Orban Optimod-PC 1101 Operating Manual page 148

3-52
OPERATION
band compressor and permit you to "solo" any individual band.
B1-B5 Attack (Time); Speech B1-B5 Attack controls set the speed with which the
gain reduction in each band responds to level changes at the input to a given band's
compressor for music and speech respectively, following OPTIMOD-PC's automatic
speech/music detector. These controls are risky and difficult to adjust appropriately.
They affect the sound of the processor in many subtle ways. The main trade-off is
"punch" (achieved with slower attack times) versus distortion and/or pumping pro-
duced in the look-ahead limiter (because slower attack times increase overshoots
that the look-ahead limit must eliminate). The results are strongly program-
dependent and must be verified with listening tests to a wide variety of program
material.
Because there are separate controls for music and speech (page 3-5), you can set at-
tack times faster for speech (to minimize look-ahead limiter artifacts) and slower for
music (to maximize punch and transient definition).
The A time controls are calibrated in arbitrary units that very approximately
TTACK
correspond to milliseconds. Higher numbers correspond to slower attacks.
Limiter Attack controls allow you to set the limiter attack anywhere from 0 to
100% of normal in the Five-Band compressors, each of whose gain reduction has a
fast-release (limiter) and slow-release (compressor) component. Because the limiter
and compressor characteristics interact, you will usually get best audible results
when you set these controls in the range of 70% to 100%. Below 70%, you will usu-
ally hear pumping because the compressor function is trying to create some of the
gain reduction that the faster limiting function would have otherwise achieved. If
you hear pumping in a band and you still wish to adjust the limiter attack to a low
setting, you can sometimes ameliorate or eliminate the pumping by slowing down
the compressor attack time in that band.
These controls have nothing to do with the final look-ahead limiter.
Delta Release controls are differential controls. They allow you to vary the release
time in any band of the Five-Band compressor/limiter by setting an offset between
the M
R
ULTIBAND ELEASE
band. For example, if you set the M
GR control to –2, then the band 3 release time will be the same as if
B 3 D
AND ELTA
you had set the M
ULTIBAND
control to 0. Thus, your settings automatically track any changes you make in the
M R control. In our example, the release time in band 3 will always be
ULTIBAND ELEASE
two "click stops" slower than the setting of the M
If your setting of a given D
slower than "slow" or faster than "fast" (the two end-stops of the M
control), the band in question will instead set its release time at the appro-
R
ELEASE
priate end-stop.
Band 1-5 MaxDeltGR controls set the maximum permitted gain difference be-
tween the left and right channels for each band in the multiband limiter. The
1101V2 five-band processing chain uses a full dual-mono architecture, so the chan-
setting and the actual release time you achieve in a given
R
ULTIBAND ELEASE
control to medium and set the B
R
ELEASE
control would otherwise create a release
R
ELTA ELEASE
ORBAN MODEL 1101
control to medium-fast and the
AND
control.
R
ULTIBAND ELEASE
3 D GR
ELTA
ULTIBAND