Orban OPTIMOD 6200 Operating Manual Download Page 104

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OPERATION

ORBAN Model 6200

toward 0.5dB/second allow a wider variation of dynamic range. Both the setting of the

2B REL

control and the dynamics and level of the program material determine the actual

release time of the compressor. In general, you should use faster release times for mass-
appeal pop or rock formats oriented toward younger audiences, and slower release times
for more conservative, adult-oriented formats (particularly if women are an important
part of your target audience).

The action of the

2B REL

control has been optimized for resolution and adjustability. But

its setting is critical to sound quality — listen carefully as you adjust it. There is a point
beyond which increasing density (with faster settings of the

2B REL

control) will no

longer yield more loudness, and will simply degrade the punch and definition of the
sound.

When the

2B REL

control is set between 8 and 1dB/second (the slowest settings), the

amount of gain reduction is surprisingly non-critical. Gating prevents noise from being
brought up during short pauses and pumping does not occur at high levels of gain reduc-
tion. Therefore, the primary danger of using large amounts of gain reduction is that the
level of quiet passages in input material with wide dynamic range may eventually be in-
creased unnaturally. Accordingly, when you operate the

2B REL

control between 8 and

1dB/second, it may be wise to defeat the gain-riding AGC and to permit the two-band
compressor to perform all of the gain riding. This will prevent excessive reduction of
dynamic range, and will produce the most natural sound achievable from the Two-Band
structures.

With faster

2B REL

control settings (above 8dB/second), the sound will change substan-

tially with the amount of gain reduction in the two-band compressor. This means that
you should activate the gain-riding AGC to ensure that the two-band compressor is al-
ways being driven at the level that produces the amount of gain reduction desired. De-
cide based on listening tests how much gain reduction gives you the density that you
want without creating a feeling of over-compression and fatigue.

Release in the two-band compressor automatically becomes faster as more
gain reduction is applied (up to about 10dB). This makes the program pro-
gressively denser, creating a sense of increasing loudness although peaks are
not actually increasing. If the gain-riding AGC is defeated (with the

AGC

on/off control), you can use this characteristic to preserve some feeling of
dynamic range. Once 10dB of gain reduction is exceeded, full loudness is
achieved — no further increase in short-term density occurs as more gain
reduction is applied. This avoids the unnatural, fatiguing sound often pro-
duced by processors at high gain reduction levels, and makes OPTIMOD-
DAB remarkably resistant to operator gain-riding errors.

BASS CPL control is used to set the balance between bass and the rest of the frequency
spectrum.

The two-band compressor processes audio in a master band for all audio above approxi-
mately 200Hz, and a bass band for audio below approximately 200Hz. The

BASS CPL

control determines how closely the on-air balance of material below 200Hz matches that
of the program material above 200Hz.