Country on Optimod 2200

[Lazy J]

First things first, YES, I've read all of the previous posts about this box. The owner bought them for a bunch of his stations because of one reason...$$$. Also, he doesn't want to spend anymore $$$ on equipment, mainly because he is in Po-dunk and he has no real competition. And, I certainly don't claim to be a processing Guru. So, here goes...

Anybody have setup suggestions for a New Country format? I have spun the knobs every which way and I'm never happy. First attempt, it was too bright. Second attempt, it sounded ok, but weak. Now, third attempt, it sounds hollow. The bass is there, but it's not a full sounding bass. The mids sound hollow, and the highs sound are occasionally too sharp.

It's not that bad, no complaints from management or listeners. But for my own sanity, I need to fix it. I am a contract engineer, so I only see this station once a month. There is no pre-processing. Console - Processor - (new) Composite STL - Exciter.

If anybody is using the 2200 with a country format, advice on the settings would be great. Thanks!

- Lazy J

 

[WNTIRadio]

First thing you do on it is turn that God awful "brightness enhancer" down to about 2 or 3 max. That will get the artificial highs out of the unit. Then you can lean on the distortion canceled clipper a little more to get the extra loudness.

Try running the MB AGC release around 5 or 6, never going more than 12dB into it. Run them only about 10-15% coupled. Any more than that and the bass goes away. Also, don't go too deep into the final clipper, as it isn't distortion canceled. Maybe 1dB max.

You'll never be completely happy with the 2200, especially if you're used to other newer/better boxes. All it really is is a digital copy of an 8100a, with a low sample rate problem on the clippers.

Or, use an older PC running Breakaway and use the Optimod as the stereo generator/safety clipper

 

[ChiefEngineer]

We run 2 of these on our Christian AC stations. I placed the Omnia 1 on 3 stations and will never go back. We even replaced the 2200 with a cutting edge.
We clearly meet the classification as po-dunk financially. The 2200 was an okay product 10 years ago.
We can't get the sound we want but it is workable. Don't expect to be competitive now but as you have said it can have varying sounds. The two formats have similarities in that we desire bass and don't want it too bright. The composite clipper is not like a current clipper and not on the same level.

The breakaway is an option but if the owner won't spend money what would convince him to buy a solid computer and good sound card?????

 

[stace]

What I remember about this thing is. There are no AGC controls and the AGC release time is very slow. So you need to drive the 2Band compressor hard with medium-fast release time so not to loose quiet intros and avoid pumping. Try driving it around 20dB with a release time of 10dB/s then drive the distortion cancelled clipper around +1dB and see how that goes. It's been a few years since I've seen one of these so I could be way off. But from memory thats what I did

Cheers

 

[WNTIRadio]

Yes, the AGC is what it is. I have a client running one on a Christian AC format and I eventually disabled the internal AGC and put a Compellor in front of it. Then I could lay back on the 2 band compressor.

If you have a Compellor anywhere at your disposal, it would help a lot. Even if you could convince the owner to spend $300 on eBay, it would breathe a lot of new life into the processor. I know you said money is tight. An alternative would be an Orban 464 Co-operator. You can at least vary the speed of the AGC to suit the format.