DP-24 mastering question- "crossover"

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NotThatBright

New member
In the Tascam DP-24's mastering function there is this thing called "crossover" here:

crossover1.jpg

It must have something to do with compression. The last time I changed the values was many months ago (just from screwing around with them back then I determined that 315 and 3.17 sounded ok, and I left them alone since then). I've googled this and haven't found anything that definitive about what "crossover" actually is.

Can anyone tell me about it? I've been trying to get away from using the DP-24 for mastering and mixing, but at this point I still crank out better mixes with this than I can with reaper.

Thanks!
 
I'm pretty sure the crossover is part of the final multiband compression. The crossover is adjusting the frequency range of each band.

I'm gonna have to dig out the instruction manual I think.

edit: Yep, that's exactly what it is.
 
I didn't want anyone to go to any trouble, but thanks for looking it up. I actually thought it was just what you said, but I noticed that you can only set one frequency range for ALL the bands. For instance... if you set it at a range for high, then move to mid, that range you just set will be there for mid. Change it to something else on mid and go back to high, and it will be at whatever you changed to in mid. If it's what I think you're describing, wouldn't you be able to set a separate range for each band (high, mid and low)?
 
NotThatBright said:
I didn't want anyone to go to any trouble, but thanks for looking it up. I actually thought it was just what you said, but I noticed that you can only set one frequency range for ALL the bands. For instance... if you set it at a range for high, then move to mid, that range you just set will be there for mid. Change it to something else on mid and go back to high, and it will be at whatever you changed to in mid. If it's what I think you're describing, wouldn't you be able to set a separate range for each band (high, mid and low)?
Click to expand...

If it works like a real crossover, then the "crossover" frequency is just that. There are three different compressors working independently. The crossover frequency is the point where (for example) the mid-band compressor stops treating those frequencies and the high-band compressor takes over. I suppose the idea is that you can heavily compress the bass and lightly compress the mids and highs, or whatever suits your needs.

What I do know is, a professional mixing dude of my acquaintance told me that a multi-band compressor in the wrong hands is one of the simplest ways to fuck up a mix that exists. I've steered clear of them until I have more experience of common-or-garden compression. As far as suitable crossover frequencies go, on my PA I use 70 for the sub and 2k for the mid/high. I reckon that 250 and 2k would be in the right ball-park.
 
I get it now. So in that picture above, the high band will compress any frequencies above 3.17, the mid band will compress anything between 3.17 and 315, and the low goes below 315. That makes more sense than the way I was expecting it to work.

I'm a little slow sometimes. Thanks for the detailed explanation!
 
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