Processing History by J Somich 6

The "Prophetic" Processing History
Yesterday, Today and "Beyond"

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Go To Part #7

4/05/09
This series of articles re-published from www.radio-guide.com
issues of February to August 2007 original on PDF format.

As our series on the history and future of audio processing reaches its climax, Jim Somich takes the opportunity to use the past as a viewport to the future. What changes can we expect in the way broadcasters process audio? Jim’s predictions, based on his long history in the industry and his personal work in building processors, are worth our consideration. (Radio-Guide July 2007)

Processing
Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
by Jim Somich

Part #6

Peering Ahead
It is always a challenge to speculate about the future. As we have seen over the past months, audio processing for broadcast radio has a rich heritage starting with WE, RCA, and GE peak limiters, the Langevin Pro-Gar, Uni-Levels, the Audimax/Volumax reign, DAPs, Prisms, Optimods and Omnias. But, what does the future hold for audio processing? I am glad you asked. OK, the crystal ball is out of the closet and booting up. The robes are a bit musty and moth eaten, and my pointy cap is a bit shop-worn – but here goes!

ALL NEW, BUT IT GETS BETTER
If you have been reading from the beginning, you know that we have come a long way from the beginnings of sound manipulation – that of an operator sitting at a “Master Control” desk, adjusting levels as best he could and hoping he was fast enough to prevent peaks from knocking the station off the air. Today’s Digital Signal Processing (DSP) products also are a world apart from those boxes of yesteryear, with their variable-mu tubes, analog delay lines, diode limiters, and hard-wired, epoxied, proprietary circuits. The power of the computer has brought us processing techniques unimaginable twenty years ago. But I have been hiding a little secret under the robe. The gods of processing (Orban and Foti) have tipped their hand. They, and others, are already dreaming up the next generation of “magic boxes” that will continue to exploit leading-edge technology and adapt to the new sound of HD radio – and beyond!

BUT WAIT! WE LIKED THE OLD SOUND
It is ironic that some of the newest processing algorithms emulate the classic processors of the past, including all their shortcomings. Call it nostalgia for how things used to be, or admit that some of that old gear imparted a certain “magic” to the station’s sound. The point is that when a pristine Fairchild 660/670 peak limiter can sell for the price of a new Mustang, it is fair to assume that the “golden ears” hear something in the old boxes that they cannot get with the latest, greatest processing machine. Thousands of hours of programming time have been spent trying to duplicate the sound of classic processors, including the Fairchild boxes, the UREI 1176, and LA series of compressors and limiters. However, it is not just the same old broadcast industry today, and the way we handle audio in the future will also change markedly from past and present processing. We know it will be digital – and the bits will be manipulated by digital signal processing – but the needs will be different. We are moving into a bit-reduced world in broadcast audio and the best new algorithms will exploit every trick of data manipulation to produce a sound that transcends the micro-bitrates that are required to cram all the new audio into paths ranging from legacy STLs to cell phone audio streams.

THE NEXT FIVE YEARS: PROCESSING EVOLVES AGAIN
The processing of the near future is already being developed in the labs of the processing gurus. The changes will be evolutionary rather than revolutionary, but the new processing will depart in many ways from the digital processing of the past decade. But you do not have to trust me. Listen to one of the men who knows:
“My view is that we employ algorithms that will diagnose the signal and modify the architecture in order to reduce sonic artifacts. (We’re doing this already in the codec world with our SENSUS Technology.) Reduction of distortion, THD and IMD, while maintaining competitive audio is the goal. Then again, hasn’t that always been the goal? “Depending upon how the digital transmission services settle, we could see META data come to radio, and that opens a whole new frontier. HDTV has this already with Dolby-Digital, but I foresee a method that would be far more sophisticated and comprehensive, not just a wideband method, as the TV counterpart employs. “Processing platforms are already beginning a paradigm shift. We’re moving towards a transition period where we have dedicated boxes and the early stages of doing all processing as a PC application. “We have already developed a processing farm where many instances of an audio processing application are operating within one “engine” – a single box that allows up to a preset number of audio processors to run independently of one another. All I/O is Ethernet to the stations infrastructure or can be routed to dedicated nodes that are AES or analog. “Additionally, utility functions regarding processing are becoming more elaborate. The ability to display detailed information about a signal, or segment thereof, is now available. Processing power, which once was a premium in cost, is now quite affordable in the digital domain, just as the lower-cost high-performance opamps and VCA’s became during the analog years.” ...Frank Foti, Omnia Audio
I think Frank nailed it here – and that is why I quoted him from our processing roundtable. Pay special attention to the words “diagnose the signal” and “modify the architecture.” This is a real insight as to how the processor of the future will exploit the inherent advantages of DSP. Today, we are only scratching the surface in this area.

A BETTER SOLUTION
Imagine a processor that can diagnose in real time and modify itself to produce the best possible sound. Yet, that is not the real leap. History repeats itself again: Back in the 70s, we were experimenting with dual processing chains for voice and music. We knew that voice processing, if it was to be optimal, was radically different from music processing. The only way we could use this to our advantage was to build two processing chains. On the other hand, DSP will allow us to use one box that can be many separate processing chains with one engine. Now, this is exciting! The future holds much promise as long as creative engineers are constantly pushing the processing envelope.

TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE PC PLATFORM
We will see more processing applications designed for PC platforms. Even better is a PC platform with a high performance DSP card to hot rod the audio performance. The Orban Optimod PC Audio Signal Processing PCI card is an excellent example of what we are discussing. Using a naked PC is often possible, but there are some inherent disadvantages

Latency can become a problem when using a PC platform, but this is becoming less of a concern in the brave new HD world with its built-in eight second delay. Remember, Windows was never designed as a real-time operating system. You need tons of processing power to avoid bottlenecks and delays. As the cost of processing power continues to drop, processor sophistication will increase. Even today, much of this is possible, but at a substantial cost. In the future, prices will drop and, at the same time, features will increase (Moore’s Law).

TEN YEARS DOWN THE ROAD
To be completely honest, this part of the future may come even sooner. As we seek to grasp the direction of audio processing evolution, I think we can learn a little something from the recording business. Recording engineers have taken a different approach to processing: starting with computer platforms, rather than dedicated boxes, but immediately building “on top” of the computer. Already many people are experimenting with PC platforms, using practical software that is available today at no cost. If you want a real education on this topic, peruse some of the back issues of the on-line Universal Audio webzine
The performance of these studio PC’s has been enhanced by hotrodding them with multiple processor DSP cards. Pick up a copy of Mix or EQ magazine and get an education about what the “other guys” are doing with their audio processing. You will be surprised what you can learn about the latest PC expansion slot, the PCI Express (PCIe), and how the recording industry has been revolutionized by PC platforms and 3rd party plug-ins.

BROADCASTING “CATCHES UP”
I predict the same thing will happen in broadcasting. For many broadcast production rooms, ProTools is the current program of choice, and hundreds of plug-ins are available for it, with more written every day. Want the sound of a vintage LA-2 compressor? It is as close as the click of your mouse. Fascinated by the WLS sound of the 70s? The “soft” compression of voice through tube units? There could be plug-ins for those, too. It is true that third-party software for our DSP broadcast processors is unheard of today. While the software provided by the manufacturers is top notch, you do not have a choice – you live within the confines of the algorithms designed by the manufacturer. Nevertheless, in the not too distant future, you will find a Baskin-Robbins’ menu available with dozens or hundreds of processing flavours, bringing together and merging the processing philosophies from scores of processing gurus from the past 70 years.

DRAGGING RADIO INTO THE FUTURE
Will the major manufacturers open up their platforms to allow third party plugins? Perhaps. In fact, I am pretty sure they will not want to do so willingly. But even if they do not, it will not stop progress. Willingly or unwillingly, they will be dragged screaming into the future. It will happen. Some enterprising company will introduce a generic processing platform and make the code available to developers free of charge. Then watch the fun! Possibly you have an oldies station and want to experiment with that classic “Sta-Level pumping sound.” Or, maybe you are running some disco sounds and want that classic “DAP EQ of the day” sound: plug-ins will be available.

A FUTURE OF CHOICES
“Sound-alike” plug-ins are just the beginning. How well can you tailor your audio? Today’s daypart processing is just the beginning. In the future, it will be possible to change algorithms from cut to cut! I could go on with the possibilities, but you get the idea. It is all about processing power and cost. Power is going up and cost is coming down. We will only be limited by our own imaginations. Even now, we are seeing products like the Behringer DSP-9024 six-band processor (amazingly, it is already discontinued). It was a stereo DSP box that sold for just 250 bucks! The Behringer had tons of features including an aural exciter as well as tube emulation. You could choose your band splits, and it even had look-ahead limiting. A very good example of how a mass-produced product can provide professional performance at amateur prices. Oddly enough, broadcast processing is a small slice of the processing pie. So you can expect to find more processors designed for the prosumer market adapted for use in broadcast chains. In short order, the mass production from China will make economical processors that outperform the top boxes of today.

A NEW “PLAYER” EMERGES
Surround Sound adds an exciting dimension to music and several approaches have been proposed as an adjunct to iBiquity’s HD Radio. However, whatever system is finally selected by broadcasters, surround sound will also add many new demands to the processing load. A new company has emerged to market bleeding edge processors for the new era of radio and TV broadcasting. Linear Acoustics was founded by Tim Carroll, previously of Dolby Labs. Along with George E. Smith, Rod Campbell, and Erik Booth (who last created bits for Sigma Electronics, a company known more for video equipment than audio processing), their “AeroMaxHD” is a serious attempt at bridging the gap between the digital processors of today and the needs of tomorrow’s multi-channel world. The AeroMaxHD takes on the challenge of developing algorithms for the linking of 5.1 channels of audio and the synthesis of surround sound from two-channel sources.It sure is an exciting concept. More new companies will emerge to take their place on the NAB exhibit floor as broadcast processing technology continues to evolve. Next time we will finish our look ahead at the future of audio processing with the unveiling of my vision of the Ultimate Processor of the future.

Go To Part #7

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