Orban OPTIMOD-FM 8600Si, Operating Manual

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OPTIMOD-FM DIGITAL OPERATION
3-23
iter to achieve the highest performance available in the 8600Si. MX presets offer
greater transient impact, less preemphasis-induced high frequency loss, and low-
er perceived distortion than their 8500-technology counterparts. Achieving this
level of performance requires the MX presets to have much longer delays (typi-
cally 265 milliseconds) than the 8500-style presets. This is too long to permit live
off-air monitoring into talent headphones. This is the main reason why the
8600Si offers 8500-style presets too—these presets have much lower delays than
do their MX counterparts.
The remaining three preset types (listed below) are identical to their counterparts in
Optimod-FM 8500:
•
If the preset has “UL” in its name, it uses the Ultra-Low Latency Five-Band struc-
ture. “UL” presets are not as competitive as other presets and should only be
used if you absolutely need the low delay (for off-air cueing of finicky talent, for
example).
•
Presets with LL in their names use the Hard LL bass clipper mode to achieve 13 ms
input-output delay.
•
Presets without MX, LL, or UL designators in their names have “optimum delay”
for an 8500-style preset. This delay is approximately 18 ms delay (5-band) and 21
ms delay (2-band).
PROTECTION-0DB :
P
ROTECTION
-0
DB is a two-band preset with a high amount of
band coupling. It is intended for use below threshold most of the time (i.e., with 0
dB gain reduction), to provide protection limiting in the highest quality applications
such as serious classical music intended for an attentive audience. Its
L
ESS
-M
ORE con-
trol determines the normal amount of gain reduction but does not increase distor-
tion or other processing artifacts when turned up.
CLASSICAL, CLASSICAL MX : The 8600Si offers 8500-style and MX variants of all
classical presets. The MX versions provide less preemphasis limiting, lower distortion,
and higher transient impact than the non-MX versions and are therefore recom-
mended if their longer delay is acceptable.
As their names imply, the
CLASSICAL 5-BAND
and
CLASSICAL 2-BAND
presets are
optimized for classical music, gracefully handling recordings with very wide dynamic
range and sudden shifts in dynamics. The Five-Band version uses heavy inter-band
coupling to prevent large amounts of automatic re-equalization, which could oth-
erwise cause unnatural stridency and brightness in strings and horns and which
could pump up very low frequency rumble in live recording venues.
The Five-Band preset defeats the AGC, using only the multiband compressor for gain
reduction. It also defeats phase rotation to ensure the most transparent Five-Band
sound available.
Even more transparent, “purist” classical processing is available from the
CLASSICAL 2-BAND
preset, which is phase-linear and which preserves the spectral
balance of the original material as much as possible. However, if you need a bit