AUDIO_SPLENDOR

If you have a collection of phonograph records, CDs, or DVDs, you know the sound quality and tonal balance vary greatly from
one to another and also within one disc.   Even in my own live classical concert recordings, made nearly the same way over 20
years at Jordan Hall at the New England Conservatory of Music, I find considerable variations in tonal balance that need
equalization for pleasing sound.   I love listening to country singer, Merle Haggard, especially his early recordings, but some of
them I would never put in a player if I did not have a set of flexible tone controls to remove the shrillness that I find just plain
irritating.

Although my 5-channel speaker system has no acoustic loss at 15 Hz due to equalization in its electronic crossover network,
the range of boost at 15 Hz I have used is as much as -20 dB to +68 dB*. At 20 kHz the range has varied over -40 dB to +20
dB. This is way beyond the capability of graphic equalizers. In my collection of 2000 CDs I think I have one that I play with
bass attenuation, five that I play flat, and most are in the range of +0.5 to + 28 dB. Once the tone controls are set for a
pleasing balance I find I want to make fine adjustments in the range of 200 Hz to 3 kHz in fractions of 1 dB.   Generally I use
shelf type* tone controls that produce gradual boost or attenuation throughout their range and only rarely do I use controls
that create a peak or dip like a graphic equalizer.

1 TO 8 CHANNELS IN, 7.1 CHANNELS OUT
For several years I played CDs using the 2-channel digital tone controls described in my April 1995 Audio article* and
separate analog controls for rear channels.   My front center channel was mixed from the front left and right at -13 dB and my
rear channels received reverberation made separately from the front channels. When I played a 5-channel SACD (Super
Audio Compact Disc) I used a separate set of 5 equalizers. By the time I changed from playing CDs to SACDs and set all the
knobs my audience was bored. Often I made a mistake in the settings.

What I need is a simple, fast, extremely flexible way to set up my system for any program source, and especially to be able to
optimize the tone quickly and simply for CDs or SACDs my guests bring to play. That is why I developed AUDIO SPLENDOR.

The primary tone controls are the 11 sliders at the left above. The 50 Hz to 11 kHz sliders are all shelf types like conventional
bass and treble controls, each producing a gradual boost or cut. The name of the control is the frequency where half the
boost or cut in dB occurs. The 100 Hz to 5.7 kHz controls each have a range of +/- 20 dB; and the 15, 50, 11 k, and 25 kHz
controls each have a range of +/- 30 dB. The 15 Hz and 25 kHz controls make a peak or dip at 15 Hz or 25 kHz like a graphic
equalizer. Unlike conventional controls, all these are completely non-interacting. All their dBs add up at any given frequency,
to more than +/-80 dB at 15 Hz. The sliders are effectively 400 or 600 position switches, boosting or cutting in fine steps of
only 0.1 dB. The frequency response is extremely accurate; center is flat within +/- 0.1 dB from 15 Hz to 20 kHz through the
external A/D and D/A converters and is audibly completely transparent. 64-bit computation on a powerful Pentium 4 notebook
computer keeps the roundoff noise well below that of the 24-bit 88.2 kHz converters.

At the right are 9 controls that produce a peak or dip like a graphic equalizer. These are used only occasionally and replace
the more difficult to set parametric equalizers in my previous 2-channel system. The 40, 60, and 90 Hz controls are useful for
counteracting the fundamental resonance of less than full range speakers. The higher frequency controls are useful for
reducing voice shrillness, speaker anomalies, and special program source problems.

All these controls work on every speaker channel, from 1 to 7.1 simultaneously, in my case 5. In addition there is an 8th
auxiliary input. The subwoofer output channel 8 has its own mixer that derives its output from the other 7 output channels. It
provides a choice of low-pass characteristics with continuously variable cutoff frequency and extermely flexible low frequency
boost or cut variable up to 24 dB/octave. In the left column there is a slider to adjust the left-right balance, and a 43-position
mix selector (39 mixes and 4 bypass combinations) for the number of input channels to distribute to all speaker channels.
When you select say 2 channels, it automatically sets a default mix that feeds a little of the front channels to the front center
and rear and side channels and compensates the narrowing of the image by slightly blending the outer channels 180 degrees
out of phase.

AMBIANCE SELECTIONS
Besides automatically setting the 7 channel direct signal mix the input selector sets a 7 channel ambiance (reverberation) mix
to accompany the ambiance characteristic selected by 1 of 150 push buttons on a separate screen. These buttons really do
make movie and music sources sound cleaner and clearer by adding sound reflections that reach extreme high frequencies.
Movie voices are easier to understand and gun shots have realistic impact. High frequency irritants are greatly reduced
without loss of detail, making the sound a lot easier to listen to for a long time.

For movies and vocals 3 buttons provide short, medium, or long ambiance with shorter times for the front center channel.
Another button produces a set of 7 fixed delays. Short, medium, and long time Clarify buttons and ambiance buttons treat the
3 front channels equally. If you are not satisfied with the 10 basic ambiance choices you can page down to 140 more push
buttons.   Reverberation times vary from 20 milliseconds to a glorious 8 seconds for pipe organ. You can hear the organ
intimately in a space larger than any cathedral. The results are superior to real acoustic spaces and the ambiance nicely
complements reverberation in the original recordings.

In the main screen above, a long slider at the right controls the volume over a 120 dB range in 0.2 dB steps plus OFF.
Another slider controls the rear gain over a 60 dB range plus OFF in 0.1 dB steps. A third similar control sets the amount of
ambiance in all the channels.

Once in a while I need to make a difference in frequency response among output channels. Movies may have voice at front
center and music or background sounds in the other channels. Speaker compensation generally needs to be different for
each channel because of type differences, placement, manufacturing tolerances, or room asymmetry. Not shown above are
more screens containing two rows of half-height sliders reached using page down on the main slider screen. The first set of
sliders for the front center output duplicates the main sliders with a smaller dB range and creates a difference in dB from the
main settings. When these sliders are centered the front center frequency response tracks the front left and right. Next is a
set of sliders for all 4 rear and side channels (I have no side channels) making them all alike and different from the front.
Those are the most often used auxiliary controls.

Paging down there is a set of left-right difference controls for the entire front, rear and sides. Next is a set of controls that
makes the sides different from the rear. Another two rows of controls create additional left-right differences for the rear only,
and for the sides only. Separate 15 Hz and 25 kHz peaking controls and a gain control add 30 dB more boost or cut to all
channels the same as the 15 Hz and 25 kHz controls above. Altogether these controls allow speaker compensation at 12
dB/octave or more so the low frequency range can be extended downward as far as an octave.

The bottom row of controls equalizes the subwoofer. It provides 8 peaking controls at frequencies from 15 Hz to 50 Hz, each
providing boost or cut of 30 dB. Pushing one control up and a higher frequency control down provides 12 dB/octave low
frequency boost. Slopes from a fraction of a dB/octave to 24 dB/octave are possible and can extend the low frequency range
of a subwoofer. In addition a pair of 12 db/octave low pass filters having adjustable corner peaking over a range of 0.3 to 3
and cutoff frequencies settable from 10 Hz to 3.0 kHz produce a wide range of cutoff slopes.

A separate screen has the 8-input, 7 output mixer, so any input channel combination can be routed in any proportion and
polarity to each of the speakers. Also on this screen is a separate 1 to 7 mixer for the front center input channel used for
movies. This permits the front center channel mix content at each speaker to have the same equalization and ambiance. A 7
to 1 mixer routes all the outputs to the subwoofer equalizer. The other 7 channel outputs are all wide band. If you are not
satisfied with the 43 mixes or ambiance mixes available for various input combinations you can save your own mixes in
libraries..

Altogether this system has the power of a more than 308 slider studio console with 193 buttons and the controls can be
assigned to any of 3 libraries. If desired, upon recall all the library effects add up in dB. Merely selecting the desired input
channels automatically creates the necessary direct and ambiance signal mixes.

UNIQUE BURWEN SOUND - SMOOTH, MUSICAL HIGH FREQUENCIES
The 150 ambiance selections and 39 automatic mixes and ambiance mixes were created using my OPTIMUM AMBIANCE TM,
software. Unlike real or sampled reverberation, the output from this program is entirely artificial and has its greatest effect at
the extreme high frequencies. When I started designing OPTIMUM AMBIANCE I planned to use most of the reverberation in
my rear channels and only a little bit in the front channels. My objective was not to produce a hollow echo effect, but to
change the timber of the music, making it smoother and easier to listen to. The effect it produced was so much better than
anticipated that I now add as much reverberation to my front channels as to my rear channels. Massed brass instruments
acquire a brilliant, musical sheen that is easier on your ears than the raw recording. Violins are warmer and sweeter. Gritty
high frequencies become musical. There is no loss of intimacy or loss of transient impact. As the ambiance is strongest at
the extreme high frequencies, the overall balance is automatically restored by compensating attenuation of the combined
direct and ambient signals. The tone controls then provide the fine balance adjustment for perfection.

REDUCED LISTENING FATIGUE
Most available program material has moments when the high frequencies are irritating enough to cause the listener to turn the
volume down below the point of maximum enjoyment for the rest of the program - and sometimes to just turn it off. Burwen
processing greatly reduces high frequency irritants via its combination of subtle high frequency reverberation (patent pending)
and precise tone rebalancing. The result is emotional reconnection with the music unlike anything that can be achieved with
any other known technology. You can listen longer. High frequency irritants can originate from the recording or transmission
process, bit reduction, studio mixing, the musical instruments, and dry acoustics at recording and playback.

BURWEN - RECORDER-PLAYER
If you want to make a show with saved control settings that can never be changed, record Audio Splendor's processed output
as a multichannel .wav file at 44.1, 48, 88.2, or 96 kHz. Then play it back without further processing. It records in .wav, .w64,
at 24 or 32 bits, or .mp3 format and up to 8 channels. These files also play in the Windows Media Player.

For some of my shows I play a WMA losseless recording of a CD via the Windows Media Player into Audio Splendor as a
plug-in. Using the Burwen Recorder-Player, I save the output as an 88.2 kHz, 6-channel, 32-bit floating point .wav file at the
volume setting for that particular piece of music. Then I play it back with no processing and the volume at 0 dB. All the files for
one show are stored in a single folder. Now it is fast and easy to play a show with little thought and no errors. A 1 hour show
occupies about 7.6 GB disk space.
You can also play 2-channel and multichannel unprocessed .wav files and listen to them processed. Audio Splendor includes
a high quality sample rate converter that converts any input frequency to any output frequency from 44.1 kHz to 96 kHz.

NO SCREECHTM
Some of my favorite old Merle Haggard CDs and a number of others have such piercing loud notes that they hurt my ears.
Often it is the just the vocal and the band sounds OK. Fixing the loud vocal notes with tone controls can make the band sound
dull and softer vocal parts muffled. What I need is dynamic equalization - attenuation in the 3 kHz region on the singer's
loudest notes with little effect on the instruments. That is what NO SCREECH does. Not only that, it slightly fattens the loud
vocal notes when the singer moves the microphone away and it loses bass. With this new tool I can turn up the volume as
much as 6 dB and really enjoy that great music.

At first I thought NO SCREECH was only for old CDs. Just recently I bought a new classical SACD recorded in original DSD
that is rather screechy due to mike placement, and I like playing it through NO SCREECH.

I had been thinking about this problem for years but left it for later. Completion of AUDIO SPLENDOR was delayed almost a
year by the development of BURWEN BOBCAT. The delay has enabled me to include everything I need like NO SCREECH to
optimize every recording.