Orban Optimod-FM 8300 Operating Manual page 168

3-50
OPERATION
overall frequency response "tilt" of the multiband compressor, broadly maintaining
the "automatic equalization" curve it generates for a given piece of program mate-
rial.
If the control is turned
MB GATE
tion screen) is disabled.
MB LIM DR ("Multiband Limiter Drive") sets the drive level to the multiband distor-
tion controlling processing that precedes the final clipping section. The distortion-
controlling section uses a combination of distortion-cancelled clipping and look-
ahead processing to anticipate and prevent excessive clipping distortion in the final
clipper.
Like any other dynamics processing, the distortion-controlling section can produce
artifacts of its own when overdriven. These artifacts can include loss of definition,
smeared high frequencies, a sound similar to excessive compression, and, when op-
erated at extreme settings, audible intermodulation distortion. You can adjust the
MB LIM DR control to prevent such artifacts or to use them for coloration in "highly
processed" formats.
MB LIM THR ("Multiband Limit Threshold") sets the threshold of the clipping dis-
tortion controller with reference to the threshold of the final clipper, in dB.
The most effective setting for this control is "0 dB" for almost all program material.
However, the loudest and most intense-sounding presets rely on considerable clip-
ping to achieve their loudness and brightness. For these presets, we found it neces-
sary to set the
MB L
IM
ping depth. In some cases, this results in substantially objectionable distortion arti-
facts with isolated program material. However, this is the price to be paid for this
extreme level of on-air loudness.
For the NEWS-TALK and SPORTS presets, we set the MB L
slightly below "0." This ensures the cleanest possible speech quality at
the cost of highest loudness. If you want higher loudness in these presets,
you can edit them to increase the setting of the MB LIM THR control.
In the UL presets only, this control sets the threshold of the Band-4 mul-
tiband clipper. (Unlike the normal latency presets, the UL presets do not
have a program-adaptive clipping distortion controller, so repurposing
the control does not cause a conflict.) Because the Band-4 multiband
clipper helps control distortion in the final clipper, its setting is relatively
critical and it is usually unwise to set it away from the default found in
the source factory UL preset you are editing.
DwnExp Thr ("Downward Expander Threshold") determines the level below which
the single-ended noise reduction system's downward expander begins to decrease
system gain and below which the high frequencies begin to become low-pass fil-
tered to reduce perceived noise. There are two controls: the MB Down Expander
control sets the expansion threshold in Bands 1-4, while the B5 Down Expander
Delta Thresh control (first introduced as part of V2.1 software) allows you to fine-
tune the Band 5 downward expander's threshold by adding or subtracting an offset
from the setting of the MB Down Expand control. Activate the single-ended dy-
namic noise reduction by setting these controls to a setting other than O
, the
O
FF
control substantially higher than "0" to permit more clip-
T
HR
ORBAN MODEL 8300
control (in the Equaliza-
DJ B
ASS
T
IM HR
control
.
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