What to put in front of an 8500?

[menotti1]

[Mr. Mennotti:Bob Orban has forgotten more than you will ever know about radio processing.WELL, Taylor ENG, based on how bad the omnia 6 is beating the 8500 in sales, i;d say you might have a valid point there..Maybe Bob should have remembered more than he forgot.my suppliers tell me the Omnia 6 is still KING of the hill by a wide margin...

 

[gtomas]

I run an Aphex Compellor into an Aphex Aural Exciter/Big Bottom (using only the bass Big Bottom feature) into an 8100XT.Sounds excellent for our OLDIES format. I'm the PD.

I tried Aural Exciter for a week (also used only Big Bottom) and ended up removing it and never using it on-air again. Just too artificial for me. Sounds great on voice though and we've been using it production studio since.

FYI: I would NEVER let an engineer have the FINAL say on processor settings.

I guess that depends on engineer, but you'd probably be better off listening to your engineer. The word 'never' in capital letters makes me suspect so... Regards,Goran Tomas

 

[gtomas]

I know that Mr. Foti has made the "3:1" claim several times on this board. However, repeating a claim over and over does not make it true. If the "3:1" claim is true and Orban/CRL's sales have not decreased, this means that the total market value for processing is now at least 400% of what it was before our competitor arrived on the scene. This fails the "common sense" test.

The market probably has increased somewhat, but not 4 times. I never bought that 3:1 claim and I'm amazed at those who do. IMO, that's just a chap marketing claim that cannot be verified. From my own experience and the people I came in contact with, the race is much more tied up. In fact, between O6 and 8500 I think 8500 has a lead ahead at the moment. But it always amazes me what people will fall for... A while back a fellow engineer argued that Omnia.3fmt was better than DSPX because there was a quote of some XY engineer in the Omnia.3fmt ad that said so. I looked at him and just couldn't belive it. Hello, you are reading an Omnia ad, what do you expect they will put in?? That DSPX is better?In that regards, Omnia marketing seems to have effect on that kind of clients. Mr. menotti certainly bought it... I always say - judge the processor by it's sound. And how much you will have to pay for it. Ignore everything else! Regards,Goran Tomas

 

[menotti1]

YES,Goran, i bought it, the 06 over the 8500, because it had cleaner, louder, clearer audio.but so did Z100 ,wplj,wktu New York.KISS FM Los Angeles, KPLX country Dallas WABB Mobile AL,..hey side by side i picked the 06 ex.now just to show i'm not partial to Omnia, i bought the dsp-extra for my 2nd FM and LOVE it too....8500 WAY over priced..you need to check your sales figures,you and Bob are doing fuzzy math...and the dsp-x will stomp the omnia o3 t..but in defense of omnia that box has aged and that's all they can do with it now, but it still sounds good..

 

[rorban]

YES,Goran, i bought it, the 06 over the 8500, because it had cleaner, louder, clearer audio.but so did Z100 ,wplj,wktu New York.KISS FM Los Angeles

According to Clear Channel's Terry Grieger, the Omnia6 on KISS in LA was replaced with an 8400 about 2 years ago and is now running with an 8500. The former KISS Omnia6 was exiled to Lancaster, CA (population approximately 118,000). It's WAY past time for Frank to correct his website.Optimod processing is the overwhelming choice of Los Angeles radio stations.Bob Orban

 

[rorban]

Bob,Based upon your numbers, the ratio is on target.-Frank Foti

I presume you wouldn't mind posting your audited financial statements for the Omnia operation so the group can verify your claim? They can easily verify my numbers by downloading CRL's financials from the SEC web site.

 

[FFoti1]

Bob,Based upon your numbers, the ratio is on target.-Frank Foti

I presume you wouldn't mind posting your audited financial statements for the Omnia operation so the group can verify your claim? They can easily verify my numbers by downloading CRL's financials from the SEC web site.

As a privately held company, we do not publicize actual sales figures. My apologies to the group, but this is the directive of our CEO. While I realize that some will not like that response, it is out of my control. I'd imagine that when Orban was privately held, your financial information was kept private as well.-Frank Foti

 

[FFoti1]

YES,Goran, i bought it, the 06 over the 8500, because it had cleaner, louder, clearer audio.but so did Z100 ,wplj,wktu New York.KISS FM Los Angeles

According to Clear Channel's Terry Grieger, the Omnia6 on KISS in LA was replaced with an 8400 about 2 years ago and is now running with an 8500. The former KISS Omnia6 was exiled to Lancaster, CA (population approximately 118,000). It's WAY past time for Frank to correct his website.Optimod processing is the overwhelming choice of Los Angeles radio stations.Bob Orban

Bob,This is news to me. I know that Terry has been a longtime Optimod fan, and he probably made the change once his market responsibilities included KIIS. This fits the time period you mention.-Frank Foti

 

[rorban]

[As a privately held company, we do not publicize actual sales figures. My apologies to the group, but this is the directive of our CEO. While I realize that some will not like that response, it is out of my control. I'd imagine that when Orban was privately held, your financial information was kept private as well.-Frank Foti

However, we did not make public pronouncements about our sales vs. that of our competitors and then refuse to back these pronouncements up with audited numbers.Bob Orban

 

[FFoti1]

[As a privately held company, we do not publicize actual sales figures. My apologies to the group, but this is the directive of our CEO. While I realize that some will not like that response, it is out of my control. I'd imagine that when Orban was privately held, your financial information was kept private as well.-Frank Foti

However, we did not make public pronouncements about our sales vs. that of our competitors and then refuse to back these pronouncements up with audited numbers.Bob Orban

There are other ways besides audited statements to determine market penetration/sales performance, for those so inclined.Many privately held companies have made stronger claims than ours about sales performance. Nothing new there. I do remember being told of the Orban worldwide market dominance, when Orban was a privately held company. I seem to remember that the claim was about 75% world markshare as compared to "other" processing companies. No challenges came of that, and it's no different than what is being discussed here.-Frank Foti

 

[menotti1]

quick call to BSW today..omnia sales still outpace the orban products..FYI

 

[wgliradio]

Popularity of an audio processor should not be a strong motive to buy, unless you want to try to emulate another co-owned station with a certain preset from a certain box... but even then, I have never seen a preset "prefectly" import and by that I mean that you will ALWAYS have to tweak whatever preset you use to your own audio path. Everyone on Long Island has Orban, Omnia or Aphex. I'm the only one with a particular brand of processor and it clobbers everyone else. When you factor in that the station plays anything from CHR/Oldies/Traditional Jazz/Smooth Jazz/Rock/Classic Rock, has students on the air (some who forget there are meters on the board at times), a second offsite studio that's on the air at certain times over a codec with compressed audio and sometimes source material is suspect (MP3), plus management wants one preset... I offered dayparting... that's saying something.Management loves it after being "not so sure" because the company was not well known. To be FAIR, when we got our new unit after the demo, there was a problem with it, but it was quickly resolved by extending the demo and a new unit shipped right away. The previous processor didn't come close and it was a popular brand. To be fair, I spoke with tech support for that brand, but since I compared it to what I was testing on the bench, I knew the weapon I wanted the station to have.It's the strength of the processor and the strength of the person setting it. The other processors and engineers in the market are more than competent (well, most but, for their reasons, they have been set-up for a certain sound. I know where I stand.Forget sales figures, demo as many different models from as many different brands as possible. If I always purchased the most popular, I would have never discovered some great gear and great deals.

 

[HumDinger1]

I have always been a "use the best tool for the job" kind of guy. If it happens to be an Omnia product, fine. If its an Orban product, that's fine too. But I'll admit a preference for Orban products. Last winter I was looking at upgrading the processor on my AM. Until the 9400 was released, there was a big hole in the Orban product line when you looked at the 9200 vs. the 5EX. I even called to set up a demo of the 5EX. But Murphy took over before I could do a proper demo when our 20+ year old 9100 failed and I had to hurry up and get ANYTHING on the air and we ended up buying a 9200. Budgetwise, it was more affordable and took less pleading and begging from corporate to write the check. I wish I could have gotten a 5EX or waited for the 9400 as we are looking to take the station HD next year, but the 9200 does the job and the PD is very happy with the sound.On the FM side of things, I have 4 stations under me. Only one is using an Omnia product, and it is an original Omnia FM. Thinking of all of my companies stations in the region, on the FM side, 6 are using Orban products and 3 are using Omnia's. That ratio will change to 7 and 2 later this year with another HD conversion and my Omnia FM will become the floating backup unit. All 3 company AM's are using either a 9100 or 9200.Elaborating on my preference for Orban, it comes down to the user interface. The 8500 has an understated elegance feel to it. To do a car analogy, it is like a Cadillac, attractive, but deep down you know it has that big V8 that can get you 0-60 in short order. The O6 has a more "in your face" look about it. There is little doubt that it is the Corvette. It's all muscle and it wants you to know it. The marketing of the two even has that kind of feel. The more business-like interface of the 8500 just suits the way I think more. (Full disclosure point: I am a stockholder in Orban CRL. But I bought the stock after my opinion on product was set. I buy stock in companies whose products I like.)Back to the original topic of this thread, I run a 10 year old Compellor on the studio side of my STL after which it hits an 8500 with the AGC disabled. Sounds real sweet!

 

[wgliradio]

But Murphy took over before I could do a proper demo when our 20+ year old 9100 failed

I would have tried for a loaner and fixed the 9100. It's still one of the best and would make a great backup.

Elaborating on my preference for Orban, it comes down to the user interface. The 8500 has an understated elegance feel to it.

Funny, this is where views differ from user to user. I think the 8500 (and 8400) interface with that godawful joystick is annoying as hell. I've often wanted to rip it off out of pure anger. I am also not keen on their other digital interfaces. I know, I know, "many who own the processor like it etc etc". This is "one man's opinon". Also, let's not forget the all important, and classic "your milage may vary".

 

[HumDinger1]

The 9200 started out as a loaner, but our repair of the 9100 got caught up in Orban's moving to AZ mess. So we bought it. The 9100 was MIA for over 4 months! The 9100 is now the backup.

 

[rorban]

The 9200 started out as a loaner, but our repair of the 9100 got caught up in Orban's moving to AZ mess. So we bought it. The 9100 was MIA for over 4 months! The 9100 is now the backup.

Sorry about the delay!The move is in its "clean-up" phases now, so things should be settling down shortly as the Tempe facility completes its ramp-up.Bob Orban