Orban Optimod "Idle Gain" adjustment

[Brian Bowers]

Wondering what I should be listening for, when moving the "Idle Gain" adjustment in the AGC section of my FM Optimod. AGC Drive is set at 15. Idle Gain was at 0, now at -10.

 

[Kelly A]

Wondering what I should be listening for, when moving the "Idle Gain" adjustment in the AGC section of my FM Optimod. AGC Drive is set at 15. Idle Gain was at 0, now at -10.

You shouldn't hear anything. Idle Gain is where the AGC holds when there is silence. Typical idle gain is -10. That means the AGC will park itself at -10dB of compression when there is a pause in the audio, rather than sucking up noise an additional 10dB. Think of it as a Gate without any downward expansion.

 

[davideduardo]

You shouldn't hear anything. Idle Gain is where the AGC holds when there is silence. Typical idle gain is -10. That means the AGC will park itself at -10dB of compression when there is a pause in the audio, rather than sucking up noise an additional 10dB. Think of it as a Gate without any downward expansion.

And it gets to fight with the Voltair which wants to bring up any audio on any of the PPM frequencies whether it is "meaningful" or just noise.

 

[Brian Bowers]

You shouldn't hear anything. Idle Gain is where the AGC holds when there is silence. Typical idle gain is -10. That means the AGC will park itself at -10dB of compression when there is a pause in the audio, rather than sucking up noise an additional 10dB. Think of it as a Gate without any downward expansion.

OK, yes, that makes sense to me. Thanks.

 

[Brian Bowers]

And it gets to fight with the Voltair which wants to bring up any audio on any of the PPM frequencies whether it is "meaningful" or just noise.

Thankfully this station does not have a Voltair! For audio on FM, I despise them. And having done my own test with them in the airchain (at another station), and out of the airchain (for 6 months), I noticed no difference in our numbers, but I definitely heard how much cleaner our audio sounded on the air.

 

[Kelly A]

Thankfully this station does not have a Voltair! For audio on FM, I despise them. And having done my own test with them in the airchain (at another station), and out of the airchain (for 6 months), I noticed no difference in our numbers, but I definitely heard how much cleaner our audio sounded on the air.

I've found if used properly, Voltaire is a useful tool. About a year ago, I was doing some evaluation of encoding with and without Voltaire, and found some interesting details:

The Nielsen encoder reduces, or stops encoding during several forms of audio. Some examples; when talent with a female voice is speaking, or a violin solo (plus other instrument solos). News/Talk stations really benefit from Voltaire, because the encoding is frequently stopping and starting during pauses/silence, or some voices. I looked at a N/T station that was running Voltaire, and the encoding received was much more consistent than another station that doesn't have Voltaire. One thing that was apparent, is it's unnecessary to crank Voltaire to 11. Just a 5 setting does a notable job of filling in PPM data when otherwise missing or low.

 

[Brian Bowers]

I've found if used properly, Voltaire is a useful tool. About a year ago, I was doing some evaluation of encoding with and without Voltaire, and found some interesting details:

The Nielsen encoder reduces, or stops encoding during several forms of audio. Some examples; when talent with a female voice is speaking, or a violin solo (plus other instrument solos). News/Talk stations really benefit from Voltaire, because the encoding is frequently stopping and starting during pauses/silence, or some voices. I looked at a N/T station that was running Voltaire, and the encoding received was much more consistent than another station that doesn't have Voltaire. One thing that was apparent, is it's unnecessary to crank Voltaire to 11. Just a 5 setting does a notable job of filling in PPM data when otherwise missing or low.

>>>One thing that was apparent, is it's unnecessary to crank Voltaire to 11. Just a 5 setting does a notable job of filling in PPM data when otherwise missing or low.<<<

Unfortunately, the corporate PD's don't seem to get that. The last cluster I was at was informed by corporate to crank up FULL Enhancement. Guess what, it made no difference in our numbers (going from low to max.). I watched them carefully. For talk radio, sure, why not. For music formatted stations, I guess, if we have to. Still not a fan of this box, and never will be. I'm not even a fan of PPM, because I can hear that box too.