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Wow, you have a very good memory Jesse. A great deal has happened since 2009. I have since updated the VACs myself several times and since, stopped using VAC altogether as I have found VB-Audio cables work much better than VAC.
Despite this, NOTHING has stopped the output from BBP becoming full of glitches after 48 hours including trying direct soundcard I/O which involved no virtual cables at all, RDS injected after BBP from a hardware unit, you could virtually count the seconds down to when you knew it would start happening. After months of trying about everything I could think of, I concluded that the problem is happening inside BBP as all other possible variables had been taken out of the equation.
The only method I found which got around the problem was to get the machine to automatically stop and restart BBP every 24 or 48 hours at 3am in the morning resulting in a few seconds of dead air.
The box is still running and still running like this, it's a full-time licensed station so I can't really be messing with it at this stage.I might try it on a less critical machine or a test machine in the near future.
By default, the MPX output level in the BBP settings menu is set at -3.0dB so you have a 3.0dB here you can crank up however, once you move this above -3.0dB the tilt setting will no longer be working so be sure to reset the level to -3.0dB and check the tilt setting is back to where it should be before going back to normal service.
I use either Juli@ Xte or EMU 1212m PCIe, both excellent cards with balanced I/O. If balanced audio is not essential the the EMU 0404 PCIe is also a great card.
Check the card you are trying to use is enabled as a recording device under sound in control panel. Also try selecting KS on the left pulldown, not all devices show under DS or Wave.
Some soundcards, for example Realtek, only enable an input when it detects something physically connected.The EMU 8810 is the master card for EMU systems which use external breakout boxes or cards (such as the EMU 1212m and 1820). This card on it's own is no use, you need the breakout box or card to get any audio in or out of the card.
It looks like your overall modulation level is low, before worrying about your pilot level, you need to look at your overall level.
Your modulation looks to be around 40Khz, that's just over 50% of the desired level this should be much more, 70-75Khz so you need more overall level, increase the MPX gain into the TX or turn up the MPX level on the TX, if pilot level is at 8% (and RDS around 4%) when overall modulation is 75Khz this should give you the desired pilot levels.Check also that the relevant input is not disabled in the "recording devices" of your sound properties.
Hi,
The Marian Trace alpha does have the DC straight output but unless you have difficulty accurately adjusting the tilt, the ESI Juli@ (or a PCI Maya44 for that matter) will do the job just fine. The sound quality from a Juli@ or a Maya is stunning. Some soundcard models are unpredictable from card to card of the same type but the ESI cards are reliable and made to tight tolerances so it's pretty safe to predict the tilt value of an ESI card which for me has always been 4.
If of course your transmitter does not have a perfectly DC straight input, then this all becomes irrelevant anyway, you'll then need to have a far more complex way of knowing for sure you have the tilt value correct. Most proper, professional transmitters however will have a straight DC input but cheaper and more "piratey" brands might not be DC straight.Hope this helps,
Yorkie98.
Hey, no worries, glad you got it sorted.
For quick calibration, if you have a deviation meter on your TX, select 60Hz squarewave tone in BBP and udjust tilt until you get the lowest modulation reading, should be 50-55KHz then when you go back to music, you should be close to 75Khz, you may need to tweak to get modulation to 100%.
If you don't have an analyser yet, nor a mod meter, assuming your TX is DC straight, as ESI cards are pretty consistent, I can tell you the tilt setting is between 3 or 4, either will get you close to dead on.
50% RDS level is too high. If setup is all correct (airomate in RDS only mode) then 8% RDS level gives 4% in BBP.
Also, sometimes swapping the RDS and sync channels around can make the difference.
Here is a picture how to get RDS only mode.
You might also need to try different settings on the RDS input of BBP in the I/O settings. I usually used 2 channel (mix) and if you follow my method above, everything should work fine.
If you are using Windows 7, don't forget to set properties of the relevant pipeline to 192Khz.I've never tried one of the external interface ones, just internal PCI cards.
You could also try to get an EMU 0404 PCI cheap, these are also very good but usually a few more £..[quote author=philip evans link=topic=1006.msg16816#msg16816 date=1396287728]
cheers man.i have recently purchased on e bay an audigy sound blaster
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is this a deeecent model i can cancel the order if its not suitable as i was sure the sound blaster would do the jobcan u let me no regards.
philip
[/quote]Hi Phil,
That's not an Audigy, it's an X-Fi, totally different series of cards.
It's difficult to judge individual cards, the only experience I had with X-Fi was not good, I tested an X-Fi Extreme Music and the test squarewave was basically an out of shape, distorted triangle wave and the spectral linearity was awful. It might have been possible to carry out hardware mods to the card but these are only for advanced users.
An oscilloscope is needed to properly test cards.
An Audigy 4 (Not to be mistaken for the Audigy SE which is sometimes called 4SE) or Audigy 2ZS work fine and only need small tilt adjustments. These can now be bought for very little money on auction sites.Yorkie.
Hi,
Ignoring the forum, the website seems to be as functional as ever and the software registration is handled by a 3rd party automated company, you should get your unlock key immediately.
The dev of Airomate has been active on this forum in the past, do a search for Arjen and see if you get any response from a PM.
Personally, If I needed more keys for Airomate, I would have no issue with going ahead and buying them.Yorkie.
Hi,
HPF of 45 might be rolling off some of your deep bass a bit, try 30Hz.
If you are only able to get 16Khz then something is not set right, the latest version (unless you are not using the lastest version) allows other steps after 16Khz such as 17.5 and 20Khz.
If you are not using BBP for the stereo encoder at this stage, then you should disable the main output and use the L/R outputs.
Disabling the main output opens up more options (some of which only relate to AM operation) but also should give you the full range of filtering options.
Your external stereo coder should have 10th order IIR Butterworth filters on the inputs which will have a steep rolloff at 15Khz in any case so I would try to avoid double filtering the high end as it may result in loss of high end detail.Yorkie.
Hi,
If you are online only then final drive is not as important as on FM. On FM, it's all about cramming as much of your sound as you can into the modulation limit without going over. The more you push the final drive, the more you will get distortion, albeit not harsh distortion, but also more loudness on FM within the modulation limits.
If you are on the web, then this is not important, yes you need to ensure you do not go above digital maximum but thats all. If you are 1, 3 or 6 dB below maximum, it doesn't matter, the need to be at maximum modulation does not exist.
For web streaming, I would make it sound "nice", yes use processing to keep it sounding even and powerful but you can afford to also have respect for dynamics and can avoid distortion as you are not trying to cram every last bit of loudness out.Whilst it may seem important to be loud online, it is as daft a concept as the loudness wars on CD, completely unnecessary and making music sound awful.
I'd say your initial setting of -3dB is about right, I certainly wouldn't up it from there in fact I would consider going down until the clipper is not being hit into the red much at all. Your choice of the Plutonium preset is also a very good choice. I tend to leave it set as is but I only adust the speed control, leave it at 50 if you want it to be quite aggressive, for a bit more respect to the dynamics, I back it off, about 20 gives a nice sound.
Yorkie.
