Inovonics David II - adjustment...

[Studio1]

Are there any hidden tricks to get one of these to really perform?

Sure, I realise it's not as good as an Optimod.

I'm just not sure if it is capable of aggressive processing as I've had no experience with them before.

Suggestions?

 

[menotti1]

David III is much improved over the II, has a decent clipper.The II is a ok box but it's no Omnia,but it can sound good.never mentioned your format.i presume you bought it used(say you did) otherwise there are better boxes for most applications,namely the new Omnia One FM.Maybe J Boyd can chime in,he likes those boxes,and they are good for the money and sound good...The Inovonics Omega was basically a flop...you might consider a external clipper for your unit .modsciences cp-803 i believe is the unit..

 

[radiofish]

The tech support from Inovonics is absolutley OUTSTANDING. You should contact them directly. Also there are several jumper settings inside the David II. outlined in the manual that you need to be away of (such as balance vs. unbalanced audio inputs, a bass boost feature, and maybe some others). It is also important to adjust the left/right input gains for correct levels and especially make sure the audio source settings are correct (balanced vs. -10 unbalanced). It is a great product for the price.

 

[wgliradio]

Inovonics tech support was awful when it came to the Omega. They virtually had nothing on it and had to wait and wait for Martin Spencer to answer questions about the box. Their flagship processor and nobody in Santa Cruz knew much about it. Yeah, the Omega is a flop, which is sad to say because they do have a few things that are worthy in it, but alot wrong at the front and back end of the box.

Inovonics has some better ideas in analog, but it's tough when you outsource your digital design to someone who has other ideas. The David III actually sounded more natural at NAB than the Omega, what does that tell you?

 

[menotti1]

Tells me the Omega was NEVER ready for prime time. The David III is a very good BUDGET processor, but for about the same bucks it won't nearly compete with the newer Omnia One FM. demo them both and you too will agree....That Omega had to be a huge embarrassment for Inovonics.Hard to beat the Omnia and Orban boys at the processor game...IMHO

 

[The F Mister]

While you're at it try also the dspx-fm out. Certainly capable of aggressive processing.

 

[stace]

The tech support from Inovonics is absolutley OUTSTANDING. You should contact them directly.

From what I remember the box only has one knob??? turn 'er up to make it louder???

 

[Studio1]

The tech support from Inovonics is absolutley OUTSTANDING. You should contact them directly.

From what I remember the box only has one knob??? turn 'er up to make it louder???

This is the situation exactly. When I went to the station to do some other work, I took my QEI mod monitor with me and noticed that they were overmodulating something awful. I backed off the input to the STL which brought them back to reasonable mod levels, but of course they don't sound "loud" like they used to.
Some people don't seem to have an issue with overmodulating but I'm not a supporter of it.

 

[kevtronics]

From what I remember the box only has one knob??? turn 'er up to make it louder???

There are two front panel controls: Average Compression and Composite Processing. The former adjusts the level of compression and limiting, while the latter adjusts the level of composite clipping. It is a wideband processor, so aside from a bass boost, it offers no way to adjust it to achieve a desired "sonic signature."

If you want multiband FM processing at an affordable price, your analog choices include the Inovonics David III and CRL Amigo FM (officially discontinued, but new ones are still available from Orban at a reduced price), and your digital choices include the DSPXmini-FM (also known as the Audemat-Aztec 4Bmini-FM) and Omnia.One FM.

 

[stace]

The only one I've come across was following a BBE sonic maximiser. That gave a little more adjustment, and it actually sounded half decent, but didn't like to be pushed. I would use compression lightly and drive the clipping hard.

IIRC it had a WB AGC WB compression and a HF limiter?? One issue was the range on the limiter. If the AGC had been building gain on a fading song and a loud sweeper or voicetrack followed, it would blow out big time!

 

[kevtronics]

IIRC it had a WB AGC WB compression and a HF limiter?? One issue was the range on the limiter. If the AGC had been building gain on a fading song and a loud sweeper or voicetrack followed, it would blow out big time!

The AGC in the David II is peak-responding with a fixed attack / release time of 0.5 dB per second. Clearly that kind of design is not going to deal well with large changes in program level, and a David II would perform much better with a "real" AGC ahead of it, such as an Aphex Compellor, or even better, CRL's SGC-800 Stereo Gain Controller, which is essentially the same dual-band AGC that's built into the Amigo FM.