Your Favorite Mic Processor

[flintstone mop]

I was using a Symetrix 528E for the longest time. It made nice audio for AM radio. It hiccuped from a bad solder joint, and I used it as an excuse to buy a DBX 286A....I thought a recent lightning storm got me.....cuz our DriecTV Sat RX died a little after the storm.

Both units have phantom power and do a nice job for getting the average audio up to broadcast quality and make the monkey schawng. Dense to cause ear bleeding
I NEVER liked the EQ parametric type controls on the Symetrix. You can make really bad sound with that.
The DBX was pretty simple with two controls called "Enhancer" . There is noticeably better low end from the DBX unit. The Symetrix seemed shallow for low end.
Any one else play around with these mic processors or what is your favorite?

Fred

[KD0HUX]

 I  HAVE BEEN USING  BEHRINGER VX2000  YEA YEA IT IS A FOCUS RITE CLONE BUT IT DELIVERS  THE GOODS IN GREAT FASHION.THE VX2000 MAKES MY PLASTIC RICE BURNER SOUND GREAT  MY APHEX 230 SHOULD BE AN  A 5 STAR UPGRADE WHEN PLACED IN THE LINE UP.

[Blaine N1GTU]

i have the 528e, the 286A and a behringer vx2000
I prefer the 528e, the flexibility with the parametric EQ is nice
the DBX is good too, it cost quite a bit less but doesnt have the sound that the 528e has, but I'm just splitting hairs
not super happy with the VX2000 but for the price its a decent processor.

[K5UJ]

Fred,

I don't have one but I am impressed with the sound and functions in the Symetrix box.  Look for a used 528 (not the E model) on eBay.

If you use a 528 to drive some kind of AM broadcast limiter like a CRL PMC or Inovonics 222 then you pretty much have everything you need.

Keep an eye out for a limiter--they show up relatively cheap at fests and on eBay where a 222 went for around $280 a week ago.  You can get lucky at a fest from time to time and find them for a lot less than that.  I found a CRL PMC 400 at a fest for $30 18 months ago.  Most hams don't know what they are so they pass them by.   The Orbans and Dorroughs; the boxes made by UREI and Texar have some name recognition and look fancy so they get noticed and command higher prices.  

If you get those two things you pretty much have it all for voice.  Can't remember if the 528 has it or not but the only other thing that might help is a multi-band compressor, but that is pretty much cake icing.

p.s.  "low-end" is highly over rated.

Rob

[W3GMS]

Hi Fred,

I have been using a Symetrix 528E for quite some time and I am very happy with it.  I bought it new.  I did have the mic - line switch go bad after it was a couple of years old.  I called Symetrix and then sent me another switch out right away and the price was something like $5.00.  I never had another problem with it.  I use it with an RE-27.  Later down the audio chain I use a Inovonics 222 negative peak limiter. 

Joe, W3GMS

[flintstone mop]

Watching my modulation closer with endless dummy load testing....The DBX has a warmer sound but the modulation characteristics look very different on a 'Scope compared to the Symetrix. The Symetrix has much larger POS peaks....The 528E does have a voice symmetry button.

[N8LGU]

I think the best audio processor is a 5 Meg resistor from grid to ground, fed with a good D-104 microphonium.   

[flintstone mop]

I think the best audio processor is a 5 Meg resistor from grid to ground, fed with a good D-104 microphonium.   

Definitely proven to be a less troublesome combo to get very good quality audio for AM transmitters from the 50's -60's

[AB3FL]

I have a VX-2000 going to a DEQ2496 going to a DSP2024P.  All Behringer.  Mic is MXL990.  Sounds good from what I have been told.  I gotta get on the air more often


Tom - AB3FL

[Bill, KD0HG]

Using a DBX 286A followed by a Volumax 4000 peak limiter.
The 286 has excellent and fully adjustable gating which is useful for preventing feedback from singing mod iron.

Agreeing with Fred, I have always believed the more knobs to play with in speech processing, the easier it is to screw it all up. LOL

I have also built and used the KA1SI asymmetrical processor published in the AM Press-Exchange.

[flintstone mop]

Hi Bill
The table-top transmitters, and a little re-work of the audio input and the D-104 makes very good audio without all of the knobs. It is really very pleasant radio......But legal limit and the hi-fi sound we kinda need the processors and the RE-27's or (my favorite....The $99 MXL condenture mic) and it is a helleva sound........IF it's not a bass heavy audio.
BTW I daisy chained the DBX going INTO the Symetrix and the huge pos peaks are back. I disabled the confusing parametric EQ in the Symetrix. And let the DBX control the AGC and it's "enhancer EQ" and the Symetrix is lightly touching the AGC and I have the return of big POS peaks. FLEX radio BOX,,,,FA66 sound card........sorry no 5 meg resistor in the Grid ckt.........
The LOW freqs from the DBX was too much causing the AGC to act too soon and making rounded waveshapes in the 'scope.

Fred

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

I think the best audio processor is a 5 Meg resistor from grid to ground, fed with a good D-104 microphonium.   

Excellent approach for interfacing a crystal D-104 to many rigs, Dave. It's all I used for years with the big rig, preferring to avoid using/introducing 'outboard distortion'. Turns out most of the bad stuff I was hearing came from stations who didn't know how to set up or operate the gear properly.

But if you want to use a professional grade vs. comms mic, getting it to sound good is difficult at best without something between it and the transmitter. This past spring I got a little box so that I could finally use the RCA-77D ribbon mic that WA2PJP gave to me as a wedding gift. On his advice, I picked up a JOEMEEK 3Q which is more of a mic pre, though it includes some simple equalizing(a meequalizer) and optical compression. It allows me to bypass the mic amp in the rig by plugging it directly into the phone patch socket and adjusting the gain with on the 3Q itself during initial set up.

Works slick! In fact, I think you worked me the first night I had it on the air after Steve 'HX had helped me set it up earlier over the air on 80m. Nothing but good reports so far, and minimal opportunities for introducing problems with a rack-o-processing. And it's very affordable.

[KA3ZLR]

Here's one I like:
http://members.cox.net/n4jk/d104.htm


73
Jack
KA3ZLR

Credit goes to N4JK

[w1vtp]

I think Dirk CYT put on a demonstration that forever left me somewhat unimpressed with a lot of the audio processing gear that's out there.  He is known for his good xmit audio - well, one day he switched between his D104 and another well known mic (can't remember which but it's a good 'un).

No one on frequency could tell the difference.  Both mics sounded great

Al

[WA3VJB]

Fellow AMer Mike Dorrough KO6NM made my favorite:

The DAP 610.

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

I dunno, Al - the D-104 is intentionally peaky in the mid-high frequencies to give it punch and clarity. Being able to make a commercial broadcast type of mic to sound like a D-104 would require a fair amount of flexibility. Probably easier to boost the lows to make the D-104 sound a bit more full.

Then again, Dirk doesn't have one of those booming voices anymore than I do. The D-104 always served me well and sounds pretty close to reality for me since I don't have massive lows to start with. I always thought Dirk had more presence in his voice over the air than in person, no doubt from the processing. But he sounds good and has a clean signal as I recall, which is what counts. That and being in....phase. 

[flintstone mop]

Fellow AMer Mike Dorrough KO6NM made my favorite:

The DAP 610.

Paul I LOVE the Loudness meters......I have a pair and what a tool to adjust for density and increasing peak audio without that "busy sound". WBCQ becomes a very loud station on the Flinstone show..............

[k4kyv]

I think the best audio processor is a 5 Meg resistor from grid to ground, fed with a good D-104 microphonium.   

I use a total of twenty megohms with mine. 

10 megs at each one of the push-pull mic pre-amp tube grids.

Flat, starting out at 40~, with built-in pre-emphasis, beginning at about 800~ and levelling out an +8 or 9 dB around 2000~, and flat from there on out.

Urei BL-40 Modulimiter compressor/limiter. More effective with  less overshoot,  and more transparent, than the Collins 26U I once used. Eventually sold the Collins and used the proceeds to pay for my Sherwood sync detector.

[W7TFO]

The Dorrough DAP-310 is a good choice as well.

73DG

[John K5PRO]

Rane VP12 Voice Processor +
CBS Volumax 4000 asymetric limiter before transmitter input

[W8IXY]

There are mic processors and on-air processors.   I have been playing with audio and audio thingys since I was a kid in the 3rd grade.

Lately, I have been futzing around with several mic processors including an Omnia Toolvox, Symetrix 528, and a Symetrix 528E.  Then for transmission processing I can connect in the "big guy", the Omnia 6, also an Omnia 3, several different CRL's including their preparation processor, the 4 band spectral energy processor, and an AM llmiter as well as an FM limiter.  Then there is a rare thingy, a 3 band broadcast processor from Processing Plus, an IMP3.   Out in the garage is the old stereo Audimax and Volumax that unfortunately was damaged by water and smoke.

So far my favorite "lineup" is the Omnia Toolvox followed by the Omnia 6 (which is primarily made for FM), but I have the AM software in it.  The mic is either a Shure SM7 or SM58.  There is an old ribbon mic somewhere in the closet I haven't tried yet.

Maybe one day I can connect them all in series and watch the meter stick at 99% negative modulation and 150% positive no matter what I say into the mic.  There will be so much gain, compression and limiting, even a quiet room's low level of ambient noise will keep that meter reading at full scale. 

Come to think of it, I have heard several stations who must be using that same lineup on slopbucket.....all noise and no intelligibility!

Imagine how loud the "bongggg" of the Valiant firing up would sound on those things.

73
Ted W8IXY

[Pete, WA2CWA]

My current favorite mic processor. Plug the mic in and the rig does its thing.



An old timer once told me that if you need multiple boxes of stuff between your mic and the rig, you probably should just stick to CW.

[w3jn]

An old timer once told me that if you need multiple boxes of stuff between your mic and the rig, you probably should just stick to CW.

An old timer once told me that if you don't feel compelled to experiment and improve your station you should stick to stamp collecting 

[K5UJ]

An OT once told me if you have a black plastic cube and you think it's a ham rig, then you should go to Best Buy to complete your "entertainment center."

[Opcom]

There are a few items here, but no one by itself would really do the whole job. Maybe the Behringer thingie. I have not done those trials yet. It's interesting seeing what you guys are using and that ought to be good advice.