Thanks Dave for another awesome episode. If anyone is still watching this episode, another thing to consider is finding a web sdr station that receives you well then listen to your actual broadcast signal. Maybe have a qso with someone turning down the receive volume on your radio and instead listening to both them and yourself from the web sdr station, and make all tweaks to your gain and compression during the QSO. That way it is more natural to how you will be truly talking in real situations, and you don't have to keep asking the receiving station for feedback. The only drawback to this is the recieve delay in hearing yourself can be a little odd to listen to, but its doable. This is how I set my gain and compression on my ft-891 and I have received excellent audio reports with just the stock microphone. 73 Matt W3MMW
First heard of speech compression in a pile-up, working DX. The DX heard one guy, head & shoulders above the rest of us. Another ham asked him what sort of Amp he had? He said he was running 100 watts, but he was compressing his speech. Looked it up in my manual, and before long, was busting pile-ups myself!BIG HELP ON DX!.Thanks Dave. And 73. Bill/WW5MB
As usual Dave, excellent advice and well explained. Unfortunately, I still hear some hams who sound like they have cranked their drive/compression up to maximum, sound dreadful and cause lots of splatter resulting in QRM (as they frequently seem to be the type of ham who run lots of power). 😀 Made me smile when you said that you were going to expand on the subject.
Nice presentation Dave, thanks. My only comment would be, in regards to applying EQ'ing: In most cases, it is far better to REDUCE an unwanted characteristic, rather than BOOST a desired characteristic. That is to say, for example, if you have excessive low frequency response, don't boost the highs to compensate, but rather, reduce the lows instead, for best sound. Then increase the overall gain if necessary to get overall nominal levels. This helps reduce the chances of introducing distortion. That, and there is no one EQ setting that works for everybody. Everyone's voice and tonal qualities are unique, and so proper EQ'ing must be applied individually. I've spent many years in live-venue music mixing (and recording) , and the key to good sound is often LESS instead of MORE! LOL 73's Alan W0ARM
I'm a noob to HF (about a month) and never even considered the information that you presented Dave. Thank you! I have begun my research and found that factory default settings in audio are not the best for my FT-891. Although, I do not believe that there is a true compressor on this radio (at least I haven't stumbled across it yet), microphone gain settings appear to be the opposite of what I would have thought to help get your voice through clearer. Good food for thought!
My only suggestion I have for you Dave as a soundmen. Would be to set your release time on you compressor to about 100 to 200 milliseconds and attack time anywhere from 10 to to 20 milliseconds. I know you speak softly but there is no need to hold the release time to a full second. This will make your compressor compress all the time because you are not giving it enough time to release. If you find yourself needing more compression go to a 4:1 ratio and set your threshold until you get about 6 DB of compression. This will probably give you a better tonality as well. 73
One of your best yet Dave - thanks I wonder if I run the mic through the computer first and use Audacity rather than the radios limited facility for audio compression and tone controls, then into the radio - something to play with I suppose.
I understand that the Icom, at least theIC-7610 has a setting related to Compression. Its DRIVE GAIN under the Quick Menu. The book from Radio Today refers to it as a third component when setting up your Mic. Mic Gain, Compression then Drive Gain. The book is not very clear in many areas and I really don;t know what the Drive Gain is or how to incorporate it into setting up Mic Gain, Comp, ALC, etc. The Icom Advanced manual, page 9 states this for Drive Gain - Adjust until the meter reading swings between 30 to 50% of the ALC scale, when speaking into the microphone. We typically set tis with Mic Gain???? Confused. FYI - Great video on a topic that is not easy to teach.
Excellent video as always. Many will understand compression better, and I can only wish that they will also check their compression and adjust accordingly. At 18:25 you say: "We set our compressor so that our voice is between 10 and 20 per cent in here." while pointing at the COMP scale of the IC-7300. I guess you mean "... between 10 and 20 deciBel ..."?
Wonderful information. Very approachable. Bu, I am not sure where the software controls came from? As a sailor/musician the spread from SSB Radio to Audacity recording was a delight. A very, very comprehensive grounding as well as specifics for improving voice transmission on SSB. Thank you very much sir.
I have much better result using a DBX 286S and a BBE 482 in the mic line for compression rather than the radio compressor. Compression really helps getting through pileups and medium to long range signals. It’s like you get a free 50 to 100 watts more output.
Dynamic audio is the new loud.... most people over compress. Best thing to do is have someone make a recording of you over the air to see how are you sound.. as you can tell in this audio the dynamic source sounds way better than the compressed source... And finally be honest when someone asks you how you sound... don’t just tell them they sound good when really they sound like crap.
Hi Dave, thank you for this clear explanation. I wonder how you synchronize the compressed sound with the video footage where you are visible when you speak. Is there a trick to this or is it trial and error?
Do these rigs have expanders as well or just compressors? Full companding would probably be the best, but I don't know if it's a regular option on these things.
Hey Dave, or anyone my Comp button is grayed out, pressing it gives a beep but nothing else. Have tried everything to turn it on, very frustrated Noob here. Any thoughts, guidance , etc.?
I have tried monitoring using a separate SDR via a dummy load as you have done here but like your audio samples, my samples were really rough sounding just like yours ( no offense ). I suspect having the RX so close affects the results (who knows what amount of RF is radiated from the dummy load) since by all accounts the on air signal is good. 7300's are known for decent audio even with the standard hand mic. I typically do not use compression since DX is not my thing.
