Orban OPTIMOD-FM 8700, Operating Manual

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OPTIMOD-FM DIGITAL OPERATION
3-5
In the 8700i, the tradeoff between brightness and the other two parameters has
been considerably improved (by 2.5 – 3 dB above 6 kHz) when an “MX” preset is ac-
tive compared to when an “8500-style” preset is active. Nevertheless, all intelligent
processor designers must acknowledge and work within the laws of physics as they
apply to this trade-off.
Perhaps the most difficult part of adjusting a processor is determining the best
trade-off for a given situation. We feel that it is usually wiser to give up ultimate
loudness to achieve low distortion. A listener can compensate for loudness by simply
adjusting the volume control. However, there is nothing the listener can do to make
an excessively compressed or peak-limited signal sound clean again.
If processing for high quality is done carefully, the sound will also be excellent on
small radios. Although such a signal might fall slightly short of ultimate loudness, it
will tend to compensate with an openness, depth, and punch (even on small radios)
that cannot be obtained when the signal is excessively squashed.
If women form a significant portion of the station’s audience, bear in mind that
women are more sensitive to distortion and listening fatigue than men are. In any
format requiring long-term listening to achieve market share, great care should be
taken not to alienate women by excessive stridency, harshness, or distortion.
OPTIMOD-FM—from Bach to Rock
You can adjust OPTIMOD-FM so that the output sounds:

As close as possible to the input at all times (using the Two-Band structure), or

open but more uniform in frequency balance (and often more dramatic) than the
input (using the Five-Band structure with slow release times), or

dense, quite squashed, and very loud (using the Five-Band structure with fast or
medium-fast release times).
The dense, loud setup will make the audio seem to jump out of car and table radios,
but may be fatiguing and invite tune-outs on higher quality home receivers. The
loudness/distortion trade-off explained above applies to any of these setups.
You will achieve best results if Engineering, Programming, and Management go out
of their way to communicate and cooperate with each other. It is important that
Engineering understand the sound that Programming desires, and that Manage-
ment fully understands the trade-offs involved in optimizing one parameter (such as
loudness) at the expense of others (such as distortion or excessive density).
Never lose sight of the fact that, while the listener can easily control loudness, he or
she cannot make a distorted signal clean again. If such excessive processing is per-
mitted to audibly degrade the sound of the original program material, the signal is
irrevocably contaminated and the original quality can never be recovered.