Orban OPTIMOD 6200, Operating Manual

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OPTIMOD OPERATION
3-33
B4>B5 CPL (Band 4 to Band 5 Coupling) control determines the extent to which the
gain of band 5 (above 6.2kHz) is determined by and follows the gain of band 4 (centered
at 3.7kHz). Set towards 100% (fully coupled) it reduces the amount of dynamic HF
boost, preventing unnatural HF boost in light pop and instrumental formats.
When combined with the B3>B4 CPL control, this control can adjust the
multi-band processing to be anything from full five-band to quasi-three-band
processing. The two upper coupling controls are useful when you want to
control the amount of overall “automatic equalization” in the midrange and
high frequency region. This can prevent the sound from becoming strident or
overly bright and is particularly useful with formats designed to attract a fe-
male audience. The
INSTRUMENTAL and POP presets use large amounts of
coupling for this reason.
B5 THR (Band 5 Compression Threshold) control determines the threshold of compres-
sion in band 5 (6.2kHz and above).
The Factory Presets were tuned to prevent sibilance on live voice from becoming too
harsh-sounding. However, this requires setting the threshold of the band 5 compressor
quite low so it can act as a de-esser. A side effect is that some brightly-mixed music can
be audibly rolled off by the action of band 5.
If you are willing put some effort into tuning your microphone channel to tame sibilance
at the source, then you can achieve a brighter sound on-air by increasing the setting of
the band 5 threshold (
B5 THR
) control. A number of manufacturers make all-in-one mi-
crophone processors that include de-essers. If you use one of these with the de-esser set
aggressively, you should be able to advance the
B5 THR
control by several dB without
causing any problems. Listen to sibilance on live voice when making your final decision;
make sure that it does not sound unpleasantly harsh or “spitty.”
dbx makes an inexpensive, good sounding mic processor called the 286A. It
contains a mic preamp, a compressor, a de-esser, a dynamic high frequency
enhancer, and a low frequency equalizer. Its only potential drawbacks are that
it has an unbalanced output and no special RFI suppression, so it is best suited
for studio sites that are not co-located with high-powered transmitters.
DWNEXP THR (Downward Expander Threshold) control determines the level below
which the single-ended noise reduction system’s downward expander begins to decrease
system gain, and below which the high frequencies begin to become low-pass filtered to
reduce perceived noise. Activate the single-ended dynamic noise reduction by setting the
DWNEXP THR
control to a setting other than
off
.
The single-ended noise reduction system combines a broadband downward expander
with a program-dependent low-pass filter. These functions are achieved by causing extra
gain reduction in the multi-band compressor. You can see the effect of this extra gain
reduction on the gain reduction meters.
Ordinarily, the gating on the AGC and multi-band limiter will prevent objectionable
build-up of noise, and you will want to use the single-ended noise reduction only on un-