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quote :“30 Hz sine test tone and 30 Hz burst mode (30hz sine for 0.5 seconds, silence 0.5 seconds, 30hz size inverted for 0.5 seconds, silence 0.5 seconds) will be excellent additions”
Cool. I would imagine the DJ’s would like this feature too for the BA Live. It would be a simple way to set the PA system max volume without hitting that magic point where you get woofer overextension. Go beyond that point and damage can occur. It’s nice to know where the sonic limitations are for the hardware you’re working with (crash points).
Future thinking on this subject, it might be valuable to offer a few different on/off times. 1/4 sec, 1/2 sec, 1 sec, 2 sec, 5 sec. I would imaging lots of users might find the array of differing times useful.
Also why limit the on/off function to only 30Hz tones? Why not make it available to all tones in the setup tool suite?quote :“Left/Right is certainly possible, but complicates things a bit for composite output. Should the composite output just stick to mono perhaps, as I would otherwise have to run the test tones where this is applicable through the stereo encoder.”This does not need to be used with the internal BBP stereo encoder. I was thinking it would be more useful for applications where the MPX signal would not be needed. But if it can also be applied to MPX composite the more the better. Great feature for checking sub-to-main and main-to-sub modulation x-talk on the mod meter.
quote :There’s no room to add the frequency band information in the gui, but I could add it to the tooltips. Would that work?Sure, or have a tool tip window pop up when you place the cursor over the bar of interest. Just a thought.
quote :“Noise generator is also valid, but complicated in practice:”Ya!… no kidding. I keep forgetting that you generate the composite MPX in software.
quote :“But, I digress. 16 kHz white noise may not be adequate — would we need 0 – 54 kHz white noise, or perhaps 16 kHz noise into the stereo decoder?”I guess the best way to envision the big picture to help you sort it out is look at it from a hardware perspective. The white noise is applied directly into a hardware MPX generator L&R inputs. The 16kHz white noise modulates both the L+R and L-R channels equally. Left and Right gain flatness is crucial. The objective here is to check FM occupied bandwidth with the MPX operating normally. White noise stuffed into the L+R L-R matrix pushes the exciter, RF chain, and antenna bandwidth pretty hard and can reveal tuning mismatches or other lurking nasties. But again this may be beyond most users needs. Perhaps as a more useful tool is having a white noise source as a stand alone test tone, or for testing hardware setups where the composite is generated by dedicated hardware (no BBP MPX). Or as another use the BA Live DJ can use it to blast the dance floor to wake every one up (or send them home at closing time as a sonic cattle prod???)
quote :“Dayparting is something I’m already planning for the more advanced future versions of Breakaway Broadcast, but you have an EXCELLENT idea. Imagine a “Save Preset as WAV” option, and all you have to do to recall that preset is to play the resulting 1-second wave file. Naturally, it would have to use some kind of audio encoding scheme to survive mixers and whatnot, but I figure, if C64 programs could survive on cassette tape, why should BBP be any worse? Holy 1984, Batman, but I like it!”Doubly cool.
You can take a couple of different approaches in developing specialized signaling for this task.1. Borrowing from the FM transmitter remote control play book. Back in the day transmitter control feed back was done using sub audible tones 10-20Hz riding on SCA subcarrier. Data was encoded using MSK (Minimum Shift Keying) techniques on these tones. Basically changing the sub audible tone phase (like FM) allowed a simple way to send binary data. In the case of BBP & BA Live it does not have to be a very lengthy message. A few cycles is all that is needed.
2. Cycle burst. The wave file uses a predetermined and number of tone cycles and predefined tone frequency to indicate which preset to switch to. BBP & BA Live could be made to "look" for these freq cycles and use them as a means to accomplish the task. The beauty of it is, BBP and BA Live with its look ahead processing can detect and prevent this specialized waveform from passing on through to the output where it’s never heard. But at worst a few cycles of say 1kHz amounts to an tiny audible click.
3. Phase comparison. Using a few cycles of a predetermined tone, encode the left and right channels with it but vary the phase of one. The phase difference between the left to right determines which preset to use.These are just a few ideas I cooked up. With more time to think about it I probably could come up with more. Need any help trying these ideas just PM me. It would be fun to help in this regard.
Cheers
Sparky
It’s just getting better and better… 😀
I have two requests that may be worth adding.
1. Test tones:
A. Could a 30Hz/40Hz tone be added to test external exciter AFC control (or lack of it)?
B. Burst mode where the tones are turned on and off for short intervals like 1/2 sec on/ 1/2 sec off. This would be handy with request A. Low frequency overshoot due to AFC instability is a common problem with many pro and homebrew FM exciters. Booty bass can sometimes make an otherwise clean signal sound lousy when the exciter AFC is motorboating around trying to deal with the ultra lows. By checking the AFC control the user can adjust the BBP bass enhancements that is best suited for their exciter hardware (external of course).
C. Add a Left only or Right only option for testing each channel seperately for signal path imbalance or phase error (for checking distribution amps, mixer consoles, air chain signal path ect…)?
D. This request may be a bit over the top from a technical sense and may not be useful to most BBP users but I’ll ask anyway 😐 . Add a noise generator output (white) filtered to 16kHz (linear-congruential algorithm to generate a pseudo random signal output) to check FM channel occupied spectral bandwidth. This method basically fills up all of the alloted spectrum uniformly for easy analysis of the FM channel (both the main channel and MPX). I find this process aids in checking the bandwidth of antennas relative to the radiated signal. Narrow band antennas can skew (or tilt) one of the FM sidebands if it’s not tuned to center frequency causing a loss in loudness and generate splatter in the sibilance frequency region. Asymetrical sideband radiation makes multiplath problems within the coverage area that much more pronounced.2. BBP & BA Live display enhancements.
A. For the multiband AGC bar graph add the frequency band information either at either the top or bottom of the window. it would be nice to know this information breakdown when switching between various presets.💡 Here is a possible future option that in my opinion would be hugely useful. 💡
Create short specially encoded mp3 files that can be placed into a play list that can tell BBP or BA Live to switch presets on the fly. This to me would be really useful if changing music types on automated systems ie. from R&R to Dance, Jazz to classical… you get the idea. 8) Free form FM radio plays eveything under the sun. It sure would be nice to maximize the sound quality that BBP offers by automatically adjusting it to the music style of the DJ.quote :Mid/Side processing (Sum/Difference Matrix) option, for C-QUAM AM Stereo!Wow… I thought C-QUAM AM died the silent death. Most AM stations here in No. America have eliminated their C-QUAM exciters in favor of the new IBOC system. I was under the impression that C-QUAM was not widely adopted in Europe or Asia and in those places where it is used it’s being phased out in favor of DRM?
Can you even find receivers anymore?
I agree with Lane, Breakaway Broadcast sounds right. From a marketing perspective the shorter the name the better.
Breakaway Broadcast
Breakaway DJ / Breakaway Live
Breakaway HE (home edition)quote :Alright. As long as you can disable filtering and crossovers as much as possible, it might be okay. Make sure, though! Look at the MPX output of the David II with an oscilloscope, and use the 60hz Square Wave and Quick Sweep tones from inside Breakaway FM. Make sure they’re both flat — not tilting / tapered. All it takes is a little bit of tilt and you’ve lost a full dB of loudness (and thus signal to noise ratio) for nothing. Peak control is *extremely* critical on FM, as you knowI can directly disable the "processing" portion of the David II, however the LP filter and overshoot correction are still active. BUT… by setting BAFM to 14kHz the measurable overshoots on the monitor are drastically reduced with no noticeable loss in "brightness".
I must say the difference in sonic clarity going from the David II’s processing to BAFM is nothing short of amazing. And this was using BAP as the "front end" processor first. I had BAP set up such that the David II AGC and limiters were barely functioning. Eliminating the David II’s processing and switching to BAFM made the vocal presence really stand out. I may not be the loudest sounding signal on the dial (don’t want to be), but it’s sure the cleanest. Comparing it to a local station whom I know is using the 8400 Orban box, their audio signature is very "stuffy" and flat… evidence of excessive limiting. It’s hard listening to that signal even for a short period. A 100kW FM audio trash compactor. bleh…I’ll try sweeping and scoping the airchain output to see if there is any tilt. I’ll let you know what I find should any others have an interest.
quote :Hey, depending on the frequency of those SCA’s, you MIGHT be able to pass them through Breakaway FMMight be an interesting experiment. I would be interested to see how spectrally clean the whole composite signal is when doing this test. SCA’s have a nasty habit of mixing with the pilot generating "birdies" if there are any non-linearities present within the signal path.
quote :You may also be interested in another project of mine — MpxTool.You are one busy guy… 😯
… one very neat product too Do you ever get time to enjoy Thailand much, or are you perpetually glued in front of your work stations?
As a hint be sure to use part of my payment for BAFM and get yourself a few of those famous Thai massages… you certainly have earned it. 😉
quote :Email support – Keith will give you a new key.Thanks will do.
Cheers
quote :BaFM absolutely takes advantage of dual core systems.Awesome… this is good to know!
quote :The cleaner the chain is after BaFM, the better. You’ll get the very best sound from completely removing the David II from the chain and using BaFM’s MPX output directly into your exciter (with a 192k sound card). You’ll need to use an oscilloscope to adjust TILT and MPX PEQ to compensate for your sound card, but once you’ve done that, you will probably have the cleanest and loudest station in town (at the same time).My sound card is not capable of generating the composite signal (Echo Mia) so I need to stick with the David II. Plus I’m running SCA subcarriers and need the David II to add these into the composite.
quote :If you must use the David II stereo gen, turn off its processing as much as possible. Any crossovers, filters, clippers or compressors must be completely disabled, as they will cause overshoots for no gain.This I will play with. My initial tests with minimal David II processing seemed ok and no overshoots were obvious on the mod-monitor. More experimenting is needed to find the right combo.
quote :Got paypal?I do. What is the user name to send xmas cash? 😉
quote :I’ve already worked for Bob a long time ago, before Octiv got started (1999) — not happening again, but there’s always FrankI was referring they come work for you because your going to put them out of biz…
… Or perhaps they’ll offer you a big bag "o" cash for your company and IP. 8)❓ BTW I updated my normal BA to the latest version and my license key does not work. The data entry box has a new field "company" for which my license key has no information for. All I’ve got is name and key number. Leaving this field blank causes BA to reject my key. How to fix?
thx.
hmmm … yes program dependent boost would complicate things a bit wouldn’t it.
But my request was not for precision, rather a series of curves to better explain the slider position and the relative boos/cut/Q responses they present using a fixed or normalized input. Kind of like the graphs shown for parametric eq’s.
But you’re right the ears really do the visualizing…A frequency graph for this function would surely help in mentally visualizing the boost/cut responses for various slider positions. 😉
The Sta-Level lives on! You can buy a "retro" version of it today for a cool $2500 8)
http://vintageking.com/New-Brands/Retro-Instruments/Retro-Instruments-Sta-Level-Tube-Compression-AmplifierHi Leif,
Bit slow on this reply. Being totally absorbed with my own embedded processor code writing project (inertial navigation sensor array), I seem to have forgotten this thread.
My reference to the Optimod AM system was to create a preset that "sounds" like the 9000A unit (after demodulation) but does not perform the premphasis limiting/clipping or NRSC filtering.
The Orban 9000A makes voice work sound very warm in texture with good spectral balance control. I listen to a lot of audio books, web feeds (voice), and old radio shows from the golden age of radio. Having a voice band preset would be a nice way to add a bit of sparkle to these types of audio sources.Anyway, Breakway works like a champ for my music needs as is. It’s also a great enhancement for my little FM broadcaster which alows me to wirelessly listen anywhere around the property and sound really really good.
Cheers 😀
Sparky
PS. from going through all the recent threads, it looks like you will have to offer a version of Breakaway/Aeromax for pirate broadcasters 😉.
