[BC] Balancing the processing from analog to digital

[Robert Orban]

At 07:38 PM 12/21/2006, Steve Newman wrote:
>Bob, Rich et al...
>
>You wouldn't believe what we went through with Al Levitt at KSFR. He went 
>through a period were he went wild about the soft passages. The only 
>processing he had was a Fairchild Conax. Well, one day I walked into the 
>station and found the FM Mod meter covered or maybe it was the Left and 
>Right meters on the custom console. Must have been that. We were to make 
>sure the Mod Meter (a remote meter between the Left and Right channel 
>meters) was swinging between 80 and 100%. As you've heard Al Levitt was a 
>madman. (brilliant madman but a madman just the same). He got over this 
>kick and all went back to normal. I believe I told this group before we 
>had incredible audio. You couldn't tell the difference between the output 
>of the turntable and on-air.

This was possible in the days when most program material was sourced from 
vinyl because vinyl has HF headroom limitations similar to FM analog. 
Indeed, the Conax was originally developed to protect disc cutter heads, 
not to process FM, although Fairchild was not shy about marketing it to FM 
and TV stations once they made the connection.

In the CD era, it's no longer possible to process so that the off-air and 
program lines sound identical, even with classical music, unless one is 
willing to give up substantial coverage and have extremely low average 
modulation. Material like muted trumpet and cymbal crashes, which were 
HF-limited before they ever got to the vinyl cutter head, are now found on 
CD in all their glory.

BTW, I only met Al once, I was lucky enough to get the grand tour of his 
facility. He may have been a madman, but he definitely had taste :-)

Bob Orban