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Processing
Philosophy:
The
station
which
orients
its
programming
towards
an
audience which tends to view the station with sets having small speakers and low-
powered amplifiers may want to achieve a more uniform, highly- compressed sound
than
the
station whose audience tends to have
the new consumer receivers now
available
with
improved
audio
sections,
larger
speakers,
and
stereo
decoders.
As
will
be
discussed
below,
the
control
which
has
the
most
effect
upon
the
amount of compression and uniformity of the sound is the RELEASE TIME control.
It
should
be
adjusted
towards
faster
settings
to
achieve
more
uniformity
and
density, and towards slower settings to achieve more accurate musical reproduction,
a more " open"
sound,
and
a more
pleasing sound
on
receivers
with
good- quality
audio sections.
The
EXPonential
setting
of
the
RELEASE
SHAPE
switch
offers
an
effective
compromise.
Release
starts
off
slowly,
then
speeds
up.
Accordingly,
the " open"
sound
of slow release
times
can be
achieved along with rather quick
gain- riding
when large level changes occur.
Regardless
of
the
setting
of
the
RELEASE
SHAPE
control,
you
will
find
that
OPTIMOD-TV
is
remarkably
free
from
the
traditional
pumping
and
modulation
effects even as the RELEASE
TIME
is shortened ( within reason, of
course).
This
permits
considerable
freedom
in
achieving
the
sound
that
you
want
without
unpleasant side- effects.
On Loudness: Loudness is subjective. It is the sound intensity as perceived by the
mind of the listener. In radio, most stations want to be as loud as possible to stand
out
on the dial. In TV, loudness is a two-edged sword, since excessive loudness vis-
a-vis
other
stations
can
be
an
annoyance
factor
when
channels
are
changed.
However, within a given station, consistent loudness from source to source seems
universally
desired,
regardless
of
the
absolute
loudness
vis-a-vis
other
stations.
OPTIMOD-TV is capable of unusually high loudness for a given degree of distortion
and high frequency loss. In TV it seems possible ( in fact, very desirable) to trade
some of this loudness for pristine cleanliness and superior high frequency response.
Because
the
built-in
loudness
controller
reduces
loudness
by
reducing
the
audio
drive
to the peak- limiting section of OPTIMOD-TV ( which, when driven excessively
hard can cause loss of brightness or increased distortion), loudness reduction will be
accompanied by improvements in high frequency response and lowered peak- limiting-
induced distortion. Since loud material is often marginally distorted to begin with,
avoiding
introduction of
further distortion is
a bonus provided by OPTIMOD-TV's
unique
means
of
integrating the loudness controller with the rest
of
the system.
The loudness controller limits loudness to a certain threshold. Because loudness can
only
be
reduced by the controller ( attempts to
increase loudness would
result
in
overmodulation), overall average loudness is likely to be reduced when the loudness
controller is activated.
FUNCTIONS OF THE
Below, we present a condensed description of the functions of the setup controls,
SETUP CONTROLS
followed by a detailed discussion of each one. Techniques for trading off loudness
against
quality
are
discussed
in
detail.
This
information
is
basic
to
all
further
discussions, and must be well- understood if you are to succeed in getting the sound
you want.
See Fig. 4-5 or 5-1 for recommended initial setup.
5-2
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