TC electronic SDN BHD Gold Channel User Manual
USERS MANUAL
Gold Channel
DIGITALLY ENHANCED MIC-PREAMP
TABLE OF CONTENTS
3
FOREWORD
WELCOME
INTRODUCTION
THE FRONT PANEL
THE REAR PANEL
THE SIGNAL FLOW
CONNECTING THE GOLD CHANNEL
QUICK REFERENCE
SIGNAL
GAIN
LEVEL
RECALL AND LIST
STORE
ROUTING AND LAYOUT
EDIT
THE BLOCKS
UTILITY
MIDI
THE RESET MENU
SELF TEST
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
MIDI IMPLEMENTATION CHART
TROUBLE SHOOTING
CERTIFICATIONS
FACTORY PRESET LIST
WHERE GREAT RECORDINGS BEGIN
By Bruce Botnick
About this Manual
Features
Buttons, Knobs, Controllers and other functions
Inputs, Outputs
General description to get started
Selecting the primary Inputs, Outputs ,Clock, Dither and Insert
Setting the Analog Input Gain
Digital In, Master Out and Analog Out levels
Recalling a Factory, User or Memory Card preset
Storing and Naming a new User preset, using the Letterbox
Constructing your own preset
Editing the blocks, M/S-matrix, Delay, Insert, Meter page
Parameters in the digital processing
System parameters, Memory Card handling
By Loren Alldrin
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TC Electronic, Sindalsvej 34, DK-8240 Risskov - tcdk@tcelectronic.com Rev 1.3 - SW - V 1.03
Prod No: 606058511
FOREWORD
4
Microphones as Ears
by Bruce Botnick
I've always felt that microphones were colors on a sound painter's palette. Colors that can be used to bring out
the many sounds that we record and help us to create different textures used in the mix.
Many recording engineers have their favorite microphones and don't necessarily use the same favorite on the
same instrument in all applications. In creating the sound field, the mixer will look at the instrumentation, the
microphones available, and make his choice based upon what he knows will work and what he hears in his
imagination.
Equating Imagination when it comes to recording music is like comparing the improvisational work of a fine
musician. You have to know your tools by heart in order to be free enough to dream in full three dimensional
stereo and color.
Back in the early days of hi-fi, monaural long playing records, when I was really, really young; I can remember
hearing people breathing on recordings. Hearing the rosin of the bow on the strings of a violin. The fingernails
of a pianist on the ivories. I could never hear that on old 78's as a majority of the microphones used up till the
1950's were ribbons. Radio Recorders had basically only ribbons, RCA 44's and 77's, with a couple of
Telefunken U47's mixed in. Their consoles were like most of that day in that the mic preamps had built-in pre
eq to compensate for the lack of high frequencies that are inherent in ribbon microphones. As the industry
started moving forward with condensers, those consoles with their pre eq provided the seminal sounds that we
grew up on. The mixers now had the revolutionary Telefunken/Neuman U47, Km 53,54's and U67's. The Sony
C37 which was a less expensive and somewhat sweeter version of the U47 and the now famous Telefunken
ELM-251 and AKG C-12's. Sound became hi-fi. Then came dynamic microphones, or did they precede? I have
seen dynamic microphones used in the strangest ways for reasons that never made sense and they worked great.
The most common usage has been on live vocals, loud amplified instruments, drums and percussion. Not hi-fi
in comparison to a condenser, but able to do things that you can't do with a condenser. Such as; using a Shure
56, 57 or 58 as a hammer to drive nails into a stage and still be useable by a singer later in performance.
Swinging the mic in a ever increasing arc, hitting concert promoters in the head as well as guitar amps. The
speed and impact should destroy those hardy mics, but they keep on doing their thing, day in and day out. Try
that with a $5,000 condenser and see how far your money will go.
Since hi-fi was such a new thing, everything about it was of interest and this information was on the back of hifi albums. This was an unyielding source of inspiration. If the sound of a U47 close mic'd on Miles Davis'
trumpet sounded great and romanced me, that was what I would use when and if I got the chance to record a
jazz trumpeter. The amazing thing is the human memory. When I did get the opportunity and used the U47 it
FOREWORD
5
sounded just like what I remembered, minus Miles Davis of course. As time has advanced forward I am always
on the lookout for this printed information as well as photographs and film documentaries of recording
sessions. Seeing the masters at work and their use of the pallet is the best way to learn. Not only can you see
and hear what they used, but also how high and far away the microphone was placed from the instrument. The
only thing we can't see is the nature of the console and what eq and dynamics were used if any. Also, the good
fortune that these masters enjoyed, was the privilege of recording master musicians capable of making great
sounds.
The future is now upon us. Digital microphones with built in A/D's capable of 96 khz, 24 bit output. Custom
tailoring of the eq curves via computer programming for the mixer who needs the microphone to do it his way.
Digital processing of these new signals by digital microphone preamplifiers with eq and dynamics. It's amazing
what it used to be, as it now happens, almost as soon as we can think it up, the future is now.
Microphones have a great history and have been a part of almost all of the 20th century's most important music
and political events. My gratitude to those dreamers who dreamt of reproducing human hearing in full three
dimensional stereo and color. I am at their feet.
Bruce Botnick - June 1998
Bruce Botnick is a recording engineer and producer whose work spans the last three decades. Although he is
primarily known as engineer and producer for the legendary 60's rock group, The Doors, Bruce has recorded
and produced literally hundreds of other legendary classic rock hits throughout the 60's and 70's. His clients
have included a "who's who" of Rock & Roll: The Beach Boys, Buffalo Springfield, The Turtles, The
Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, The 5th Dimension, Bread, MC5, Delaney and Bonnie, Judy Collins,
Dave Mason, The Rolling Stones, Joe Cocker, Eddie Money, Kenny Loggins, Steve Perry and many others.
Considered by many to be one of the "pioneers" of digital recording, Bruce was the first to engineer the first all
digital recording of a motion picture soundtrack, "Star Trek The Motion Picture". Since then, Bruce has
recorded and produced countless music scores for films such as "E.T.", "Poltergeist I & II", "Indiana Jones And
The Temple Of Doom", "Rambo", "Gremlins", "The Color Purple", "Caddyshack", "Startrek V", "Blaze",
'Total Recall", "The Doors Movie", "Sleeping With The Enemy", "Father Of The Bride", "Beauty And The
Beast", "Basic Instinct", "Aladdin", "The Lion King", "Pocahontas", "Waterworld", First Knight", "City Hall",
"L.A. Confidential", "Ghost & The Darkness", "Executive Decision", "Airforce One", "Deep Rising". Bruce
recently completed producing The Doors 4-CD Box Set, and engineered the music score for latest Disney
animated feature film, Mulan.
WELCOME
6
Congratulations
Congratulations on the purchase of your new Gold
Channel. We hope that you have as much pleasure
using it as we had making it.
The Gold Channel is carefully designed to make perfect
recordings of your precious music directly to your digital storage
media. There are three essential steps in the recording process:
Microphone amplification, Analog to Digital conversion and a
powerful package of signal processing. These are all brought
together in the Gold Channel. These plus the routing possibilities
in the processing section and the versatile Input and Output
connectors, set a whole new standard for what you can expect
from a stand-alone mic-preamp.
The Gold Channel is equipped with 24 bit AD/DA converters,
AES/EBU, S/PDIF and ADAT/Toslink Optical Inputs and
Outputs.
About this Manual
Many people in the music business (and elsewhere) have an
aversion to reading manuals. We understand that. So if you feel
like starting without reading the whole manual, check out the
Quick Reference at page 11. You can always use the manual if
you want to check out areas that you have questions about.
On the other hand, you might want to know a little more about
the Gold Channel before you start pressing keys. The manual
will take you step by step through all of the Gold Channel’s
functions. If you want to read about a specific function, please
refer to the Table of Contents.
INTRODUCTION
7
General Introduction
The Gold Channel is designed so that all its main functions are available directly on the front panel: Input select, +48V phantom, gain
setting with PAD, Lo-Cut, Phase Invert, Mute, Soft Clipper and Meter select. These combined with separate bypass buttons for each
processing block and a user friendly display, gives you an intuitive box that is very easy to use, despite the many features.
The Gold Channel is a true dual mono machine with four processing blocks on each channel that can be selected, routed and changed
individually, or if placed in the same routing position, can be linked for stereo operation.
The Gold Channel has three basic modes: 1) Four blocks of processing available on each channel (44.1 or 48 kHz)
2) With one processing block on each channel that runs at double sample rate (88.2 or 96 kHz)
3) Three processing blocks on channel 1 which run at double sample rate (88.2 or 96 kHz)
Gold Channel features:
- Two channels of high-end mic-preamplification.
- Two types of Expander/Gate algorithms that enable
you to use either an over-easy Noise-Gate or a more
comprehensive Expander with additional parameters.
- Two types of Compressor algorithms where TC has
emulated the warm analog sound of vintage
compressors.
- Two types of EQ algorithms that incorporate TC
Electronic’s proprietary SoftSat technology. Easy EQ
is an emulation of vintage EQ’s, plus an Advanced EQ
with additional parameters.
- A De-Esser, which can help remove the sibilant
sounds from vocal recordings.
- A Dynamic EQ which is a De-esser with additional
frequency range and control, enabling you to use it as
a De-popper.
- A Digital Radiance Generator (DRG
TM
) which adds a
tube-like sound to your material.
- R.I.A.A. equalization allows you to connect your
turntable to the mic-inputs.
- M/S encoding and decoding both before and after the
processing blocks, gives you the opportunity to take
advantage of this recording technique, that has been
used for years in the film and broadcast industries.
8
POWER
Press and hold the Power
switch until the Gold Channel
logo shows, then release.
CARD SLOT
The PCMCIA slot can be used
for storing and loading presets.
Use Type 1 PC Cards with a
minimum 64 KBytes of SRAM,
or up to 2MB.
CHANNEL 1 AND 2
The Gold Channel has direct access to all primary functions on the micpreamp for each channel:
Input gain encoder: Sets the analog input gain along with the PAD button.
Everytime you change the input level, the Gain page will pop up, so you can
read the exact input gain.
Input: Selects between Microphone, Line-level and Digital input. Every time
you change the input, the Signal page will pop up to help you view the
Input/Output status of the machine. If you select Digital input, you must
select what digital format to use on the Signal page.
PAD: Attenuates the input signal by 0, 20, 40 or 60 dB before the analog
input gain encoder. (60 dB is shown when 20 + 40 dB LED’s is ON)
Note: Set PAD range in the Utility display to get access to 60 dB PAD
+48V on/off: Supplying +48V Phantom power to condenser microphones
Phase: Inverts the phase of the input signal by 180
o
Locut: Digital Locut filter can be set to off, 60, 80 or 120Hz at -12 dB/octave.
If you want Locut at other frequencies, use the Easy Equalizer.
Softclip: The digital soft clipper is placed right after the Input select and just
before the Locut filter. When the Active led is blinking, the soft clipper is
working on your input signal.
Mute: Is placed right before the main output panner on each channel.
Meter: Switches the 14 segment LED meter between showing Input before
the Softclip and output right after the digital Master Output.
Clip: Indicates if overload is detected somewhere in the signal chain
DYN meters: The 2 X 4 LED meters show you the gain reduction for the
Expander and Compressor in the Routing.
Bypass: The Expander, Compressor, EQ and Tools keys, work as bypass
for each block. With a double click you get access to the parameters of the
respective processing block.
THE FRONT PANEL
9
< > MENU KEYS
In many of the displays you can select
different menus by pressing the arrow
keys, for instance, in the Edit display you
can select between Meter, Edit, Routing
and Layout.
THE PARAMETER WHEEL
Use the Parameter wheel to change the
position of the cursor in the display
THE VALUE WHEEL
Use the Value wheel to change the
values of a parameter.
ENTER, EXIT
The Enter key is used to confirm actions,
or for accessing a block. The Enter key
will blink when the Gold Channel needs
you to confirm. The Exit key is normally
used to exit a menu, or to cancel an
action.
FUNCTIONS
The four Function buttons
give access to the primary
display groups.
Programs: Here you can
store, recall or delete a
preset.
Edit: Here you can decide
the layout and setup the
processing blocks you
want, control all
parameters in the
processing and view input
meters for the blocks.
Setup: Here you can
select inputs and outputs,
insert send/return, dither,
and all main input and
output levels.
Utility: Here general
system parameters are
controlled, Display viewing
angle, plus all features
regarding MIDI and Preset
cards.
THE FRONT PANEL
THE REAR PANEL
10
Main
Power
Switch
Serial no.
MIDI
In,Thru,Out
External
Control
Input
Balanced
Mic/Line
XLR
Inputs
Balanced
Analog
XLR
Outputs
ADAT and
Tos-link
In/Out
Word
Clock
Input
RCA
Digital
AES/EBU
S/PDIF
In/Outs
Notes
Pin 2 is “Hot” on all XLR’s (IEC and AES standards).
You must use balanced XLR-XLR cables to get the +48V phantom power to your condenser microphones.
External control jack works with the optional TC Master Fader to control the Master Output Level.
The Gold Channel power supply is capable of operating at any line voltage between 100 volts and 240 Volts
(50-60 Hz).
XLR - XLR
Pin 1 - Pin 1 (Ground)
Pin 2 - Pin 2 (Hot)
Pin 3 - Pin 3 (Cold)
Balanced XLR-XLR cables:
THE SIGNAL FLOW
11
On this page you can see the signal flow through the Gold Channel presented in a technical drawing.
12
CONNECTING THE GOLD CHANNEL
Recording setup
The normal recording or tracking setup, where you connect one
or two microphones directly into the Gold Channel and have
all outputs available simultaneously.
For example: Use the analog outputs for monitoring the artist,
and the digital outputs for recording directly to your digital
storage media.
Post recording setup
When you are done recording and want to do some additional
processing on your tracks, you can connect the output from
your digital recording device to the digital input of the Gold
Channel, enabling you to keep your tracks in the digital
domain. Set the digital input format on the Signal page.
The analog inputs and outputs, which are not in use when
working in the digital domain, can be used for inserting an
analog device, like a tube compressor. Select Line as Insert
send/return on the Signal page, and set the Insert block
position to either Pre or Post processing (on the Layout page).
Make sure that the Direct Ch. 1 and Ch. 2 signal parameters in
the Insert block are turned all the way down.
Mixer setup
The Insert option can also be used to turn the Gold Channel
into a four input mixer with two analog inputs and two
channels of digital input. Connect one or two microphones
and a digital device like another Gold Channel, and set the
digital input format at Insert return on the Signal page. Select
the Insert block position as Pre or Post processing (on the
Layout page) and use the Gain, Pan and Delay parameters in
the Insert block for fine tuning the mix. All outputs will be
The Gold Channel can be used in different kinds of setups and applications due to the extensive input and output
possibilities. Here are a couple of suggestions on how to connect the Gold Channel.
QUICK REFERENCE
13
General Control
General control of the Gold Channel display is accomplished by dialing the Parameter wheel to
change position of the cursor, and the Value wheel to change values. In many of the displays you can
select different menus by pressing the < > Menu keys, as in the Edit display where you can select
between Meter, Edit, Routing and Layout. Press Enter to carry out an action (for example, when
recalling a preset).
Recall
Press Programs (if you are not already there) and select Recall with the < > Menu keys. Use the
Value wheel to select a preset (Factory, User or Card preset) and press Enter to load the preset.
Quick Store
If you want to store a modified factory preset with the same name, press Programs and use the < >
Menu keys to access the Store menu, then press Enter to confirm. The Gold Channel will now
automatically store your preset in the first empty User space, using the current name. If you have
modified a User preset, the Gold Channel will default to the same User preset number when you try
to store it. If you don’t want to overwrite the preset, choose another User or Card bank number with
the Value wheel.
Editing
Press the Edit key and select the Edit display using the < > Arrow keys. There are two ways of
entering the parameter display of a processing block. Double-click the bypass key of the block you
want to edit or dial the Parameter wheel to place the cursor on the block you want to Edit and press
Enter. Press the Exit key when you want to return to the Edit display, or double-click on the bypass
key.
Routing
Changing the order of the processing blocks is done in the Routing display. Press the Edit key and
select the Routing display using the < > Menu keys. Place the cursor where you want to insert a
processing block, and dial the Value wheel to select the sub-algorithm (sub-algorithm is shown in the
lower text line). Now press Enter to insert the current processing block. Pressing Enter while
pointing to a processing block will give you a short-cut to the parameter display of the processing
block, and pressing Exit will return you to the Routing display.
Input/Output Levels
When using Analog input, turn the Input encoders at the upper left corner of each channel to adjust
the input levels. When adjusting the input level, the Gain display will automatically appear and then
disappear again after a few seconds. You must make sure that the Input encoder indication on the
display has grabbed the indication on the outer circle which shows the actual input gain. Otherwise,
nothing will happen to the input gain.
To access the Digital Input/Output levels and the analog output levels, press the Setup key and select
the Level page using the < > Menu keys.
NOTE: The Digital Master Out levels are placed before the Analog output levels, and will therefore
have influence on the Analog output levels.
SETUP - Signal
14
The Signal Display
Whenever you touch one of the Input selectors on the front, the
Signal display will pop up, and disappear after a few seconds. If
you don’t want the display to go back automatically, you can set
the Auto Pages parameter in the Utility/Config display to OFF.
NOTE: This will also affect the Gain display.
Input
The Input box is controlled from the Input selector for each
channel on the front. It can be Mic, Line or Digital input. If it’s
set to Digital, the Value wheel is used to select between the
different digital formats: AES/EBU, S/PDIF, TOS Link and
ADAT. You cannot select different digital formats for channels 1
and 2.
NOTE: The Input select overrides the Insert send/return, meaning
that the setting selected at the Input cannot be chosen at the
Insert return. Also note that the Insert option is only available
when both channels are either analog or digital. You will get the
message: INSERT OFF, if the insert is no longer possible, and
INSERT ON when it’s possible again.
AES/EBU - Digital AES/EBU can use up to 24 bits. Use the
balanced XLR Digital In/Out for this connection. AES/EBU
should use balanced 110 Ohm cables. The incoming sample rate
will be displayed in the Digital box at the Signal page. The
“Digital” LED’s will be blinking if no clock is present or if the
Gold Channel cannot lock to the incoming clock.
S/PDIF
- Digital S/PDIF can use up to 20 bits. Use the RCA
jacks In/Out for this connection. S/PDIF should use unbalanced
75 Ohm cables. The incoming sample rate will be displayed in
the Digital box in the Signal page. The “Digital” LED’s will be
blinking if no clock is present or if the Gold Channel cannot lock
to the incoming clock.
T
OS link - Optical TOS link uses the S/PDIF digital format. Use
the Optical In/Out for this connection. TOS link uses fiberoptic
cables. The incoming sample rate will be displayed in the Digital
box at the Signal page. The “Digital” LED’s will be blinking if
no clock is present or if the Gold Channel cannot lock to the
incoming clock.
Signal is present on all
shown outputs.
Select Channel Status
Bits output
Input Source
on Channel 1
and 2
External Clock
indicator
Sample rate source
Select Dither for
the digital outputs
“Signal” page selected
The Signal Display
On the Signal display you can select the main inputs, Insert send and return, Sample Rate source, ADAT or TOS Link
output, and view what outputs are available.
To get to the Signal page press the SETUP button, if you are not already there, and use the < > Menu keys to select SIGNAL.
Basic operation is accomplished by using the Parameter wheel to change cursor position and the value wheel to change values.
Select between
ADAT, TOS or
THRU for the
optical output
Select Insert Send and
Return sources
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