The passion of processing...

[CatfishJimPrewitt]

I personally think that when you walk into any market, the radio stations have this sameness to them. I want to break out of that.

I agree with that statement. If you come to the Birmingham market there are clearly two different sounds — the Clear Channel "super-enhance the punch and highs" sound, and the Cox "everything is compressed and up-front" sound. I find that this is likely due to these clusters using the same engineer for each of their stations, who either really likes one particular type of sound or who just doesn't care enough to play around beyond one type of settings that he/she plugs in on every station. It's sad because with all of the processing power being used in a market like that, I think some of these stations are missing a great opportunity to have a rich, bold sound — instead, one is like the other regardless of format.

Speaking of B'ham...I programmed WKXX in 87-88. What I inherited was just a Optiomod 8100a. Throughout my tenure I experimented with several combinations of audio chains. First off I put in the Texar Prizms laterwith the card5. The optimod/texar were great. The texars were very smooth and warm while the 8100a was used primarly fot limiting. Then I got my hands on a demo copy of a barcus-barry. It ehanced the highs. Finally I put in some old Urei la2as Tube levelers coming out of the board going into the Texar then Optimod. Went through numerous mic compressors. Wound up using the la4 on the mic. This was the best sound I ever heard! Warm and Puncy and the levels were great. With the la2as i didn't run that much compression on the texars/otiomod. Funny thing about those la2as and la3as they kept your levels perfect without super compressing/limiting. Very Smooth those puppies were!!!!

 

[cgould]

Yes!

I still use a Urei LA4 for my main mic compression in my home studio. Ain't much to them, but they sure sound nice n' smooth on voice!

-C

 

[LA_Guy]

LA2-4s have optical devices within them doing the AGC. That's as true RMS as it gets. There's also a natural attack/delay with these devices that sounds very smooth.

 

[rrsounds]

LA2-4s have optical devices within them doing the AGC. That's as true RMS as it gets. There's also a natural attack/delay with these devices that sounds very smooth.

While I agree that the LA-series compressors are really smooth, the RMS-y aspect of a compressor comes only partly from using a photo resistor as the control element, but equally or even more from the choice of device creating the light. This illuminating device can have an obvious smoothing effect (a basic incandescent lightbulb makes about as pure RMS as you'll get without complex circuitry), and the unusual light panels UREI used seemed to work damn well, too. Last place would go to an LED, since it has no inherent smoothing at all.

The reputation for photoresistors is that while smooth, they are quite variable from unit to unit (requiring calibration circuitry which can be complicated and may need occasional re-adjustment), are temperature sensitive (which can be compensated for to a degree <joke>), and non-linear in their control range (almost always requiring that they be in a feedback loop).

This means that each and every optical compressor had a slightly individual sound, which will change over time as the parts age. And all the good and bad that goes with that!

But there is no arguing with the sound of success! The LA-3 is just incredibly smooth, and IMHO the LA-4 is quite possibly the best mic limiter ever.

Kind Regards,
David