Bass Management Users Guide Bass Management About Bass Management: Bass Management is a tool that is used to help surround speaker systems (i.e., systems featuring multiple "satellite" speakers paired with a subwoofer) reproduce the full spectrum of sound from surround-encoded material. This is done by taking your multi-channel source and re-routing the low frequency sounds from each of the satellite channels to the subwoofer. Doing so ensures that low-frequency sounds are heard even if they were originally routed to smaller satellite speakers that are not capable of reproducing low frequency sounds. You will only need to take advantage of the Bass Management functions when using smaller satellite speakers that cannot reproduce low bass frequencies; If your main speakers are large enough to properly output low frequencies, Bass Management is not required and should remain off. The M-Audio Bass Management system also includes several additional features that many users will find handy. These features include subwoofer loudness limiting (when adding rerouted main signal to the LFE, subwoofer phase inversion, and time-alignment on all channels. Each section of the Bass Management system is covered in detail below. 2 Bass Management The "General Settings" section sets global parameters for the Bass Management system. < n/Off ­ Bass Management is only active when the "On" radio button is O selected. If the "Off" radio button is selected, all parameters of the Bass Management system will be deactivated. < olume ­ This vertical slider adjusts the overall output level of all speakers at V once. The output level of your interface is listed in "dB relative to full-scale" next to the fader. This means that the loudest possible output level (i.e., when the fader is at the top) is referred to as "0dB" and a signal that is, for example, 12dB lower than the maximum loudness is referred to as "-12dB." < CM Limit ­ When re-routing low frequency sounds from all of the satellite speakers to the subwoofer, it becomes P possible to exceed the available headroom of the subwoofer channel. This will result in digital clipping (distortion). When the "PCM Limit" box is checked, the Bass Management system momentarily attenuates (reduces) the output volume when the signal exceeds the available digital headroom to prevent clipping. < ute ­ This box mutes the output of all the speakers when checked. M The "Sub Channel" section contains volume and phase controls for the subwoofer channel.