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AM proc

J

jimmyfish

Guest
I have taken the old Gates leveler out and put in a compellor. Any ideas for settings for AM? It is a little pumpy, it is better as I have backed down the threshold a little.

Also I am looking for a used Optimod AM or Omnia if anyone has one.
 
jimmyfish said:
I have taken the old Gates leveler out and put in a compellor. Any ideas for settings for AM? It is a little pumpy,
Click to expand...

What model is it? I noticed that the older pre-320a units aren't quite as transparent as the 320a's. What are you feeding it into? What do you have the Compellor set - more compression or limiting? Sort of makes it hard to give any guidance without this info.
 
I understand Bill. I am not at the station, let me see if I can remember.

I know it is a 320, but not sure if it is a 320a, will check tomorrow. I have the compeller first, then the Texar Prism, the bbe maxi (trying to get some bottom out of it), then the rolls eq (I know prob not good, trying to get the ear peircing mids out, I have the mids all the way down on the Texar, but still showing more levels than the other bands on the Texar) then last is the Inovonis 222.

I think I have the Compellor set to slightly more limiting than compression btw.

My main issue is weak bottom end and a very tinny sound. When I try to bass it up, it gets muffled. I also am not getting the modulation and not a lot of positive peaks, but also not really any neg. peaks. I check the autop computer and there does not seem to be any eq going on there to cause the mid-range boost. I know the songs that were put in by previous owners are all over the place, and it is Southern Gospel. It seems to me like there is not much of a standard in that type of music and by nature some of it is very mid-range.

Thanks for any help.
 
None of my stations ever had Texars, so I can't speak with first hand experience. If I had to guess I would say you're probably getting pumping from them if you do have a 320a and it's working properly.

I cringe about putting any sort of EQ in a processing chain, especially if it ends up between two different gain riding devices. You may want to experiment and put the EQ between the Compellor and Texars instead of the Texars and your final limiter to see if you can tame their sound - the Compellor should protect the levels into the EQ and the EQ'ed output may make your Texars easier to get the sound you're looking for.

The only other key question is, what are you using for a final box before the transmitter?
 
Not to further complicate this...but...if you are not seeing much positive (or negative) modulation it sounds like you got issues with the transmitter and maybe the antenna system. I'd bypass all the processing stuff and feed some good source material directly to the transmitter input. Better than source material would be a function generator. See what the transmitter does with a square wave or triangle. Output the transmitter into a dummy load. Then check your modulation with that. If modulation looks good at that point see how it is with the transmitter into the antenna. Is this a single stick or an array?? Depending on the make and age of the transmitter you should easily get some significant positive modulation. With a healthy transmitter, that is. What age and make is it? If you're having issues at that point you'll never get to where you want to be with all the processing stuff ahead of it.

Broadcast Engineering magazine from, I think, 1976, had a terrific series articles on making sure the AM transmitter/antenna system was in proper order before you could expect to achieve an aggressive and clean audio signature. The authors of that series correctly pointed out that it is a system from microphone to antenna and had to be addressed that way. Those articles are just as relevant today as 30+ years ago.

Regards,

RememberWHEN
 
Bill DeFelice said:
None of my stations ever had Texars, so I can't speak with first hand experience. If I had to guess I would say you're probably getting pumping from them if you do have a 320a and it's working properly.
Click to expand...

If I were to guess, pumping would probably come first from a Compellor long before a Texar.
 
Try turning the compellor's process balance more towards leveling and see what that does. Say a setting of around nine O'clock or there abouts.

re-adjust the compellor's output if it now drives the prisms into buffer overload.
 
not attempting to start a war here, but DAMN

sounds like a case of processor overload......as in 'too many things in the chain, fighting each other'

what I'm saying is...........more is not always better.............

FWIW, I'm using an old Harris triband MSP-90 at the studio, feeding a dedicated DSL link, then an MSP-90 limiter feeding an Inovonics 222 and it sounds damned good; triband is comping about 3-9 db, limiter is loafing at 3-6 db, and the 222 is there for the NRSC mask and maybe adds a couple dB of 'brick wall'

oh, and you have to experiment to find the proper phasing between the MSP-90 and the 222
 
Glad you guys are here man lol. To answer some of the questions:

It is indeed a 320a Compellor and it is set more in the leveling mode around 10 oclock.
It is a 2 tower directional array.
A late 80s Harris 5 (I forget exactly) I think ex or something like that. I should know lol.
The last box is the Inovonics 222 before the transmitter.

I know I have too much crap on it, just trying to see what it all does. AM proc is new to me. I am looking for that 1 box if i can get a good deal.

I thought I might want to have that eq before the Texar or even before the Compellor. Also good suggestion about maybe cutting back the levels into the Texar, everything looks o.k. though, except those mids, they are up there.

Thanks, wish I could afford to give you guys a consulting fee.
 
jimmyfish said:
Glad you guys are here man lol. To answer some of the questions:

It is indeed a 320a Compellor and it is set more in the leveling mode around 10 oclock.
It is a 2 tower directional array.
A late 80s Harris 5 (I forget exactly) I think ex or something like that. I should know lol.
The last box is the Inovonics 222 before the transmitter.

I know I have too much crap on it, just trying to see what it all does. AM proc is new to me. I am looking for that 1 box if i can get a good deal.

I thought I might want to have that eq before the Texar or even before the Compellor. Also good suggestion about maybe cutting back the levels into the Texar, everything looks o.k. though, except those mids, they are up there.

Thanks, wish I could afford to give you guys a consulting fee.
Click to expand...

Find an Optimod 9100B...or the 9200 digital...those will MAKE you sound GOOD on AM...You should ONLY use a AGC before the STL if there is one for leveling and preventing overdrive..if not, use only the one processor at the xmtr!!
AM is no different than FM..the AUDIO is still AUDIO......KEEP IT SIMPLE and DONT have one unit fighting another...
I worked at an FM that has Prisms before an 8200.....AS SOON as I could, they were out of line...and the 8200 was the ONLY box in the chain...AHHH sounded much better.
 
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