The Mic Level section of Vocaster Hub mirrors the preamp controls on the front of the Vocaster hardware. You can see where the Mic Level slider (or gain) is set and how loud the signal is in the meter.
The Slider in the Mic Level control is a software representation of the knob on the Vocaster top panel.
You can click and drag the slider in the software to increase the gain (right) or reduce the gain (left). When you move the knob the slider will move to reflect this.
The meter is the section of the Mic Level control that lights up when you speak into your microphone.
We recommend using Auto Gain to set your mic level but if your microphone is distorting or too loud, you can use the meter to set a better level.
The meter lights green and turns yellow as the signal gets louder. To set the gain, speak into the microphone as if you were recording and move the slider or knob so the meter starts to turn yellow when you speak at your loudest.
The Mute button in Vocaster Hub does the same job as the Mute button on the Vocaster: press it to turn your microphone ‘off’:
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When Mute is on, the hardware buttons: Auto Gain and Mute light red and the Gain halo on your Vocaster pulses red.
The Clip Indicator is the red part at the far right of the meter than appears when your signal has clipped. Avoid clipping as your microphone may distort when it reaches this level.
If you see the clip meter appear, turn down the knob or move the Slider to the left to reduce the gain.
The Enhance button applies three effects to optimise your signal for voice recording. The three effects are applied in this order:
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High-Pass Filter (HPF)
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Compressor
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Three-Band EQ (Equaliser)
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Descriptions of exactly what each effect does are beyond the scope of this user guide. If you’re interested in learning more, we recommend searching for the name of each effect online.
Enhance has presets that apply different parameters to your voice depending on how you want your voice to sound.
The parameters for each Preset effect are at the end of this user guide, see Enhance Presets’ Parameters.
The presets available are:
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Radio
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Clean
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Warm
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Bright
The button in Vocaster Hub allows you to change the Enhance mode Settings to match your voice style.
To access Enhance, click .
In the Edit mode click the Enhance wand to turn on/off Enhance.
Use the drop-down to choose a starting preset and you can tweak the settings for your voice.
To reset the Edit settings back to the Preset's default, click the Reset button.
Your Vocaster remembers any changes you make to the Preset settings. You can power cycle your Vocaster and or open and close Vocaster Hub without losing the settings.
Use the Compress slider to reduce the dynamic range of your voice. Increasing Compress makes the loudest parts of your voice quieter and the quieter parts louder giving a more consistent volume.
The Compress slider is a combined threshold and make-up gain control.
As you increase the Compress slider two things happen:
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The threshold is reduced, causing more of the signal to be compressed.
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The compressor’s overall gain (referred to as “Make-up Gain”) is increased, raising the signal level at the output to match the input.
The EQ sliders control the gain (level) of each EQ band. You can boost and cut the Bass, Mid and Treble frequencies between +6dB and -6dB.
The frequency and Q of the Bass, Mid and Treble bands changes depending on which preset you choose in the preset drop-down. For each presets' frequency and Q values see Enhance Presets' Parameters.
Auto Gain is a software version of the button on Vocaster. Click this button to start the Auto Gain process.
Speak normally for ten seconds while the timer counts down.
Auto Gain will measure the level of your voice and set the gain so the loudest parts of your voice are around -6 to -16dB in your recording software.
Click during the countdown to stop the Auto Gain process.