Axel Falcon VS, User Manual, Page: 53 / 111

AUDIO CONTROL
Clipping:
Clipping the audio waveform has no effect on an acoustics level as long as it is done with moderation. Over-clipping
produces a distorted waveform, which sounds like a tear, a laceration of the sound. Clipping can also be a good way of
controlling the high frequency peaks, as long as it is used in association with a distortion control filter.
Lookahead limiter
This is often is used instead of a real clipper, but a lookahead limiter actually examines the input audio waveform and
prepares a gain control signal before the audio material inputted into the audio processor. All this is made possible by the
use of a delay line which processes the signal and, after analysing and processing it, outputs it again. This way, a very
slight sense of a delay is introduced, but the distortion caused by the overshoot is kept to a minimum. In actual fact, a
lookahead limiter behaves in the same way as a soft clipper. We recommend the use of this function to preserve the
quality of sound applied to the audio processor.
16.6 QUALITY OF THE AUDIO MATERIAL IN FALCON XT INPUT
The Falcon XT can significantly improve the quality of ON-AIR transmission. However, the device can only ever improve
on the audio material that is inputted. The best performance is achieved when the Falcon XT is powered with clean,
correct audio. After the various multiband audio and sound re-equalization processes, if the quality of the audio material
is poor, then the audio outputted by the audio processor cannot be of higher quality than the material inputted into the
Falcon XT processor. Here at Axel Technology, we strongly recommend the use of linear audio sources, not
compressed forms such as CDs or WAV. If you have to use compressed audio, we advise you to use data compression
levels above 256kbps, although the various linear formats are still preferable.
Compressed audio formats use masking frequencies and data reduction techniques to reduce the bit-rate. Using the
Falcon XT re-equalization function, the frequency masking characteristics of the bit reduction process could be edited
and consequently, after the use of Falcon XT, distortion that was previously imperceptible in the data compression
process could become particularly obvious. We recommend you use the audio processor carefully, run all the tests
before the final airing, and put considerable time into defining your footprint. This is the only way of ensuring audio
visibility within the FM bandwidth range, helping the station to stand out from the rest.
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