X-treme eSSB Audio FORUM

On listening to your summoning of VOODOO, I noticed that you compress before and then again after you EQ, what is the benefit of this?

What is best? To downward expand or to gate? Would using both give any positive or negative affect?

My chain is as follows:

Mic Heil PR-20,

Behringer UB802 mixer (EQ on Mixer all set flat, 12 o'clock)

Behringer Multicom Pro-XL MDX4600 (Expander/Gate, Compressor/Limiter) Use CH1 to downward Expand, I am also experimenting from CH1 into CH2 for Gating or Compressing.

Behringer Ultra-Graph Pro GEQ3102 31 band Analogue EQ,

Behringer Ultrafex Pro EX3200 (Wired for Voodoo)

Behringer Composer Pro MDX2200 (Expander/Gate, Compressor/Limiter),
to compress.

All into the Acc Socket of an Icom IC-7000 running at TBW wide, Low 100 - Hi 2900

I get some great unsolicited audio reports with people advising they had to talk to me because I sounded so good but, I am not happy with it. Are we ever? Hence the experimenting.

So any tips regarding the above rack appreciated.

I am on the Look out for a MIC2200 and a Parametric EQ what are the benefits if any of the Parametric EQ over an analogue EQ?

One last question. What do you guys think of the Kenwood TS-950SD (Not SDX) as an ESSB radio? I have the chance of one but not sure as it aint the SDX.

Regards

Andy (G7VOT)

Well after a bit more experimenting I no longer use the MDX2200 to compress. It just seemed a lot noisier than the MDX4600.

So I am now going as follows.

PR20
UB802
MDX4600 CH1 (Downward Expander)
GEQ3102
EX3200 (Wired for VOODOO)
Back to the MDX4600 CH2 to Compress.
Into the IC-7000 Rear ACC Socket.

While I was experimenting with the MDX4600 CH1 into CH2 to gate or Compress I noticed no Benefit, nor ill effects.

So back to more experimenting. Cya soon

Andy

Howdy Andy!
Sorry the answer is a little late,
Those are some very good questions and We will answer them very soon.
Just wanted to let you know that were not ignoring them!!!
OK, Will answer in depth soon.
God Bless,

No worries, I aint in any rush, and the audio kit aint going anywhere.

Howdy Andy!!!
Finely got around to being able to answer your questions.
We'll answer them in order by quotes.

I noticed that you compress before and then again after you EQ, what is the benefit of this?

Compression can be used for lots of other things then just dynamics.
We use the first compressor to add a smoothness and kind of a Tonal effect to the Audio. This is done by using a Long Release Time, a Short Attack, and a Ratio of around 3:1 to 4:1.
The second Compressor is used after the EX3200 to smooth out the roughness on the lows, and to get rid of the tearing on the highs.

What is best? To downward expand or to gate?

Well, Downward Expansion is allot smoother and subtle then Noise Gating.
Noise Gating is like a Switch being turned on and off.
The noise is gone....then abruptly the noise is there when you talk and immediately is gone again when you stop talking, like a switch turning off.
The Downward Expander slowly fades the noise out and can be adjusted to
for speed and depth of the expansion.

Would using both give any positive or negative affect?

We would have to say a negative effect.
The best place is to place the downward expander is directly after the mic preamp.
If the downward expander can't remove all the noise then the next thing is to identify the noise and eliminate it.
Actually that should be the first thing to do but.......

what are the benefits if any of the Parametric EQ over an analogue EQ?

I take it you mean the difference between a Parametric Eq and a Graphic Eq.
TOO Much to type!!!
In short, the Bandwidth adjustment.
It makes it so much more adjustable to be able to adjust the bandwidth instead of it being fixed.

What do you guys think of the Kenwood TS-950SD (Not SDX) as an ESSB radio?

There are quite a few differences between the 2 rigs that allot of people are not aware of.
Most think they are the same.
There is allot of circuits that are the same, but also allot that are different.
There are no direct replacements Circuit Boards between the two units, except for the Power supply and the Control unit, but only after a few modifications.
Thats how different they are.
The SD uses the DSP unit for SSB TX only.
On Receive, it only uses it for slope tuning, not for any SSB IF Receive DSP functions.
On SSB receive, since the SD rig does NOT use the DSP unit for Receiving, it uses the Filters in the rig to remove the opposite sidebands.
So what this means is that if you receive any SSB signal using a wider filter then 2.7Kc on the TS950SD, it will be Double Sideband.
The SD can TX and RX on SSB without the DSP unit, as it will switch internally when it is removed.

The SDX uses the DSP unit for SSB and AM modes on TX, and for SSB on Receive.
The SDX will not receive or TX SSB without the DSP unit.
This is because all the extra circuitry that the SD had was removed from the PC boards on the SDX because since the DSP unit was an integral unit, they were no longer necessary.
This includes the AM modulator circuit and all the 455KHz PLL frequency generating circuitry.
The DSP unit know takes care of all of this.
The SSB Demodulator Ring diodes circuitry was also removed for the same reasoning.
There where allot of additional modifications to the SDX to better it then the SD.
The biggest thing was the use of MOSFET finals in the PA section.

There are allot more differences between the two.
The SDX is twice the rig of the SD.
We hope this little splash of info helps ya.

Well hope all this helps ya out!!
God Bless,

WoW,

Thanks for taking the time to reply, much appreciated and extremely helpful.

I am going to leave the 950SD alone and hold out for an 870.

Time for a little more experimenting with the MDX2200 I think. This offers more control than the MDX4600, so the 4600 may end up redundant.

When I 1st tried the 2200 I used it last in the chain I used the 4600 1st to downward expand and the 2200 was last to compress but, it seemed to produce a lot more noise than the 4600, so I took it out of the chain.

I am now experimenting with it into channel 1 of the 2200 to downward expand then through the EQ and 3200 back to Ch2 of the 2200 to compress and it is far better. May be a setting issue with me 1st time around.

The EX3200 doesn't seem to have much of an effect, may be I am using to much EQ or not enough. At the same time it may be making a difference but I only have the IC7K Monitor or an RX that is only capable of 2.4kHz, so I'm probably not hearing it.

Thanks again and back to experimenting.