Home |
Search |
Today's Posts |
#15
|
|||
|
|||
In article ,
Bill Thompson wrote: When the Optimod came out the station I worked for was told by our consultants (UGH) to switch from the DAP to the Optimod, and the owner agreed. The other engineers and I were, needless to say, a little miffed, and we didn't spend a lot of time learning how to use the Optimod, and it sounded, predictably, pretty darned bad. I assume you are talking about the Optimod 8000. There is an interesting history behind the 8000, which as crude as it is now by today's standards, was revolutionary in its day. When Bob brought his Moduline box prototype of the 8000 by my station and we put it on the air in 1974 (the first time an Optimod 8000 ever saw the light of day on the air, by the way), I was blown away. I had never before seen (or heard) any processor that had such tight modulation control on ALL program material, while sounding relatively open with remarkably natural-sounding high frequencies. Then the college station where I worked got an Optimod, and for whatever reason, I spent about a month playing with it before I put it on the air. This was before the internet, but I called Orban, and Mr. Orban himself spent quite a bit of time walking me through his design objectives, and a whole lotta other info. (Thanks Mr. Orban!!!). The 8000 was designed solely and exclusively by Bob himself. It was not a collaboration with anyone. It was created as the result of badgering by some of his friends who happened to be broadcast engineers who insisted that he apply his considerable design skills to solve the problem of modulation control on FM. Bob personally walked you through it because, frankly, he was the only one who knew how it worked at what became Orban Associates. Then along came the composite clipper, and this time we spent some time learning about it before we used it, and while it was audible, we did manage to avoid over-using it. I experimented with composite clipping just before the 8000 came to pass. I (and others) insisted to Bob that there had to be a better way. But that was well before it was perverted into a processing technique. I simply used it to shave off the overshoots caused by passing square waves into low-pass filters for modulation control, not to smash the audio into it to make it louder. -- John Higdon | Email Address Valid | SF: +1 415 428-COWS +1 408 264 4115 | Anytown, USA | FAX: +1 408 264 4407 |
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Forum | |||
Wanted ORBAN OPTIMOD AM | Broadcasting | |||
WANTED: Info on VHF Portable | Equipment | |||
WANTED: Info on VHF Portable | Equipment | |||
WANTED: Info on VHF Portable | Equipment | |||
Panasonic RF-4800 info wanted for repair. | Equipment |