Orban OPTIMOD 6200, Operating Manual

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OPERATION ORBAN Model 6200
Medium Fast is ideal for a highly competitive Contemporary Hit Radio
(CHR) format whose ratings depend on attracting a large number of listeners
(high “cume”) but which does not assume that a listener will listen to the sta-
tion for hours at a time. This is the major market competitive sound, empha-
sizing loudness as well as clean audio. The sound from cut to cut and an-
nouncer to announcer is remarkably consistent as the texture of music is no-
ticeably altered to a standard. Bass has an ever-present punch, there is always
a sense of presence, and highs are in perfect balance to the mids, no matter
what was on the original recording.
Fast is used only for the TALK and SPORTS factory programming formats.
Processing for this sound keeps the levels of announcers and guests consistent,
pulls low-grade telephone calls out of the mud, and keeps a proper balance be-
tween voice and commercials. Voice is the most difficult audio to process, but
these settings result in a favorable trade-off between consistency, presence,
and distortion.
The Factory Presets for this sound are quite different than for the other three
release time settings. The amount of gain reduction in the multi-band com-
pressor is substantially lower (so that it operates more like a limiter than like a
compressor), and the release time of the gain-riding AGC is speeded up (so
that it provides compression and some increase of density). We made these
trade-offs to prevent excessive build-up of density.
There is nothing written in stone saying that you can’t experiment with this
sound for music-oriented programming as well. However, even with these set-
tings, your sound is getting farther away from the balance and texture of the
input. We think that this is as far as processing can go without causing unac-
ceptable listener fatigue. However, this sound may be quite useful for stations
that are ordinarily heard very softly in the background because it improves in-
telligibility under these quiet listening conditions. Stations that are ordinarily
played louder will probably prefer one of the slower release times, where the
multi-band compressor takes more gain reduction and where the AGC is oper-
ated slowly for gentle gain riding only. These slower sounds are less consis-
tent than those produced by the
fast
setting. Using
slow
preserves more of the
source’s frequency balance, and will be less dense and less fatiguing when the
radio is played loudly.
B2>B1 CPL (Band 2 to Band 1 Coupling) control determines the extent to which the
gain of band 1 (below 100Hz) is determined by and follows the gain of band 2 (centered
at 400Hz). Set towards 100% (fully coupled) it reduces the amount of dynamic bass
boost, preventing unnatural bass boost in light pop and talk formats. Set towards 0% (in-
dependent), it permits frequencies below 100Hz (the “slam” region) to have maximum
impact in modern rock, urban, dance, rap, and other music where bass punch is crucial.
The default setting is 30%.
B3>B4 CPL (Band 3 to Band 4 Coupling) control determines the extent to which the
gain of band 4 (centered at 3.7kHz) is determined by and follows the gain of band 3
(centered at 1kHz). Set towards 100% (fully coupled) it reduces the amount of dynamic
upper midrange boost, preventing unnatural upper midrange boost in light pop and in-
strumental formats.