Serato DYNAMICS User Manual

Dynamics

Serato Audio Research

Private Bag 34903
Birkenhead
Auckland 1330
New Zealand

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Website www.serato.com

User Manual

Contents

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

What’s Inside? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

What is the Rane Series Dynamics? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

What is the Rane Series Compressor? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

What is the Rane Series Gate? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

About the Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

The Compressor Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Relative Key Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Gain Reduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Key Parametric EQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Dynamics Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Mode Switches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Post-Compression Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Make-up Gain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Peak Limiter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

I/O Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Control Value Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

The Gate Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Relative Key Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Gain Reduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Key Cut Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Dynamics Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Listen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

I/O Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Control Value Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Appendix A - Shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

All content © Serato Audio Research. All rights reserved.

All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Introduction

Thank you for purchasing the Rane Series Dynamics. The Dynamics is one of the plug-ins that make up Serato’s Rane
Series, which also includes a graphic EQ and a parametric EQ. The Rane Series plug-ins are based on Rane’s award­winning live sound hardware. They have been designed to provide both unique functionality and fantastic sound, we hope
you enjoy them.

We trust you will find this manual useful in setting up and getting the best from your Serato product. If you require
any assistance beyond the scope of this manual, including up-to-date information on troubleshooting, frequently asked
questions, and tips & tricks for the Rane Series Dynamics, please visit our website at serato.com.

Many thanks - the team at Serato Audio Research.

What’s Inside?

Your Rane Series Dynamics box should contain the following items. If anything is missing please contact your dealer
immediately.

1x Serato plug-ins Installation CD
1x Dynamics User Manual
1x Installation Guide + Serial Number

System Requirements

The following are the minimum system requirements for all of the Rane Series plug-ins.

Digidesign Pro Tools HD or Digidesign VENUE
Mac OSX or Windows 2000 or better
iLok key required for authorization

What is the Rane Series Dynamics?

The Rane Series Dynamics consists of 2 TDM plug-ins for the Digidesign Pro Tools HD or VENUE platforms: the Rane
Series Compressor and the Rane Series Gate. It combines the pristine sound quality and excellent features of Rane’s
top-of-the-line hardware, the C4 Compressor and G4 Gate, with the ease of a functional graphical user interface.

The Dynamics plug-ins present a traditional threshold-relative view of key level and gain reduction as well as broad
graphical views of the compression and expansion curves.

The plug-ins can be used in mono, stereo, and multi-mono modes. Note that stereo mode is recommended over multi­mono mode because it links the channels to preserve a stable stereo image.

The installer includes presets for both plug-ins to get you started in many common situations. By creating your own
presets for commonly used microphones, instruments and other sound sources you will achieve a level of efficiency that
is not possible with hardware systems.

3

What is the Rane Series Compressor?

The Compressor features a key parametric EQ, and can be operated in two modes: Compressor and Dynamic EQ. For
both modes, ±24 dB of make-up gain is available. Inadvertent clipping is prevented by the inclusion of an oversampled
brick wall peak limiter.

Compressor mode is used to automatically control the volume or dynamics of the input signal. When the key reaches
the threshold, the compressor begins turning down the signal by an amount set by the ratio control. The compressor
simply makes the loud signals quieter. Primary uses of compressor mode are 1) reduce dynamic range of vocalists and
other musical instruments that exceed the recording or reproduction capability; 2) prevent clipping and distortion in live
sound systems or recording chains; 3) smooth and balance an instrument such as a bass guitar with wide dynamic range
and string-to-string level variations; 4) produce louder recordings for broadcast; and 5) evenout paging variations due to
different speakers in large systems. In compressor mode the key parametric EQ is a bell filter.

Dynamic EQ mode is used to automatically control the volume of a selected band of frequencies of the input signal. In
dynamic EQ mode the key parametric EQ is a bandpass filter. This bandpassed key, together with the overall broadband
key, is used to drive the band reduction. In dynamic EQ mode the threshold defines the difference between the bandpassed
key level and the broadband key level, that results in band reduction. Because this mode depends on the ratio between
bandpass and broadband key levels, it is not affected by the absolute input signal level. Dynamic EQ mode is therefore
useful for such situations as de-essing, where the troublesome sibilants (‘sss’ sounds) are reduced while maintaining the
correct ratio of broadband to siblant material.

Note: To switch between modes use the compressor mode switch in the mode switches panel (see
page 11).

What is the Rane Series Gate?

The Gate features a high- and low-cut pair of key filters, and can be operated in three modes: Gate, Duck, and Expand.

Gate mode operates by turning the signal down a fixed number of dB (the depth) when the key drops below the threshold.
Primary uses of gate mode are 1) reduce microphone bleed, handling noise, electrical hum or incidental back ground
noise; 2) modify the sound of an instrument by softening or tightening its attack; 3) synchronize two sounds by using one
as the external key input.

Duck mode reduces the level of a signal by a certain amount (the depth) when the key exceeds the threshold. Ducking is
useful for voiceover and instrument solo applications.

The basic objective of Expand mode is the same as gate mode, to reduce the noise floor of a signal. However, expand
mode provides a more subtle response than gate mode in applications requiring smooth, natural decay. It works by
controlling the ratio of output change to input change, in effect dynamically modifying gain below the threshold. An
expander is useful to enhance the long, gradual decay of a piano or guitar, or to reduce stage noise between passages
for a quiet vocalist.

Note: To switch between modes use the buttons in the mode panel (see page 18).

4

About the Key

Both of the Rane Series Dynamics plug-ins have key inputs that drive the gain reduction. The key input can either be
internal (the input audio that is being compressed or gated), or external (some other audio signal). By default the key is
internal; to switch to an external key simply choose a signal as the key input to the plug-in using the standard Pro Tools or
VENUE menus. By deselecting the key input in Pro Tools or VENUE the plug-in will revert to an internal key.

Selecting the key in Pro Tools. The left screenshot shows ‘no key input’, which results in the key being
internal. The right screenshot shows Interface input A 3 being selected as the external key.

Selecting the key in VENUE. The left screenshot shows ‘None’ for the Key source, which means that the
key is internal. The right screenshot shows Channel 2 being selected as the external key.

Both Dynamics plug-ins also have key filters, the Compressor has a parametric EQ, and the Gate has a cut filter pair. To
distinguish between the key input pre-filter and the key post-filter, this user manual uses the terms ‘key input’ and ‘key’ as
follows:

Key Input is used to describe the pre-filtered, internal or external signal coming in to the plug-in that is filtered to become
the key.

Key refers to the post-filtered signal that is then used to drive the gain reduction. In dynamic EQ mode the key might also
be called the bandpassed key, because both the bandpassed key and broadband key (the key input) are used to drive the
dynamic EQ gain reduction.

5

The Compressor Interface

1

2

6 7 9

8

3 4

5

10

11

1 Relative Key Level Shows the level of the key relative to the threshold.

2 Gain Reduction Shows the amount of gain reduction applied to the audio signal.

3 Key Parametric EQ Allows you to reduce the detector’s response to a limited range of key frequencies.

4 Dynamics Panel Displays a graph of the gain reduction vs. the key level, as well as having the threshold, ratio,

knee, attack, and release controls.

5 Mode Switches Select the timing mode, Compressor or Dynamic EQ mode, and monitor the key.

6 Post-Compression Displays the peak and RMS level of the post-compression signal.

7 Make-up Gain Allows you to compensate for gain loss caused by your compression settings.

8 Peak Limiter Controls the threshold at which the peak limiter kicks in.

9 I/O Levels Display the peak and RMS levels going in to and coming out of the plug-in.

10 Scale Switches the key, post-compression, peak limit, and I/O level scales between dBFS and

dBVU.

11 Control Value Editors Allow you to read and edit the value of any control.

6