Orban OPTIMOD-FM 8600S, Operating Manual

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3-46
OPERATION ORBAN MODEL 8600S
over the sound of the
H
ARD and
LLH
ARD modes. See page 3-48.

M
EDIUM
uses more sophisticated signal processing than
H
ARD
to reduce distortion
substantially.

S
OFT
uses the most sophisticated look-ahead signal processing to reduce distor-
tion further. Using
S
OFT adds an additional 18 ms of delay to the processing (so
that the total is approximately 36 ms).
M
EDIUM and SOFT are not available in Low Latency mode. The bass clipping is always
H
ARD , but the
H
ARD
C
LIP
S
HAPE control is still available to “soften” the clipping.
8500-Style Peak Limiter Controls
All of the 8500-style peak limiter controls are common to the Intermediate Modify
and Advanced Modify screens except for
OSC
OMP
D
R
and
H
ARD
C
LIP
S
HAPE
, which
are only available in the Advanced Modify screen.
Bass Clip Thresh sets the clipping threshold of Orban’s patented embedded bass
clipper, which is used only in the FM processing chain and not in the HD chain. The
clipper is embedded in the multiband crossover so that any distortion created by
clipping is rolled off by part of the crossover filters. The threshold of this clipper is
usually set between 2 dB and 5 dB below the threshold of the final limiter in the
processing chain, depending on the setting of the
L
ESS
-M
ORE
control in the parent
preset on which you are basing your Modify adjustments. This provides headroom
for contributions from the other three bands so that bass transients do not smash
against the back-end clipping system, causing overt intermodulation distortion be-
tween the bass and higher frequency program material.
Some 8600S users feel that the bass clipper unnecessarily reduces bass punch at its
factory settings. To accommodate these users, the threshold of the bass clipper is us-
er-adjustable. The range (with reference to the final clipper threshold) is 0 to –6 dB.
As you raise the threshold of the clipper, you will get more bass but also more dis-
tortion and pumping. Be careful when setting this control; do not adjust it casually.
Listen to program material with heavy bass combined with spectrally sparse mid-
range material (like a singer accompanied by a bass guitar) and listen for IM distor-
tion induced by the bass’ pushing the midrange into the clipping system. In general,
unless you have a very good reason to set the control elsewhere, we recommend
leaving it at the factory settings, which were determined following extensive listen-
ing tests with many types of critical program material.