Orban OPTIMOD-FM 8700, Operating Manual

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OPERATION ORBAN MODEL 8700i
sound of the on-air signal exactly, but it should be close enough to facili-
tate good performances by on-air talent.
Composite Limit Mode determines if the composite limiter will operate as a hard
clipper or as Orban’s patented “Half-Cosine Interpolation” composite limiter (which
is not a clipper).
When operating as a hard clipper, the composite limiter will produce
maximum brightness in the frequency range from 5 to 15 kHz because,
unlike the 8700i’s left/right audio-domain peak limiters, it can produce
square waves in this frequency range. The downside compared to Half-
Cosine mode is that it can noticeably compromise stereo imaging.
When operating in Half-Cosine mode, the composite limiter produces
somewhat less brightness but does not compromise stereo imaging.
In either mode, the baseband output is overshoot compensated and
band-limited to 53 kHz (
Figure 3-4 ), unlike conventional composite clip-
pers.
Composite Limit Drive sets the drive level, in dB, into the composite limiter.
This control has no effect on the 8700i’s left and right analog or digital outputs.
The C
OMPOSITE
L
IMIT
D
RIVE
control is set to “0 dB” for most factory pre-
sets. At this setting, it removes a few tenths of a dB of residual overshoot
from the audio processing without affecting audio quality. We prefer to
use the audio-domain overshoot compensation to do most of the work
because it operates at a 256 kHz sample rate and is fully anti-aliased,
whereas the composite limiter will inevitably introduce aliasing around
38 kHz upon demodulation in the receiver. This is because it introduces
spectrum in the stereo subchannel area when it clips material in the 0 to
15 kHz area. The receiver will “see” this as stereo material and will de-
modulate it as if it were part of the stereo subchannel. Accordingly, har-
monics of L+R material will be frequency-shifted upon demodulation and
will no longer bear a harmonic relationship to the material that pro-
duced them.
If you want to use the composite limiter more heavily, one option is to
trade off composite limiting against left/right domain overshoot compen-
sation. To do this, back off the
OSC
OMP
D
R
(Overshoot Compensation)
control and increase the C
OMPOSITE
L
IMIT
D
RIVE
control setting propor-
tionately.
Because of the improved distortion control in the MX presets, a very
small amount of composite limiting can significantly degrade the cleanli-
ness of the audio. If you competitive situation permits, we recommend
that you turn off the composite limiter, which will reduce the average
modulation by less than 3% compared to leaving it set to 0 dB, which is
where it is set in the MX factory presets.
Pilot Protect (Pilot Protection Filter) turns the 19 kHz notch filter on or off. It affects
the composite output only.
The 8700i’s composite limiter always protects frequencies above 53 kHz.
However, the 19 kHz notch filter can introduce substantial overshoot
with certain program material when the composite limiter is driven hard.
For example, if the composite limiter limits energy at 6.33 kHz, the 19