Best Hot AC processing?

[whit979]

I'm the PD of a small Hot AC station in Alabama (not an engineer), and I want to find out what the best on-air processing for our format should be. We use an Optimod 8400 and I am clueless as to what settings we should use, if any tweaks should be made, etc. Can anyone give me any suggestions/tips/tricks with our Optimod so that our Hot AC music sounds great?

 

[whit979]

I should probably also note that we play music from the 80's through the current top 40.

 

[PghBroadcastGuy]

There are many variables that can affect your processing performance, and I beleive there are other threads about this subject as well. You need to take into consideration your STL, transmitter and everything else to make sure you are getting a quality signal to the Optimod and to the air. Best thing I can suggest is to start with a preset you think sounds close to the sound you are looking for, and then modify it slightly over a few days time period between measurements. This way you can take time to evaluate the changes you make. Good luck.

 

[ghattaway]

The 8400 will do any format you want-it's one of the best. There are no magic "industry secret" settings that automatically make you the best thing in town- you must approach processing with a clear vision of what you wish to accomplish. Do you want to start a loudness war, is cume what you're working on, or TSL? Male or Female? Once you know what you need to accomplish, start with one of the factory presets suggested for your particular format. Orban spent thousands of hours developing those presets under carefully controlled conditions, and they are VERY good. Listen to it for SEVERAL days, in differing environments, and make notes of what you DON'T like, not what you like about it. Those will be the things you will try to "fix" with the processing. Be wary of letting yourself be overly influenced by another station's sound- I once had a very capable programmer say to me: "I want to sound just like W---, only different"! Obviously, I had to sit him down and get him to define his goals in slightly more concrete terms. Once you have fixed all the things you don't like, leave it alone. The goal is a station that sounds great every day, not one that sounds different every day! Good Luck.

 

[whit979]

Thanks very much to both of you for your help! I'd say we're definitely wanting a female-friendly, TSL-driven sound. The two country stations in our town are louder than we are, but I'm wondering if I should be concerned with this (considering we may not share a ton of listeners with them). Given these things, are there any other thoughts that anyone has?

 

[stace]

We use 8300's but I understand they're quite similar. What I DON'T like about alot of the presets was the standard AGC release time of 3dB/sec. I personally think this is too fast, and I feel it leads to a slightly dull mushy sound. Open the sound up by slowing the release time on the AGC right down so it's JUST leveling and not processing the audio so much, process a little harder with the Multiband Compressor, maybe use medium or medium2 release. This gives an open, clean punchy sound.

 

[mikl73]

AGC is meant to be slow.. its used mostly for Leveling just as Stace said
set to attack and release too fast there is a tendency to mash all of the dynamics out of your audio completely

 

[gtomas]

If your target audience are female listeners, then be careful with high-end boost and amount of distortion. Females are particularly sensitive to excessive high frequencies as well as distortion. You want a sound that's more closed-in or like Gary Blau once put it nicely - "chicks dig on intimacy" You can achieve that kind of sound with Orban very well.

Not being as loud as the loudest stations on the dial is perfectly OK, as long as your modulation level is set correctly and you are not noticeable less loud than the rest of the stations. You want to be there, but lean more on the quality side. Less loudness means less distortion and listeners will value that on the long run.


Regards,
Goran Tomas

 

[whit979]

Thanks again for all the advice! Since you're suggesting that female audiences might not like processing with lots of high-end boost, are there any presets you can suggest as a starting point?

 

[taylorengineer]

The Gregg settings on the 8400 and 8500 are THE best sounding, out of the box, presets on ANY processor!!
Warm and cuddly....just perfect for your desired femm numbers.
Gregg Oggnowski(sp??) has GREAT ears....anyone who has ever owned a Gregg Labs processor will know his signature sound is unbeatable. The Gregg settings come remarkably close to that sound.

 

[gblau]

Agreed. Start with the Gregg Open preset and dial back from there.
Give me a call and I'll be happy to give you more detailed suggestions.
The great thing about these digital boxes is everything is resettable, and you don't need to open the lid and change parts!
305-521-5140.

Gary Blau

 

[Sgeirk]

Hey Gary, do you still retrofit 8100's?

Your name was mentioned to me once as the pre-eminent Optimod expert.

 

[wgliradio]

The Gregg settings on the 8400 and 8500 are THE best sounding, out of the box, presets on ANY processor!!
Warm and cuddly....just perfect for your desired femm numbers.
Gregg Oggnowski(sp??) has GREAT ears....anyone who has ever owned a Gregg Labs processor will know his signature sound is unbeatable. The Gregg settings come remarkably close to that sound.

I think the Gregg presets are way to agressive and are not usually where I would start with Orban processing. I like the Country presets in the Orban boxes... because you can work out in any direction from there.

That being said, Gregg's AM box was pretty good, but rough around the edges and did not have the punch and depth the 9100 had. I also remember a 3 band processor that sounded very good, but was not the best of its time (older Urei 1176LN's, with crossovers sounded much more musical as was what Gary Blau did at WNBC with Inovonics 220's Homemade crossovers and Audio+Design limiters). In the pic of the WNBC racks in the link below, I have the WNBC crossovers/combiners (complete with WNBC AUDIO PROCESSOR etched on the front... top of the left rack and second under the Belar in the right) and one of the three A+D limiters you see in the right rack (under the silver faced crossover) that played Stern and the Time Machine in my home rack (I don't know which one... we used them for some time at WFAN for studio processing in the headphones... later switching to an Inovonics 3 band device in the talent headset chain). My friend has a pair of the 220's seen on the left.. interesting limiters. I don't know what condition the crossovers are in operation-wise, the power cords were chopped off (!!!.. talk about cutting out the old) and I've never really played with them... but they look secure on the inside.

http://www.transmittersrus.com/faq.htm

 

[whit979]

Thanks again, but I'm concerned about the aggressiveness of the Gregg presets too. I like the way they sound, but they can be a little fatiguing to listen to -- even for me (and I'm not in our female target audience). Any other suggestions for presets on the Optimod 8400?

 

[taylorengineer]

Take the Gregg setting as a STARTING point! Use the "less-more" knob if you do not understand the rather complex adjustments/tweaks for the 8400. You still have Gregg's "sound" but a more open version.
Jim Wood is a smart guy, and Innovonics are OK for the $$, but they are not, and were never in the same league as anything Orban/Gregg/Foti ever built.

 

[oldiesstation]

as popular as hot ac formats are,i can't believe the 8400 would not have a good preset,yeah i know all the bull about them just being starting points,etc etc. i download the Omnia preset warm and comtemporary off the omnia site for my o6 and it is very good.and on my dsp-extra i went with the AC ST preset and it sounds very good.no tweaking required..hey if you going to have alot of presets on a box ,some of them must(should) be pretty close to your stations target sound.IMHO

 

[wgliradio]

Take the Gregg setting as a STARTING point! Use the "less-more" knob if you do not understand the rather complex adjustments/tweaks for the 8400. You still have Gregg's "sound" but a more open version.
Jim Wood is a smart guy, and Innovonics are OK for the $$, but they are not, and were never in the same league as anything Orban/Gregg/Foti ever built.

I just never believed that the Gregg presets were anywhere close to where I wanted to be, so I never seriously considered them after trying them. It's not a matter of working my way around a processor, it's a matter of finding a good reference point. If the Gregg sound is what you're looking for, that's cool. Processing is subjective and Gregg's stuff was never jaw dropping for me.

As for Jim and Inovonics, some really cool designs that are good alternatives to Foti/Orban stuff if you can't afford to crack that nut. But you would be surpised what you can get out of cheaper offerings... if you know what you're doing.

 

[gblau]

#13, like I offered, just give me a call and I'll walk you in pretty close to a ballpark I think you'll like.
A bit too involved to describe here.
I can't do better than "free" telephone advice! 10A-6P EST.

g

 

[gblau]

#11: I haven't done one for cash in many years, used to make vacation money that way.
Most things you could probably do yourself if you're handy.
Do you have an XTII to go along with your 8100? If so that can still be a very potent combo with a few simple hacks.


#12: Hey! If you ever feel like dispatching that old NBC junk into the dumpster please give me a crack at it first! So do you have the 4 band crossover box or the 3 band crossover box? I'm sure the circuitry is probably still fine, except maybe for the power supplies (those caps are 22 years old now).

g

 

[fugazi]

Greg Presets?

Are they factory supplied ( in the box )?

regards,

evert