ORBAN 8200 V3 presets wanted

[BROADCAST]

I have just been listening a 8200 with Don's settings that he uses for KPFK.
Loudness and midrange quality good,very listenable.

On most music sounds fine,then i tried one of my test tracks namely U2's "With or without you".
This is a hard track to process in the midrange and i find you have to back of the clipping controls a fair bit to make the midrange clean.
The audio is clean on the cd,but hard to process for loudness,also my original cd has no hyper compression so not causing audiable distortion prior to processing.

When the superpirates were on in Ireland before the end of 1988,the stations played this track sounding clean,so must have adjusted the 8100a/xt2(used then) with the clipping control set less than 0db(i suspect -1db).

Otherwise Don's setting of KPFK sounds fine.

Paul.

 

[gtomas]

I like the Omnia 6 I have on one of my other stations - but I like this setup better. Granted, if the 8200 had to compete with the Omnia with none of the outboard components, it wouldn't even be a contest - the Omnia would win hands down.

That's kind-of expected since you're comparing the first digital processor ever (designed back in the 1991.) with the latest DSP offerings. 8200 should be compared to Omnia.fm and Omnia-6 should be compared with 8400/8500...


Regards,
Goran Tomas

 

[ElCheapo]

I like the Omnia 6 I have on one of my other stations - but I like this setup better. Granted, if the 8200 had to compete with the Omnia with none of the outboard components, it wouldn't even be a contest - the Omnia would win hands down.

That's kind-of expected since you're comparing the first digital processor ever (designed back in the 1991.) with the latest DSP offerings. 8200 should be compared to Omnia.fm and Omnia-6 should be compared with 8400/8500...


Regards,
Goran Tomas

Well, since you put it that way - in my opinion the Omnia.fm - especially with the HOT upgrade - smokes the 8200 and the O6 smokes the 8400 - which I have some experience with. I've never touched an 8500.

 

[BROADCAST]

Goran,
Spot on there!
As a matter of fact i seem to remember the 8200 being designed for 4-5 years prior to release in 1991,and as you state,a lot has moved on since then!

Some people tell me to spend some money and put an Ariane before the 8200,but surely the multiband limiters and clippers in the 8200 would be the limitation.

Seems better to spend the money on buying a newer processor and part ex the 8200.

 

[wgliradio]

Actually in alot of respects, the 8100 was cleaner than the 8200. I've run 8100's with a CRL SEP-800 (4 band compressor) and a DBX -168 (poor man's Compellor) and the thing was loud and very clean and, thanks to the CRL, very consistant cut-to-cut. This is without the 6 band limiter and without any outboard composite clipper.

On a sad note, it seems that CRL, which made some great gear over the past 30+ years, is no longer going to make anything. The entire product line has been discontinued.

 

[oldiesstation]

that is sad, but it's a very competitive market place and CRL just could not hang with Omnia and Orban..they had very good products early in the product staging, probably had one of the best stereo gens ever made, when you dialed in that sweet spot,you had something.never did get a chance to tinker with the millenia, but liked the other offerings they had.

 

[wgliradio]

The CRL stuff was discontinued because it was hard to find parts to manufacture new units. I don't know if it was lack of interest... even though CRL has not really had a new product since the Millenium audio processor, one unit I still would like to hear.

Most of what they made sounded good... some of it sounded REALLY good. You can slap together an el-cheapo but great sounding AM airchain for under $1000 with some of the stuff you can find on ebay

 

[Sgeirk]

I heard a millenium once on 103.9 in Phoenix when it was CHR. Sounded "ok" What I heard then, reminded me of the sound of an 8400 today.

 

[stace]

On one of our stations running an 8200 with the orginal software (update is on the way) I have trouble keeping brightness while avoiding agravation of sibilence on cold voice. Is there anyway to get around this?

 

[whit979]

WPFW
Washington, D.C.

Optimod 8200 Settings
March, 1999

Final Clip: +1.0
HF Clipping: + .5
DJ Bass Boost: Off
Bass Coupling: Off (0%)
Down Expand: Off
30 hz HPF: On
AGC: On
Bass Clip: -5.0
Phase Rotator: Off
Band 1: 0.0
Band 2: -1.0
Band 3: 0.0
Band 4: +0.5
Band 5: 0.0
Band 3+4: 25
AGC Drive: 10
AGC Release: 9
Multi-Band Drive: 13
Multi-Band release: MSLOW
Multi-Band Clip: 0.0
Low Band bass boost: +4
Mid bass boost: +2
Presence: +1.0
Brilliance: +1.0
Gate: - 40
********************************

I recently tried to adapt the settings you posted for WPFW over to my Optimod 8400 to see what it would sound like. I liked how it turned out fairly well (Hot AC music) and I thought I would post those settings for your review:

Starting preset: Loud-Slam (this preset uses the Hard bass clipper similar to the 8200...Minimum Delay can also be used as a preset but it does not utilize the 8400's lookahead capabilities)

Final Clip Drive: +1.0
HF Clipping (found in Advanced Modify): +0.5
AGC Bass Coupling: 0%
30 Hz Rumble Filter: On
Bass Clip Thresh: -5.0
Phase Rotator: On (I use HF Enhance instead)
Band 2 Mix: -1.0 (I left Band 4 Mix at 0.0 and used an EQ boost instead)
Band 3-4 Coupling: 25%
AGC Release: 9.0
Multiband Drive: 13
Multiband Release: Med
Multiband Clip: 0.0
Bass Shelf (120 Hz, 18 dB/oct.): +4.0
Low EQ (266 Hz, 1.8 Q): +2.0
Mid EQ (2570 Hz, 1.1 Q): +1.0
High EQ (4.1 KHz, 1.1 Q): +0.5
HF Enhance: +1
Brilliance: 1.0
AGC Gate Thresh: -40.0
Multiband Gate Thresh: -40.0

Except for the settings listed, I left all other settings as-is from the original factory preset.