WAVES

®
dbx 160
COMPRESSOR/LIMITER
USER GUIDE
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION .................................................................................... 3

1.1 Welcome ..................................................................................................................................................................3

®
1.2 dbx 160: The Original Hardware .............................................................................................................................3
®
1.3 dbx 160: The Plugin ................................................................................................................................................4

1.4 Concepts and Terminology ......................................................................................................................................4

1.5 Components ............................................................................................................................................................5

CHAPTER 2 – INTERFACE AND CONTROLS .............................................................. 6

2.1 Interface ..................................................................................................................................................................6

2.2 Controls ...................................................................................................................................................................7

2.3 WaveSystem Toolbar ...............................................................................................................................................7

All visual and aural references to HARMAN products and all use of HARMAN’s trademarks are being made with
written permission from HARMAN INTERNATIONAL INDUSTRIES, INCOPORATED.

®
Waves dbx 160
User Guide

2
Chapter 1 – Introduction

1.1 Welcome

Thank you for choosing Waves! In order to get the most out of your new Waves plugin, please
take a moment to read this user guide.

To install software and manage your licenses, you need to have a free Waves account. Sign up
at www.waves.com. With a Waves account you can keep track of your products, renew your
Waves Update Plan, participate in bonus programs, and keep up to date with important
information.

We suggest that you become familiar with the Waves Support pages: www.waves.com/support.
There are technical articles about installation, troubleshooting, specifications, and more. Plus,
you’ll find company contact information and Waves Support news.

1.2 dbx® 160: The Original Hardware

dbx® Inc. is an American manufacturer of professional audio recording equipment. Founded in

1971 by David E. Blackmer, the company’s most important inventions were the dbx voltage-
controlled amplifier (VCA) and the dbx RMS detector. The original dbx 202 VCA (the "Black
Can" VCA) was built using discrete transistors that were hand-matched while running at an
elevated temperature in an oven. Though noisy and having significant distortion, the dbx 202
units exceeded by far the performance of other early VCAs and were used in most early
automated mixing boards.

In 1976, dbx introduced the dbx 160 compressor. Using dbx’s decilinear VCA, RMS level-
detection circuits and feed-forward gain reduction, this compressor allowed much smoother gain
reduction than its counterparts. The feed-forward gain reduction allowed infinite compression
without excessive distortion or oscillation. It also allowed the compressor to track the attack and
release times of compression based on the signal’s envelope. In addition, the dbx compressor
introduced overeasy compression, which created a soft knee at the start of the compression
process.

®
Waves dbx 160
User Guide

3
1.3 dbx® 160: The Plugin

The dbx® 160 plugin is a digital model of a classic feed-forward hard-knee VCA-based
compressor.

On top of the accurate modeling of the original compressor’s sound, Waves has added, for
optimal use, several features that did not exist in the original hardware:

1. Input gain control – to let you perfectly adjust the input level going into the compressor.
2. Mix control – to enable very quick parallel compression within the plugins.
3. Noise control – to add the hardware-modeled noise.
4. MS matrix in the stereo component – to enable separate compression between the mid and
sides of the stereo signal.
5. Sidechain High Pass (SC-HP) – giving you the option of introducing a high-pass filter around
90 Hz on the sidechain, in order to remove low-frequency energy from the sidechain pass.
The outcome is less compression on low-frequency centered signals.

1.4 Concepts and Terminology

VCA
A VCA, or voltage-controlled amplifier, is an amplifier that varies its gain depending on a control
voltage, such that the input voltage determines the output voltage. The dbx® 160 is a VCA-
based compressor.

Sidechain Voltage
The sidechain section of the dbx® 160 converts the signal from AC to DC, with the VCA
controlled via the DC current. The higher the DC current, the more compression you get. The
sidechain voltage can range from a couple of mV to 15 V.

®
Waves dbx 160
User Guide

4
Feed-Forward Compression
The signal entering the compressor is split: one copy goes to the output (though the VCA), while
the other is fed forward to the VCA via a sidechain circuit. See the image below:

Sidechain High Pass (SC-HP)

As explained in the Feed-Forward Compression section above, the input signal is fed to the
VCA. Generally, the more energy you have in the sidechain, the more compression you get; but
if you apply a high-pass filter to remove low energy from the signal, the result will be less energy
when low-frequency energy is present, hence less compression. In bass guitars, for example,
the abundance of low energy entails lots of compression; but if a high-pass filter is applied on
the sidechain, the VCA will identify less energy on the low bass notes than there is in the actual
input signal and will therefore attenuate the signal less, allowing more low frequencies.

1.5 Components
WaveShell technology enables us to split Waves processors into smaller plugins, which we call
components. Having a choice of components for a particular processor gives you the flexibility
to choose the configuration best suited to your material. dbx® 160 includes the following
components:

• dbx® 160 Mono

• dbx® 160 Stereo

®
Waves dbx 160
User Guide

5
Chapter 2 – Interface and Controls

2.1 Interface

®
Waves dbx 160
User Guide

6
2.2 Controls

Input
Increases or decreases the gain of the input signal.
Range: -20 dB to 20 dB
Default: 0 dB

Threshold
Sets the level (in Vrms) above which compression will take place.
Range: 0.01 Vrms (-60 dBFS) to -3 Vrms (-9 dBFS)
Default: 1 Vrms (-18 dBFS)

Compression

Sets the ratio of the compression.

Range: 1:1 to inf:1
Default: 4:1

Output
Increases or decreases the gain of the output signal.
Range: -20 dB to 20 dB
Default: 0 dB

SC-HP
Applies a high-pass filter on the sidechain signal at around 90 Hz, resulting in less compression
on the low end.
Range: On, Off
Default: Off

Mix
Controls the balance between the compressed and the uncompressed signal.
Range: 0% to 100% (0.1% increments)
Default: 100%

Waves dbx 160 Compressor/Limiter

User Guide

7
Noise

Controls the amount of noise and hum added to the processed signal.
Range: Off to 100
Default: Off

Compressor Mode (Stereo Component Only)

Selects the stereo processing mode.

There are three stereo compressor modes:
• Stereo – All controls are in link mode. When you set a control on one side (L or R), the other
side changes to the same value. Any difference in the settings between sides (created using
the Duo or MS mode) will be preserved when you move back to Stereo mode.
• Duo – Controls can be set independently in each side, L and R.
• MS – This mode applies an MS encoding matrix to the input of the plugin, allowing you to
separately compress and level the Mid (sum) and Sides (difference) signals. In this mode,
the letters M (for Mid) and S (for Sides) will be added at the header of the channels (M at the
top left, S at the top right). In MS mode, all the left side controls affect the “Mid” signal in the
matrix, while the right side controls affect the “Sides” signal in the matrix.
Default: Stereo
A note on automation: When you automate settings in Stereo mode, your settings will be
saved for the specific channel (L or R) you have selected, but will affect both L and R. When
you automate L and R to different values in Duo mode, you will need to delete your settings for
one of the channels (L or R) before you return to Stereo mode in order to avoid conflicting
values.

Monitor (Stereo Component Only)

Selects the source of the monitor output.

• Left – Left output is sent to both sides (in MS Mode this monitors the mid).
• Mono – Left and Right outputs are summed to mono and trimmed down by 6 dB.
• Stereo – Stereo mode.
• Right – Right output is sent to both sides (in MS Mode, this monitors the sides).
Default: Stereo

Waves dbx 160 Compressor/Limiter

User Guide

8
Metering

VU Meter

Displays input, output, and gain reduction levels, depending on your selection.
Range IN/OUT: -40 to 20
Range GR: 0 to -40

VU Meter – Headroom Calibration Control

The meter’s headroom calibration default is set to 18 dB headroom. The meter can be adjusted
using the little screw underneath to provide a headroom of 0–24 dB, where X dBFS = 0 VU.
Range: 0 to 24 dB
Default: 18 dB

Meter I/O
The meter I/O lets you select from three monitoring modes:
• GR – Shows the total amount of gain reduction/increase.
• IN – Shows the input level of the plugin’s post-input control, so that any change in the input
is reflected in the meter.
• OUT – Shows the output level of the plugin’s post-output control, so that any change in the
output is reflected in the meter.

Clip Indicator
Indicates peak clipping for both input and output regardless of the selected meter mode. To
reset, click on the meter.

2.3 WaveSystem Toolbar

Use the bar at the top of the plugin to save and load presets, compare settings, undo and redo
steps, and resize the plugin. To learn more, click the icon at the upper-right corner of the
window and open the WaveSystem Guide.

Waves dbx 160 Compressor/Limiter

User Guide