BREAKAWAY LIVE!!

Lpy, you can if you insist 😉.

http://store.claessonedwards.com/product_p/live-001.htm

This is only the first beta — I guarantee there will be bugs, but upgrades to later versions are of course free.

///Leif

Howdy!

Logging in from a net cafe in a beach town in Thailand.. I just can’t stay away. But, I did leave the laptop at home, very effectively preventing any real work from getting done, giving myself the breather I need after all this. 🙂

Adam H, Camclone, thank you!

Camclone, remember Live is not an FM processor at all. It does not even pretend to be — its output is directly unsuitable for an FM transmitter, due to the lack of both pre-emphasis and inter-sample peak control.

However, for Broadcast, MPX clipper is indeed nice. I have made one already (in fact before BBP) and trust me when I say that it rocks. 160-170% audio in 100% modulation (!!!) as opposed to 92% audio in 100% modulation without it (since the pilot takes 8%) and the same startling lack of distortion as BBP. For comparison, other composite clippers give you about 110% audio in 100% modulation. So, why didn’t I include it in BBP for $199? Let’s see if anyone can guess 🙂.

Anyway, next on the road map are two more advanced broadcast versions, including a full control version. After that, it may be time to release an extreme version with the composite clipper as well. Wouldn’t make much sense to compete with myself before that, though, would it? 🙂

I strongly recommend against using Airomate’s MPX clipper. It has NO semblance of either peak control, bandwidth limiting, pilot or SCA protection. At 100% modulation as indicated by a proper modulation monitor, You will have much better, louder and cleaner results if you use BBP’s built in MPX output, despite the lack of MPX clipping.

On the other hand, using Airomate as the RDS generator, into the RDS input of BBP, is perfectly fine, and will not sacrifice audio quality, spectral protection or loudness, other than having to modulate the audio slightly less, to make room for the RDS subcarrier within +/- 75 kHz (100% mod).

Maczrool, you have a VERY valid question. Here is the answer:

Pre/de-emphasis is extremely important with BBP, because BBP has such extremely tight peak control! If you watch the oscilloscope you will see how tightly packed that waveform is, and a lossy codec will wreak havoc on such a waveform and cause overshoots, which will subsequently be clipped by the safety clipper inside the decoder, causing audible and objectionable distortion.

Breakaway Live, on the other hand, simply does not pack the waveform that tightly. Sure, the absolute peak level is the same, but it’s just not that tight at the edge. This is the fundamental difference between the result of limiting versus clipping, and it irrespective of how hard a limiter is driven.

Because the waveform isn’t that tight, lossy codecs won’t affect it the same way, so overshoots simply do not become a problem.

A/B’ing the two, BBP at 15us pre-emph + de-emph can make a web stream sound 2-3dB louder than Live. In a competitive situation, this is a huge loudness boost. However, the price you pay for that loudness is *more than 10 times the cpu usage*. Some will argue that this is worth it, and some that it isn’t. This is why both products exist, and complement each other 🙂.

Breakaway Personal is indeed not intended to slam the audio, and not intended for broadcasting, so it will not get the radio presets. It WILL however get the improved core with improved surprise handling! Stay tuned. 🙂

I’d better get back to swimming in the ocean and building sandcastles 🙂. A saleswoman walked by with tools earlier today, I just couldn’t resist.

Best,
///Leif