Falcon 50 FM Operating Manual

Operating manual

(Rel. 1.3.1)

PART THREE: PROCESSING

Falcon 50 FM

6 Band DIGITAL audio PROCESSOR

2

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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1 TABLE OF CONTENTS

1

TABLE OF CONTENTS.............................................................................................................. .......... 3

2 QUICK START – CREATING A NEW PRESET.................................................................................... 4

2.1 USING THE WIZARD TO SET DENSITY, COMPRESSION AND SOUND ‘FOOTPRINT’........................4

2.2 SETTING THE AGC & MULTI-

BAND

SPEEDS ...........................................................................................5

2.3 HOW TO CREATE AN ITU-B412 COMPLIANT PRESET FROM A NOT COMPATIBLE ONE. ................6

3 HOW TO CHA N GE TH E PRESET ON AIR........................................................................................... 7

4 SAVING A NEW PRESET.....................................................................................................................8

5 IMPORTING/EXPORTING AND MANAGING CONFIG FILES.............................................................. 9

5.1 EXPORTING SINGLE PRESETS, GENERAL CONFIG OR BOTH .............................................................9

5.2 IMPORTING PRESETS, GENERAL CONFIG. OR BOTH.........................................................................10

6 AGC OPERATION.............................................................................................................................. 11

6.1 TURNING THE AGC ON/OFF...................................................................................................................11

6.2 SETTING THE AGC SPEED......................................................................................................................11

6.3 SETTING DRIVE, IDLE AND GATE PARAMETERS...............................................................................12

6.4 SETTING IDLE COMP, IDLE SPEED AND GATE THRESHOLD PARAMETERS ..................................13

6.5 SETTING CHANNEL LINKAGE AND BAND COUPLING ......................................................................13

7 THE PRESET LIST............................................................................................................................. 14

8 APPENDIX A...................................................................................................................................... 16

8.1 SYSTEM EVENTS.....................................................................................................................................16

8.2 GENERAL SYSTEM RESET.....................................................................................................................17

8.2.1 BEFORE BEGINNING........................................................................................................................17

8.2.2 RESET PROCEDURE.........................................................................................................................17

9 APPENDIX B – BLOCK DIAGRAMS OF SINGLE STAGES............................................................... 19

9.1 ANALOGIC INPUT ...................................................................................................................................19

9.2 DIGITAL INPUT .......................................................................................................................................19

9.3 DUAL BAND AGC....................................................................................................................................20

9.4 STEREO ENHANCER...............................................................................................................................20

9.5 BAND 1 COMPRESSOR - LIMITER .........................................................................................................21

9.6 BAND 2 COMPRESSOR - LIMITER .........................................................................................................21

9.7 BAND 3 COMPRESSOR - LIMITER .........................................................................................................21

9.8 BAND 4 COMPRESSOR - LIMITER .........................................................................................................22

9.9 BAND 5 COMPRESSOR – LIMITER.........................................................................................................22

9.10 BAND 6 COMPRESSOR – LIMITER.........................................................................................................22

9.11 FINAL LIMITER .......................................................................................................................................23

10 APPENDIX C - MEASUREMENTS.................................................................................................. 24

10.1 BYPASS PERFORMANCE........................................................................................................................24

10.2 DYNAMIC RANGE AND DISTORTION ..................................................................................................24

10.3 MPX ENCODER INPUT FILTER ..............................................................................................................24

10.4 PILOT QUALITY AND NOISE TEST........................................................................................................25

10.5 PILOT PROTECTION TEST

(MPX CLIPPER OFF) .................................................................................25

10.6 PILOT PROTECTION TEST

(MPX CLIPPER ON)...................................................................................26

10.7 RDS PROTECTION TEST (MPX CLIPPER ON).......................................................................................26

10.8 STEREO SEPARATION TEST ..................................................................................................................27

10.9 MAIN TO SUB TEST.................................................................................................................................27

10.10 MPX DEVIATION TEST (MPX CLIPPER OFF) ....................................................................................28

10.11 MPX DEVIATION TEST (MPX CLIPPER ON)......................................................................................28

11 TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS...................................................................................................... 29

QUICK START – CREATING A NEW PRESET

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2 QUICK START – CREATIN G A NEW PRESET

This chapter presents a very easy and fast wa

y to create a new preset beginning from a factory one.

2.1 USING THE WIZARD TO SET DENSITY, COMPRESSION AND SOUND
‘FOOTPRINT’

Pick out the factory pr eset whi c h best fits the desired ‘sound footpri nt’

open the 6-BAND AUDIO PROCESS BLOCK and then click
the WIZARD tab

Enter the WIZARD screen. A lter the listed Macroparameters
very slowly while li stening how the original output sound
modifies. When satisfied with the new sound, click OK. Click
UNDO to discard last modifications or ESC to quit the screen
without savi ng.
NOTE: value ranges shown in the W IZ A RD window are
tailored on the pr oc essing Pr eset being modified and do not
represent any ‘absolut e’ lim it of the Falcon 50 FM processing.

Enter the EQUALIZATION bloc k (EQ), and modify the filter
parameters fir st and then consider each filter effect by turning
it on and off from the relevant f unc tion. It is possible to set
cross-frequenc ies between filters and the amplitude of each
filter window. Click UNDO to discard last modifications or ES C
to quit the screen without saving.

Enter the STEREO ENHANCER block (SE) and alt er its
parameters at will. At the moment, keep unaltered both
Brillianc e and Multiband Controls. Click UNDO to discard l ast
modificati ons or ES C to quit the screen without saving.

Double click the BAND 1 bloc k: the SUPER BASS menu will
be shown. Alter the Bass Type and BassLevel at will and then
consider the filt er intervention by turning it on and off. Listen to
its actual effect and keep the preferred setting. Enter controls
of each Band and try to alter t heir PreDrive controls. You may
increase them by up to 1 dB, whil e You may decrem ent t hem
at will.

Light modific ations are also permitted in the Band Mixer stage
(Band Mixer + Final Limiter block), with increments by up to

0.5dB, while dec r em ents hav e no limi ts. Once reached the
desired sound stamp, k eep it listening carefully to for a
sufficiently long time. Also adjust the Power Attenuati on
(PowerAtt) parameter so that the PA meter on the screen acts
as little as possible whi le applying a slight attenuation. If there
still is something wrong wit h the sound (that is something
different f r om a specific sound detail) and You are unable to
find a relationshi p with any band in particular, sli ghtly reduce
the Final Limiter Drive, or switch to a more smooth Clipping
mode (f.i. from Hardest t o Har d)

QUICK START – CREATING A NEW PRESET

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If You are abl e to det ect a specif ic sound component (f.i. a

specific instr um ent or frequency) giving bad result s on the
final output, try to ident ify the band or the bands involved and
try to reduce their LIMITER Thresholds. Use the SOLO
MODE control provided in each band in order to easier identify
the specific contribution of that band to the final output .

If live speech is fed at the input, test how the various Speech
Detector modes (i nc luded in the SE block) alter the voice
‘colour’. I n the event an external Voice/Mic Processor is used
or music only is processed, selec t MODE 1 or turn it OFF.
NOTE: the MODE 1 is the only mode completely ‘flat’ (that is,
it doesn’t alter the original freq balance in the audio to be
processed), while ot her MODE profiles change speech
equalisati on.

2.2 SETTING THE AGC & MULTI-BAND SPEEDS

Factory presets hav e been designed in or der to react in a quite slow m anner to all level variations of input
signal. Howev er, the final user may alter that behavi our at any moment. It is advisable to t o test the chosen
Preset in ‘ex treme’ condi ti ons, i.e. when the audio pro gram to be processe d contains v ery low music l evels
or very hi gh levels. If faster react ion to those audio content s is desired, modif y the AGC WINDOWS and
AGC RELEASE parameters.

It is also advi sable to increase the Thresholds of AGC Gate (GateThr) and MULTI BAND Gate parameters
(the latter one being inside the SE bloc k) in order to help the Agc stage in f r eezi ng the lowest levels not to be
enhanced.

HINTS AND TIPS: if You hav e reached a pleasant trade-off bet ween sound components with a very good
loudness having as a reference Your preferred Hi-Fi domestic tuner, amplifier and speakers set and the
result is si gnifi cantl y dif ferent when a car- radi o or a sm al l transi tor is u sed in stead, per haps You ex agerated
in ‘pumping’ very low freqs (below 100 Hz) or very high ones (10 Khz or over). In one word, it is
recommended to create Your own processing Presets having as a reference/target a specific tuner type
(home, car, portable, etc), likely the most used by the majorit y of Y our li stener s.

As a refer ence, t he so-cal led RO CK Pr esets done i n t he f ac tory are as muc h ‘univ er sal’ as pos sibl e (that i s,
they do not suff er when reproduced on small loudspakers or poor perf ormance systems), while the HOT
ones have signific ant enhancement on low and high freqs and could not fi t ev er y sound reproduc tion system.

QUICK START – CREATING A NEW PRESET

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2.3 HOW TO CREATE AN ITU-B412 COMPLIANT PRESET FROM A NOT
COMPATIBLE ONE.

Factory Presets rangin g from 40 to 49 have been designed to meet ITU-B412 specification s.
Thus, for an ITU-compliant broadcasting , You just need to load o ne of the ITU Presets (wh ich are
directly derived from the most common not-ITU ones) and turn the MPX POWER CONTROL in the
MPX SETUP block on.

Alternatively, You may want to create an ITU-B412 compliant P r eset hav ing as a reference a Not-ITU one.
To do this, select the Pr eset* Y ou would like to begin from,

open the FINAL LIMITE R bloc k and change t he Drive control to a
value less than – 1.5 dB (- 1.8 dB suggested).
Also select the Cli pping mode = SMOOTH and regulate the
PowerAttenuati on par ameter to – 9.5 dB.

Enable the MPX POWER CONTROL in the MPX SETUP bloc k.

We suggest to listen to th e created P reset fo r a long ti me. I.e., if You will be still able to appreciate slow
and light lev el v ariations on the c reat ed Preset, reduce the Lim it er Driv e paramet er (f.i . set it to - 2. 2 dB or –

2.5 dB).

* the Preset t o begin from should be carefully se lected, as not all factory Presets are suitable for an ITU
operation

HOW TO CHANGE THE PRESET ON AIR

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3 HOW TO CHANGE THE PRESET ON AIR

The processor has 100 curves: the factory presets (PR) are stored in posi tions 00 through 49, while positions
50 to 99 may be set by the operator.

Before creating a new custo m curve, we recommend that you careful ly evaluat e the factory p resets,

all of which are suitable for immediate on-air use given their average content of the various signal
components.

To change the Preset currently on-air, double click the PRESETS block.

The CHANGE PRESET mask shows the current P reset (On Air ), while the alternative one is shown in the
Preset field.

Using the mouse wheel or the +/- k ey s scrol l the Preset list till You reach the desired new curve.
Pressing LOAD, the new Preset will be put on air immediately, while the CHANGE PRESET screen will not

close allowing Y ou to selec t a new Preset, if desired.
Pressing OK, the new Preset will be put on air immediately, and the CHANGE PRESET screen will close.
The software screen header will now show the selcted Preset:

SAVING A NEW PRESET

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4 SAVING A NEW PRESET

As preferred way to cr eate a new Preset, i t is advisable to pi ck up one of the existing one (ei ther Factory
done or user set) and alter it i n or der to get t he sound You want.

To pick up one of existing presets, refer to the previous chapter. Once the Preset is on air, doubl e cli c k the 6­BAND AUDIO PROCESS block to edit it.

At the top left corner the EDIT PRES ET m enu will always prompt which Preset You are goi ng to modify.

As soon as You ent er one of t he processing bl ocks (A GC, SE, EQ, etc) and You alt er one of its param eter
(f.i. You i ncrease the AG C Release speed), the scree n header will revert to the the EDIT BUFFER ON AIR
mode, thus informi ng the user that the origi nal Preset has been modified and he/ she is currently list ening to
the modified one.

The output sound is changed i n r eal time according to the values displayed moment by moment in each
block.

Once finished the m odification task, click the SAVE button.

The SAVE PRESET window prompts You to choose the memory location where the new Preset will be
saved (locati ons fr om 50 to 99) and to ent er a menmonic nam e for that Preset.

Clicking OK the just cr eated Preset is imediately put On Air.
The same SAVE PRESET message is al so displayed every time You quit the 6-BAND AUDIO PROCESS

BLOCK after having alt er ed any par ameter.

IMPORTING/EXPORTING AND MANAGING CONFIG FILES

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5 IMPORTING/EXPORTING AND MANAGING CONFIG FILES

5.1 EXPORTING SINGL E PRESETS, GENERAL CONFIG OR BOTH

The Falcon 50 FM c ontrol software contains speci al tools to selectiv ely export in a file (to be sav ed on Yr
local Pc, to be emailed, to be held on a CD Rom for future use, etc) a single custom preset (that is, a
processing preset c reated by the user) , all user preset s, the general equipm ent configurati on/status (that is:
input setti ng, output settings, pil ot level, passwords, e tc) or either the latter ones (all P resets + equipment
Status).

It is strongly recommended to export in afile the actual equipment STAT US as soon as
You have reached a final / good c onfiguration on the processor. This file m ust be r etained for
future use (f.i., to reload a v alid configuration after a reset, to clone the same configuration on
multiple units, etc).

To EXPORT single presets, al l presets, Status or ‘all’ in a file, cli ck the CONFIG button on the software
screen (placed just below the large navigation buttons).

EXPORT PRESET

Exports in a file the Pr eset selected in the small black window (fr om 50 to 99)

EXPORT PRESETS

Exports in a file ALL procesing presets created by the user (from 50 to 99)

EXPORT STATUS

Exports in a file the general c onfiguration (in and out interfaces, levels, passwords,
etc) of the processor. Presets are NO T included.

EXPORT ALL

Exports in a file the general c onfiguration plus ALL user Presets (RECOM M E NDE D)

Click the desired option and save file following standard operating system procedure.