline ACE EQ display">