Crane Song EGRET User Manual

OPERATOR'S MANUAL

Version 1 first data

20090110

LTD.

2117 East 5th Street

Superior, WI 54880 USA

tel: [phone]

fax: [phone]

www.cranesong.com

© 2008 Crane Song, LTD. Subject to change without notice. Printed in the U.S.A.

1

Egret is a highly flexible workstation back end. It contains 8 channels of high quality D/A converters
and a stereo line level mixer with color options to help bring analog summed digital mixes to life.

The stereo mixer has a level control, a aux send which is post level control, a color control, and a pan
control on each channel. Each channel also contains an analog / digital source button, and solo ­mute buttons.

The color function is adjustable from a transparent sound to a complex mix of second and third
harmonic content. Creating the possibility of having clean modern sounds mixed with vintage
sounds.

By using the balanced direct outputs and the balanced analog inputs you can insert analog
processing into individual channels.

The built in Aux bus with its master level control can be used as an effects send. A balanced stereo
effects return is built into the system.

The master stereo bus level control, which is a stepped attenuator, has 1 db steps for most of its
range, This allows for accurate gain control, repeatability, and stereo gain matching to better than .05
db.

The headphone system allows a monitor mix to be created when Egret is being used in multi channel
location recording. Thus allowing the monitoring of all channels.

The D/A converters support sample rates up to 192K and have sample rate converters on each
channel for jitter reduction. There is a front panel switch to disable the SRC for cases where lower
latency is required. The system is built so that the converters and the interface can be upgraded as
the technology changes.

The standard interface supports AES single wire to 192KHz, ADAT, and S/MUX to 96K. The convert­ers can also be independently operated, even at different sample rates.

Egret is built so that the stereo, and cue buses can be chained together to create a many input sys­tem. With a special cable Egret’s stereo bus can also be tied to a Crane Song SPIDER as a way to
sum additional analog inputs while working in a mix mode.

COLOR THE COLOR KNOB PROVIDES
AN ADJUSTABLE TAPE - LIKE COLOR
THAT SOFTENS TRANSITS AND ADDS
SECOND AND THIRD ORDER
HARMONICS

PAN POSITIONS THE CHANNEL
OUTPUT THROUGH THE LEFT ­RIGHT STEREO BUS

SOLO BUTTON BY PRESSING THIS IN
THE CHANNEL IS SOLOED THE RED
LED LIGHTS ON ALL MUTED CHANNELS

MUTE BUTTON BY PRESSING THIS IN
THE CHANNEL IS MUTED. THE RED LED
LIGHTS ON ALL MUTED CHANNELS

AUX LEVEL THIS IS FOR USE AS AN
EFFECTS SEND IT IS POST LEVEL

LEVEL

THE CHANNEL LEVEL OR FADER

SOURCE BUTTON BY PRESSING THIS IN THE
EXTERNAL ANALOG SOURCE IS SELECTED.
WITH IT OUT THE CHANNELS D/A CON­VERTER IS SELECTED

PHONES THIS IS THE LEVEL OF THE
HEADPHONES. THIS IS TO MONITOR
THE STEREO BUS AND IS DESIGNED
FOR 1 HEAD PHONE

AUX MASTER THIS IS THE AUX BUS OF
EFFECTS SEND BUS MASTER LEVEL

SOURCE THIS IS DIGITAL INPUT SELECTION.
IT HAS 3 CHOICES. THE LEFT MOST IS AES/
EBU THE MIDDLE POSITION IS ADAT INPUT.
THE RIGHT POSITION IS FOR FUTURE EXPAN­SION

MASTER THIS IS THE STEREO BUS
LEVEL. AND IS A STEPPED ATTENUA­TOR. THE GREEN LED SHOWES THE
LEVEL SETTING

METER THE METER IS PEAK READING
WITH THE OVER LOAD LED (RED)
COMMING ON AT +25DBU.

SRC THIS DISABLES THE SAMPLE RATE
CONVERTER. THE SRC WILL REDUCE
THE JITTER OF THE INCOMMING DIGI­TAL AUDIO. THIS ALSO ALLOWS THE
USE OF BETTER FILTERS IN AUDIO
RECONSTRUCTION

PHONES HEADPHONE MONITORING OF
THE STEREO BUS