Weiss EQ1-MKII User Manual

digital audio

weiss engineering ltd.
Florastrasse 42, 8610 Uster, Switzerland

) [phone] [phone]
8 http://www.weiss.ch / http://www.weiss-highend.com

GAMBIT

EQ1-MK2

OPERATING MANUAL

Software Version: 0S: 4.1

OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS FOR GAMBIT EQUALIZER EQ1-MK2 FRONT PANEL

CONTENTS

CONTENTS __________________________________________________________________________2
What's New For The EQ1-MK2 __________________________________________________________3
FRONT PANEL _______________________________________________________________________4

Front Panel Groups ______________________________________________________________________________5

INTRODUCTION _____________________________________________________________________6

Display ________________________________________________________________________________________6
Snapshots______________________________________________________________________________________6
Remote Control _________________________________________________________________________________6

OPERATION__________________________________________________________________________7

Status Display___________________________________________________________________________________7
Band Parameters ________________________________________________________________________________9
Controls______________________________________________________________________________________10
M/S Mode_____________________________________________________________________________________11
Snapshots_____________________________________________________________________________________12
Dither________________________________________________________________________________________14
Display Resolution ______________________________________________________________________________14
LCD Contrast _________________________________________________________________________________14
EQ Bypass ____________________________________________________________________________________14
Remote Control ________________________________________________________________________________14
Software Information____________________________________________________________________________15
Self Test______________________________________________________________________________________15

TECHNICAL DATA___________________________________________________________________16

AES/EBU Input_________________________________________________________________________________16
AES/EBU Output_______________________________________________________________________________16
Power________________________________________________________________________________________19
Overload _____________________________________________________________________________________19
Filters________________________________________________________________________________________19
Parameter Table _______________________________________________________________________________20
Dither________________________________________________________________________________________22
Remote Control Protocol ________________________________________________________________________23

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OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS FOR GAMBIT EQUALIZER EQ1-MK2 FRONT PANEL

What's New For The EQ1-MK2

The double sampling Gambit Series EQ1-DS has now been upgraded to the EQ1-MK2.

Like the old EQ1-DS, the EQ1-MK2 supports 44.1, 48, 88.2 and 96kHz sampling frequencies, always using
either 88.2 or 96kHz for internal processing. This is responsible for the well-renowned sound of the high
resolution units and is the difference to the standard sampling EQ1.

Adding to the high resolution processing, the EQ1-MK2 now features an extended parameter set, signifi­cantly increasing the number of possible eq settings, as well as a new operational mode for processing ste­reo signals in the M/S domain (as compared to processing in the L/R domain – see chapter M/S Mode, p.

11).

The Q now reaches from a near whole-bandwidth-covering 0.20 to a needle-like 650 in 128 steps, allowing
everything from subtle sound colouring to notch filter tone removal. The boost varies in 0.1 dB steps from ­39dB (for notching) to +18dB. To compensate for the extremely accurate notch filter type, the frequency
resolution has been doubled, now running from 14Hz to 21kHz in 12th octave steps plus including special
notch frequencies such as 50 and 60 Hz and their harmonics.

A further new feature is the settable “shape” parameter for shelving filters, which has the same resolution
and a similar effect as the Q parameter for the presence filter type.

Combined with the flexibility of seven independent bands per channel, the mastering engineer can now
twist the transfer curve to his exact specifications.

For exact frequency, boost / cut and Q parameter values please refer to chapter Parameter Table
(p. 20).

Daniel Weiss Engineering Ltd., Florastr. 42, CH-8610 Uster Page 3 of 26
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OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS FOR GAMBIT EQUALIZER EQ1-MK2 FRONT PANEL

•

Ž

Œ

FRONT PANEL

•

Graph 1: Front Panel Elements

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OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS FOR GAMBIT EQUALIZER EQ1-MK2 FRONT PANEL

Front Panel Groups

The front panel of the EQ1 offers several control and display features. These can be grouped according to
Graph 1: Front Panel Elements:

Π- Band Parameters

• - Menu
Ž - Controls

• - Snapshots

This manual will explain how to operate the EQ1 according to these groups.

The Bypass key is discussed separately in chapter
EQ Bypass (p. 14). The “gain / data” encoder appears throughout the remainder of this manual and is

therefore not explained separately.

Daniel Weiss Engineering Ltd., Florastr. 42, CH-8610 Uster Page 5 of 26
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OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS FOR GAMBIT EQUALIZER EQ1-MK2 INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

Congratulations on purchasing the Weiss Gambit Series EQ1-MK2 Digital Equalizer !

This two channel digital equalizer features seven
bands per channel, individually configurable as
low cut, high cut, low shelving, high shelving or
peaking filter. The two channels can be controlled
separately or ganged together at the touch of a
button.

The large CFL LC display and the one-knob-per­parameter operation combine speed and ease of
use with complete control over audio processing.

This and the ability to remote control parameters
and snapshots makes the EQ1 the perfect tool for
the recording and mastering engineer!

Display

Double logarithmic graph of the magnitude

function of the equalizer calculated in real
time

Status display showing sampling frequency,

channel status data handling, current work­space and snapshot number and a resetable
peak-hold and over-hold per channel

Band display (activated by touch) showing

boost, Q/ slope and frequency settings for
each band

Two over-LED’s with settable number of

consecutive over-samples which cause an
“over” display combined with an over-hold
function

Snapshots

3 x 128 non-volatile snapshots where all

parameters are stored

A-B workspaces for quick comparison

between two settings

Remote Control

Supports MIDI, RS-232 and RS-422 proto-

cols

Standard MIDI Continuous Controllers for

parameter remote control (including over­all gain)

Snapshot automatization with MIDI Pro-

gram Change Commands

MIDI Dump of Snapshots

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OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS FOR GAMBIT EQUALIZER EQ1-MK2 OPERATION

OPERATION

The following explanations assume that the equalizer is in power-up mode, i.e. no menu is ac­tive. If a menu is active, press the “menu” key repeatedly until the status display appears.

Status Display

Key A
Key B

Key C

Key C
Key D

Graph 2: Status Display

The status display consists of four groups dis­playing audio signal properties and information
about the current state of the EQ1. The groups
are situated adjacent to the softkeys to the right
of the LCD (Graph 2).

Channel Status Group

Situated adjacent to key A, displays the following
information:

sampling frequency in kHz: “44.1”, “ 48”,

“88.2” or “96”

Use this value to set the optimal gain for a specific
session. Reset it for every session.

Over-Hold
Whenever an over is encountered, the boxes to

the side of the peak-hold values are marked.
The functions of the over-LED’s and the over-

hold both depend on the NUMBER OF

CONSECUTIVE OVER-SAMPLES setting. To adjust

this setting, press key B once. Use the “gain/
data” encoder to change the value, then press
“menu” to return to the status display.

This setting defines the number of consecutive
over-samples needed for an over-indication. To
indicate every over-sample, enter 1. If another
value is entered, you are still able to detect a
single over-sample with the peak-hold function.

pre-emphasis: “E” appears if pre-emphasis

is set (empty if not used)

input output channel status data format:

“C” for consumer and “P” for professional

To change the output channel status data format,
press key A and select format type or loop
through.

Peak Group

Situated adjacent to key B, this group contains a
peak-hold and an over-hold for each channel. To
reset these values press key B twice.

Peak-Hold
The numeric peak value is measured relative to

0dBFS, where 0dB equals digital full scale.

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OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS FOR GAMBIT EQUALIZER EQ1-MK2 OPERATION

Over-samples are defined as exceeding the
24bit integer range. A full scale signal
(0dBFS) will not be treated as over. A signal
that triggered an over in a previous pro­cessor in the audio chain will therefore not
trigger an over in the EQ1 (unless boosted).

Remote Group

Situated adjacent to key C, displays remote con­trol protocol (“MIDI”, “RS 232” or “RS 422”),
channel (“1” - “16”) and status (on/ off, displayed
with check box).

For remote control set-up see chapter Remote
Control.

Snapshot Display

Bottom line in the status display. Refer to this for
information on current workspace and snapshot.
There are two workspaces (“A” and “B”) for
quick comparison of two equalizer settings. A
workspace can be stored to a snapshot for later
use.

The number of the last recalled snapshot will be
displayed. If you change any value after the recall,
the “ ” will change to “ ” to symbolize that the
workspace is not equal to the displayed snapshot
anymore.

For snapshot handling see chapter Snapshots (p.

12).

Dither Icon

The dither icon is situated right next to key D
(see Graph 2). If dither is off, the icon contains
the number “24“, the word length of the output
signal in bits. Turning dither on will produce ar­rows above and below the new word length
number (“16“ or “20“). Additionally, if auto­blacking is enabled, the bottom right corner of
the icon is inverted.

For details on dither refer to chapter Dither (p.

14).

Daniel Weiss Engineering Ltd., Florastr. 42, CH-8610 Uster Page 8 of 26
) [phone] [phone] http://www.weiss.c * [e-mail]