Limiter
A limiter is used to dynamically limit the output level of your
audio. This can be helpful in a number of ways. It can limit
the abuse of speakers connected to the amplifier, but also
help protect the audience from explosive audio whenever it
may appear. All-in-all, though, it will keep your audio within
a certain audio range.
The iAMP DSP's onboard Limiter is feature-packed, with
user-adjustable thresholds, gain, release, attack, and
"knee" settings. Like many other functions on the iAMP
DSP, there are "On/Off" and "Link" options for each channel.
The threshold will allow you to select the point at which
the limiter will kick-in. Once your output signal exceeds the
selected threshold, the limiter circuit will activate.
Attack and release times are simply the time in which
the limiter waits before kicking-in or dropping out when
activated. Once the signal passes the threshold, the limiter
will not be applied until the selected attack time has passed.
When the signal once again drops down past the threshold,
the release time determines how long the limiter will stay
active beyond this point.
The gain can be adjusted to simply off-set the overall level
of the entire input signal.
Knee settings determine the 'harshness' of the limiter, for
lack of a better word. At 0, this limiter would be considered
a 'soft knee' limiter while at 10 it's 'hard knee' (with different
degrees of soft/hard-knee in between). A soft-knee limiter
will be more delicate with the handling of signals, while a
hard-knee limiter may be somewhat noticeable.
Meter
The front of the iAMP features two level meters; one per
channel. These can simply be changed between "input"
and "output" meters using the DSP software. Like many
other features, you can 'link' these settings so that channel
1 and 2 are adjusted simultaneously.
Also found within the meter menu is a "Backlight" feature.
This will allow you to adjust the brightness of the LCD
screen's backlight. Particularly when using the device in
dimly lit stages or studios, the bright screen may become
distracting. Reduce the brightness to combat this.
4
Monitor
One fascinating feature of the iAMP is the extensive
monitoring that is included. Using the monitor feature, you
immediately have access to such information as current,
DC voltage, dB attenuation, voltage, power voltage offset,
watts and internal temperature.
The monitor submenu is slightly different to the others.
You'll be greeted with three options: Esc, View and Set.
In this case, Esc (SET/ENTER) will return you to the main
menu; View (LEFT) will allow you to view all of the currently
selected "monitor" settings, and; Set (RIGHT) will let you
set which properties can be viewed.
You can setup your monitoring preferences by selecting
"Set". When setting up monitoring, an asterisk will appear
beside selected properties. You can remove them or add
them to monitoring using the left/right and ENTER/SET
buttons.
When you select "View", the monitoring preferences
selected will take up the entire screen in place of the main
menu. You can scroll through them at will using the left
and right buttons. When you return to the main menu, the
"Monitor" option will still continuously cycle through your
selected monitor preferences.
iAMP3020 DSP / iAMP4020 DSP