dutch pirate radio said:
@oldiesstation,
in my opinion, the AC presets in the dspxtra are great for "setting up the sound you want", nothing more and noting less.
if you want to make your sound "glitter" with chrystalclear highs and deep hard lows, and maintain the audioquality(as in details in the sound), the dspxtra comes not even close to the omnia 6 ore the "bigger" Orban boxes.
If you want nothing more then loudness, the BW boxes are damn good!
But if you want pure audioquality, even with a minour of drive (a go to sleep preset!) it sounds really not good enough!
i've booked more quality with an aphex airchain ore even with a behringer combinator MDX8000 maintaining a solid base in the sound!
The ariane does great things to the box, but the clippers and limiters break down the integrity of the sound.
a simple example: listen to bruce springsteen with "tougher then the rest" and obtain the striking hihat in the foreplay. the dspxtra demolisches the sound big time!
Allow me to copy a post I made to a dutch group where other dutch users of our products are discussing them. I think the posts below address some of the issues raised above.
Hi there
thank you for your comments.
I think it is probably best if you will allow me to step back a few years and discuss the ideas and thinking that went into the design of our processors.
We are based in London which has traditionally been quite an aggressively processed market so our reference point has been places like this and other aggressively processed markets like Paris. The need to be 'louder than the next guy' was very important and this was the feedback we got from friends and fellow engineers in the business. In my opinion some of the radio stations were blatantly distorted but if this was what they wanted who were we to argue. Up until recently BW has always tried to create loud boxes that sizzle and the vast majority of our customers have been happy with their purchase, some more than in fact, considering the vast savings they have made.
Here comes the twist, and the part that is relevant to some of you guys.
What I am getting at is, just because the box has been designed to sound very loud, and we all know distortion adds to loudness, does not make it incorrectly designed, faulty or plain bad. It was designed to sound that way. Now if the customers in the Netherlands are not used to that sound or do not like it then BW is at a crossroads. We either change the sound of the box completely to try and please some of our newer customers, possibly alienating the existing customers who want that loud, punchy sound or we leave the box as it is and alienate you guys who don't like the current sound.
We think the best thing we can do is to leave the box as it is but add extra mechanisms over the course of the next few updates to allow the sound to be user modified to a less aggressive and debatably cleaner sound. The new clipper control was the first of a few we are working on. If the clipper was faulty as some would have you believe then we would not have added an adjustable control, just made it fixed. The fact remains some markets and customers want that loud harsh sound and for them, who have supported us for several years we have had to leave the option in for the box to sound as it always did.
Our Dutch distributor Gert whom many of you know told me only the other day about one of his customers calling him and asking him what processor X station was using because it sounded really good. It was a DSPXtra by the way. I think some of you will like it and should try it. Just because someone doesn't like it does not mean someone else wont. Processing is personal and subjective, we all know that.
I know Orban is big in the Netherlands and is often used as the reference point. If as some of you proclaim Orban is the best why is only one commercial radio station in London using an Orban (last time I checked). The answer is simple. The Orban sound is not right for the London stations. The same is true in Paris and many other markets. I think the phrase, one size does not fit all is so true when it comes to processing and different markets. Some of you guys should visit us in London one day with your presets for your boxes and lets see how they sound in an aggressively processed market. Could be fun, and enlightening.
I know this may not be the best analogy but hopefully you get my point. A steak is a steak right. Personally I cant eat steak in France, I prefer it cooked, not raw but I would never dream of telling the French chef his steak is underdeveloped or faulty. The fact I cant eat it blue would suggest there must be something wrong with it but I know others like it so who am I tell them what is good and bad. I accept its cooked differently to what I am used to and respect its just different.
I would ask that you consider one thing before saying something is underdeveloped or not right. It may be supposed to sound that way and others may like it, even if you don't. I thank you all for your comments and we are taking them in and will do our best to try and put in parameters into our products that will allow more flexibility with the sound so the loudness of the box can be tamed down and a little more of what you want introduced.
One more time, thank you for the input and support. It is valued and appreciated. I hope to see many of you at IBC in a few days time where I would be more than happy to continue the conversation on a personal level and give you more insight into the forthcoming developments of our products, both present and future.
Best regards
Scott
