The dbx® 286A's Mic Preamp and Five processors can be used independently or in any combination. Why mic up vocals and instruments through a noisy, blurry mixer? The dbx 286A's sonically pristine Mic Preamp has all the features you need, including wide-ranging input gain control, switchable 48V phantom power and an 80Hz high-pass filter. Use the 286A's newly designed and patented OverEasy® Compressor to transparently smooth out uneven acoustic tracks or deliver that classic "in your face" rock vocal. Take out vocal sibilance and high frequency distortion in cymbals with the 286A's frequency tunable De-Esser. Fine-tune the Enhancer's HF Detail control to add sparkle and crispness to tracks. LF Detail control adds fullness and depth to vocals and bass instruments while simultaneously cleaning up muddy low midrange frequencies. And, the Expander/Gate's separate threshold and ratio controls allow you to subtly reduce headphone leakage or radically gate noisy guitar amps. The dbx® 286A's full complement of metering and status LEDs visually guide you to achieving the right sound. The floating balanced XLR mic input accepts balanced or unbalanced inputs. An additional 14" TRS phone jack can accept balanced/ unbalanced line signals to process live electronic instruments or pre-recorded tracks at mixdown. An insert jack between the 286A's Mic Preamp and signal processing sections can be used to "loop out" to external processors (such as EQ) or to mix the Mic Preamp's signal out to an external destination. The cost and hassle of patching together multiple processors for use on one track can be frustrating. The dbx® 286A gives you all the tools you'll need in one box, with the shortest signal path to help keep your music sounding clean. . . . . .