Operating instructions

OPTIMOD-AM DIGITAL OPERATION
3-25
Presets with “LBR” in their names are tuned to minimize artifacts with low bitrate
codecs by using the Band 5 compressor to control excessive high frequency energy.
CLASSICAL 5B: As its name implies, the CLASSICAL-5B preset is optimized for clas-
sical music, gracefully handling recordings with very wide dynamic range and sud-
den shifts in dynamics. It uses heavy inter-band coupling to prevent large amounts
of automatic re-equalization, which could otherwise cause unnatural stridency and
brightness in strings and horns and which could pump up very low frequency rumble
in live recording venues.
COUNTRY: The COUNTRY-MEDIUM preset uses the ROCK-SMOOTH source preset. It
has a gentle bass lift and a mellow, easy-to-listen-to high end, along with enough
presence energy to help vocals to stand out. The COUNTRY-LIGHT preset uses the
ROCK-LIGHT source preset. Modern country stations might also find ROCK-MEDIUM
or ROCK-OPEN useful if they want a brighter, more up-front sound.
CRISP: CRISP provides a bright upper midrange sound by emphasizing frequencies
around 6 kHz. It is a loud preset that is appropriate for mass-appeal music formats. It
has the same bass texture as the IMPACT presets.
DANCE ENERGY: This preset is designed to preserve the punch and slam in dance
music percussion (such as the beater click in kick drums). It is loud and has a bright
high frequency texture. As L
ESS-MORE is turned down, this preset get quieter, yet
punchier.
EDGE: This preset is designed for hit music stations that prefer extremely punchy
bass to fastidious distortion control. It is loud and has a bright high frequency tex-
ture.
FOLK / TRADITIONAL: FOLK
/ TRADITIONAL is an alias for the ROCK-SOFT preset.
It assumes that the recordings are of relatively recent vintage and require relatively
subtle processing.
If the recordings you play are inconsistent in texture and equalization, you may pre-
fer the ROCK-SMOOTH or ROCK-LIGHT presets.
GOLD: GOLD is loud and “hi-fi”-sounding while still respecting the limitations and
basic flavor of the recordings from the era of the 1950s through 1970s.
For example, we do not attempt to exaggerate high frequency energy in
the GOLD
preset. The highs in recordings of this era are often noisy, dis-
torted, or have other technical problems that make them unpleasant
sounding when the processor over-equalizes them in an attempt to emu-
late the high frequency balance of recently recorded material.
GREGG: GREGG, GREGG OPEN, and GREGG LBR all use a 200 Hz band1/band2
crossover frequency to achieve a bass sound similar to the classic five-band Gregg
Labs FM processors designed by Orban’s Vice President of New Product Develop-
ment, Greg Ogonowski. Dynamically, these presets produce a slight increase in bass
energy below 100 Hz and a decrease of bass energy centered at 160 Hz. This bass
sound works particularly well with radios having good bass response, such as many
auto radios today.