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Optimod 8200

K

kellyjbrian

Guest
Im just wondering for those of you who liked or have worked with this processor other then the Orban 222a did you use anything else before or after it to give it more life,feeling or energy? Or did you find anything that worked well with the 8200.I know some of you didnt like the 8200 and that fair enough but its what I use so any help would be great people! Thanks in advance,

Brian
 
Hi Brian,

I have worked with a 222a as well as a stereomaxx ( not combined ofcourse ;-)) in front of the 8200.
For modern dance i would prefer the stereomaxx in front. Dance only! ( maxx should be put into action in a modest way ).
For a wider/general format i prefer the 222a.

The maxx gives a very nice effect on dance music ( my opinion ). Like a spacy gloss.
The 222a is a very subtile way of enhancing the stereoimage. You will miss it when you put it in bypass, but when it is active you wouldn't notice it directly. ( with headphones or in the car, this effect becomes more noticable ).

I like the 8200 by the way in slow mode with some clipping. Everything faster then slow didn't work out quitte wel for me.

Regards,
 
Hey fugazi,
Thanks for your reply. I have used the 222A and found it gave a slight stereo image. I'll have a eye out for a stereo maxx and am looking forward to putting it up against the 222A .Have you used aphex? Any other views would help aswell people. Thanks again
 
A lot of folks love an Ariane before the main processor. The Ariane makes just about anything sound better and offers a lot of flexibility.
 
Depending of your format you might consider a st8200 followed by (not the obvious) http://www.avalondesign.com/vt747sp.html
 in front of your 8200. I would ditch the stereomaxx and/or 222a unless you're dutch (the dutch are a sucker for stereoooooooenhancement). Always wanted to have one of those but I turned 180 degree around and don't even miss the lack of stereo enhancement in my DSPXtreme anymore. If you are on a budget consider a Aphex 320A, only the A so you don't suffer from ducking on bass punches.
 
Thanks for the advice guys. Im going to test a Aphex 320A shortly. The format is Dance music and if anyone has any presets for Dance music I would be great. Thanks again,
 
kellyjbrian said:
Thanks for the advice guys. Im going to test a Aphex 320A shortly. The format is Dance music and if anyone has any presets for Dance music I would be great. Thanks again,
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what advantage you gain with a Compellor. While it IS a world-class wide-band processor, the Optimod's onboard two-band AGC is itself no slouch. AND you already own it.

With dance music, my suspicion is that you would either want to use a fast wideband to pump the hell out of the signal, or you want to multiband process it so the bass can be consistently prominent.

Not meaning to dis Aphex, but neither one of those scenarios sounds like a Compellor to me.

Kind Regards,
David
 
I would try an Ariane if you can afford it. A Compellor works great if you want gain control for talk. I use them on a couple stations for talk and they work GREAT. They will work with music, but the reality is you'd be better off with a multibanded AGC instead. I have a question for you though. Are you just unhappy with the 8200s AGC or something? Maybe better settings for the 8200 may negate the neccesity of an external AGC. I have some settings laying around... The stations that were runnning the settings at the time were #1 and #2 in this market most of the time we ran it. :)
 
I was never in love with any Orban AGC, I still don't like it even in my updated 8500's. I find the Compellor is much easier to listen to, and of course the Ariane is world class!
 
I remember putting on my first 8200 in 1993. After two months of non-stop adjusting the manager ordered it removed. The 8100 XT-2 went back on. Version 3.0 for the 8200 was a huge improvement. That was late 90's I believe. I think lightly processed it sounds very good. The breaking glass sound was drastically reduced in V3.0, but when pushed hard it surfaces again. The last versions made that had the purple fronts seemed to be even better. The newer 8400 and 8500's are much louder, and the AGC's are better too. I don't care for the bass management of the new Optimods. I thought the 8200 handled bass better. Just my opinion if you need a coffee break.
 
fm-engineer said:
I remember putting on my first 8200 in 1993. After two months of non-stop adjusting the manager ordered it removed. The 8100 XT-2 went back on. Version 3.0 for the 8200 was a huge improvement. That was late 90's I believe. I think lightly processed it sounds very good. The breaking glass sound was drastically reduced in V3.0, but when pushed hard it surfaces again. The last versions made that had the purple fronts seemed to be even better. The newer 8400 and 8500's are much louder, and the AGC's are better too. I don't care for the bass management of the new Optimods. I thought the 8200 handled bass better. Just my opinion if you need a coffee break.
Click to expand...

The best station I have ever heard is in a top 10 market and is still, to my knowledge, running an 8100/XT-2. It's amazing how it can still put the latest and greatest in the digital world to shame.
 
8200 is still my favorite. I have a 8500 and it's louder, but still haven't been able to get it to sound as smooth as the 8200. The 8200 sounds fine without anything in front of it. May sound fine with stuff in front of it too, but I wouldn't know.

Run the bass boost in the 6p range. Boost the brilliance a bit.

Run the AGC release pretty fast (I run mine about 8db per sec). Otherwise, it swallows vocals.

Don't drive mutiband too hard 15 is plenty. The final clipper is good and clean up to about +2.0.

I shut the gate off. Even at it's lowest setting, (-44 I think) it sometimes gates going from a loud liner or somthing going into a song with a soft intro, and then people in cars can't hear it, as it slows the release times down too much.

Biggest problem I hear, is Band 1 attack time is a little slow and sometimes distorts a bit until that band starts to limit, then it cleans up.

Good Luck!
 
The bass in the 8500 lacks the punch of the 8200 if you leave it with many of the factory presets. But the controls are there to make it sound just like the 8200. You just need to adjust the Bass clip mode, compression thresholds on B1 and B2 and the c bass clip threshold.

Try Bass clip HARD
compression thresholds (B1-9.0)(B2 -6.75)
Bass clip thr -3.5

I think the 8500 has the best in box AGC of them all, and I love the gloss that the Orban processors give.

We are using an 8200 V3 on our Solid Gold station. I don't know alot about processing for Oldies so a little trial and error at the moment, I'm using a slower AGC but MFast release time with some clipping, to squash it up a bit. I'd appreciate any tips please private message me
 
I have a problem with the composite output on an 8200. The audio comes out with a pretty pronounced hum in it. The analog and AES outputs are clean, though. The Optimod folks weren't much help. Anybody have any ideas?
 
If the hum is truly in the box, it ought to be easy to find, just go through it stage bby stage till it appears and then look around for the problem. 999 times out of a thousand, though, it appears in the interfacing between the composite and the exciter... either RF gets in, or there's a ground loop or totally missing ground. Usually with a couple of clip cords and a couple or three 'ground lift' adaptors from the hardware to isolate the center pin of the AC plugs you can figure where the problem is. Good luck.
 
whitfm said:
fm-engineer said:
I remember putting on my first 8200 in 1993. After two months of non-stop adjusting the manager ordered it removed. The 8100 XT-2 went back on. Version 3.0 for the 8200 was a huge improvement. That was late 90's I believe. I think lightly processed it sounds very good. The breaking glass sound was drastically reduced in V3.0, but when pushed hard it surfaces again. The last versions made that had the purple fronts seemed to be even better. The newer 8400 and 8500's are much louder, and the AGC's are better too. I don't care for the bass management of the new Optimods. I thought the 8200 handled bass better. Just my opinion if you need a coffee break.
Click to expand...

The best station I have ever heard is in a top 10 market and is still, to my knowledge, running an 8100/XT-2. It's amazing how it can still put the latest and greatest in the digital world to shame.
Click to expand...
Gotta agree...with a couple very minor mods, the 8100A/XT-2 is still a remarkable processor in spite of it's 20+ year vintage. I too tried to get the 8200 to equal the 8100A/XT-2. Didn't happen.
 
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