New Software Based multiBand Processor

I looked at that.. will have to give it a test, run it through the ringer. I'm a big fan of software processing, starting at around year 2000 when I got a simple compressor/limiter, very similar to a DBX with OverEasy, working well and cutting out a whole analog in-out path and that extra box in my station.

I saw big potential for a small station there. I had plans to run unattended, the dreaded automation, but wanted to stay within a budget of space, gear and electricity. I couldn't see having a whole room full of equipment running day and night in service to a tiny signal. With compression software I thought, the station could be consolidated into one computer and the transmitter.

A little later I found Winamp plugins like Audiostocker and Sound Solution, with multi-bands. Sound Solution was the first program I'd found to have broadcasting features in it, like low-pass filtering and pre-emphasis, but either the program or Boomer was finicky, and couldn't get it to sound right.

Enter Sonos Limit and MBL4 by John Burnill in the mid-2000s, the first radio processing that I thought was good, and I still use on light duty or portable systems. I thought even more of it when a guy named VWestlife went to different radio boards around 2005 recommending Sonos as an alternative to the 5000 dollar processing boxes that pro radio people were always talking about, trying to stir things up. VWestlife even came up a set of good sounding settings for Limit, that I still use to this day when Limit is run, specifically, RADIO.FMT.

I really believe if your station's at a level when you're thinking of processing the sound, start with something like Limit and go from there.

The downside to any processing, whether a hardware box or software on the screen, is that the makers concentrate so much on loudness, it's the arena they seem to compete in the most, so it can be difficult to find settings for less aggressive sound. Turn it down? Yes, it's easy with simpler processors like Limit and MBL4, not so easy with the more complex software like Burnill's newest Radio-Optimizer. They don't come with lighter settings, and the many controls interact with each other.

I think what's needed in the field are programmers who don't just concern themselves with loudness, but quality, and go back to fewer controls again, but using modern sound modification techniques and frameworks in the computer.

I'll give MBprocess a try!

Boomer