Ever seen one of these?

sweetbeats

sweetbeats

Reel deep thoughts...
If not, in a moment you can say you've seen three of them...










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Its made by CRL, the predecessor of Orban. It is a mono "EQ" processor for brodcast applications but by my reading it is a multiband dynamics processor. Not sure how it will sound...not sure if they work. Two are matching 'A' models (sequential serial numbers even), the third is an original non 'A' or 'B' version. The manual is available from Orban but their ftp site seems to be down at the moment...All opamps are socketed which will make for easy upgrades...I have a slew (no pun intended) of 5532's from M-300 parts which might make for a nice conservative upgrade to the 072's and 4558's on this thing. I'm considering upgrading opamps simply because I'd like to use these as a mastering compressor and would like it to be as transparent as possible. We'll see. I might mod one and leave the other and try them back-to-back. Again, the sockets make it easy to try different things. They seem well made and the knobs are all solid aluminum. I'll put a link to the manual when I can get to it...wait...there's another way...here's the manual.

Anyway, I thought I'd put up the post because its old-school looking and you all like old wierd stuff anyway...
 
cool! and interesting.
anything like my aphex 204 exciter?
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No, they're not a harmonic enhancer like an Aphex Exciter or BBE processor...I haven't looked in the manual in a bit so I can't recall the way that it is worded...on first glance it looks like a wierd 4-band EQ but it is a multiband peak-limiting device so while you boost a band of the EQ it dynamically compresses and/or limits the signal amplitude.


Wow, that is wild. . . Well used, for sure.
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yeah, they're a little scruffity on the faceplate, but they'll clean up nice...the white and reddish marks are just grease pencil...some lights need replaced but I saw the exact parts at my local electronics shop, and the faceplate is actually a thick mylar sheet laminated to a fairly thick aluminum plate, so I'll be able to polish it up a bit...the rest of each unit I'm actually surprised with how clean they are and relatively unscathed. The knobs are all spotless...it helps that they are machined from solid aluminum.
 
spectral energy processor

look like some gear pulled from a Power Plant control room rack :D
 

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I'm guessing the knobs in the middle are low mid mid hi, but I'm wondering what "Process" means? Maybe it is a variation on an "exciter" by taking a different approach? Looks pretty cool. Nice having terminal block. Looks like will work -10 or +4 bal/unbal that way too.
 
I know that I have seen some of those before, but, obviously many years ago. Orban got into a ton of broadcast processing equipment, some very high tech stuff. This could be their first step in that direction. I suspect that the brand "CRL" is probably someone's initials. Orban probably used some of the circuitry in their later Optimod processors. Orban has gone through MANY changes over the years. The first time that I became familiar with them they were called Orban Parasound. Parasound was their distributor at the time and eventually was dumped and hence their name deleted from all future products. Parasound is still around (I believe) in the high end consumer audio market. http://www.parasound.com
 
Yeah, Circuit Research Laboratories. I have researched these for awhile...been corresponding with the former owner of these for almost a year...I just can't remember how they work and operate because its been so long since I read the manual. :o
 
I just want one 'cause it looks cool!:D

Seriously, the innards look sparkling clean (aka: no mice poo ;) )
 
So, I'm on vacation. It is important to do something relaxing that you enjoy while on vacation right? Well, it IS a family vacation so the family comes first, but one eve earlier this week I took a little time to do a fun relaxing thing which of course for sweetbeats is to read a manual.

I'm excited...these SEP400's are really cool boxes. Here's what they do:

There are two major sections to each SEP400, the first being a multiband dyamics processor (essentially 4 separate compressors that each act on a separate fixed chunk of the audio spectrum), and the second being a peak limiting processor that limits the peaks of the summed signal of the multiband compressor. The SEP400 is, of course, 100 percent analog, and the manual refers to the dynamic processing centers as analog computers. Those 'computers' auto-adjust for attack and release depending on the program material and the spectral focus you determine by the controls on the front. The computers analyze the program density, spectral content, transients and the ratio between the average and peak levels in real-time. :eek:

Here's the signal path:

1. Signal enters the unit through the balanced/unbalanced line amp...there are three dip switch selectable nominal level selections as well as input and output trims...this thing will match up to pretty much anything.

2. Signal is actively divided into 4 bands with 6dB/octave crossover points at 100Hz, 700Hz and 5kHz.

3. Each band enters its compressor circuitry. The two controls on the left of the control surface control sort of a combined ratio/threshhold function and the other the manner in which the dynamics processing circuitry 'sees' the signal energy, either in the midrange, or the upper and lower extremes of the signal bandwidth. This offers different flavors of how the processor behaves; one setting may focus more on vocal content while another may be better suited for full spectrum program material.

4. Then the 4 bands go to the 4 gain controls, the 4 knobs in the middle of the control surface. The dynamics processors auto-gain compensate but you get to shape the 4 processed bands to taste.

5. Lastly, before the output amplifier and after a summing amplifier, the signal goes to the peak limiting section which has two controls similar to the first section; one akin to a combination ratio/threshhold and another that controls the spectral focus of the limiter...neat thing is it alters peaks while monitoring average loudness which would potentially bring more musical results.

On one hand some might think that the lack of individual controls for attack, release, threshhold and ratio are limiting (no pun intended...really), but the fact that there are few controls that are, IMO, logically intuitive as well as being on detented controls is ideal since it is a mono processor and I'll be pairing two of them for stereo mastering work...detented and simplified controls mean less possibilities of phase distortion and such, and my hope is that the two units that are sequential in serial number have compenents that have drifted similarly. I will be recapping these...not too many caps and they are over 27 years old. If I end up swapping any opamps it will be those that handle input, output and summing amplification, not those that operate the analog computers.

Unfortunately the individual 4 band gain controls are not detented. Oh well.

Other niceties:

* There are LED's on the PCB for quick function check on the supply rails, the 4 dynamic processor bands, and the peak limiting section.

* There is a three-position gate control on the back panel allowing the SEP400 to ignore background noise if necessary.

* There's a dip switch inside to choose two ranges of attack time for each of the 4 dynamic processing bands.

* The guts look very well made...clean and nicely laid out and of good stock.

So its neat-o. I've been looking for something like this to replace the Yamaha mastering plugin that I use for much of the stuff I record and these should handle that quite well!
 
Manual updated...

The link to the manual in post #1 has been updated...I realized there were no schematics in the manual to the "A" model so I inquired of Orban if they had those available. I was routed to Scot McDougal who was extremely prompt and helpful. Wow.

He is the one who scanned in the CRL docs to the Orban ftp server and he hadn't noticed that the schematics were omitted from the 440A manual so he scanned them and sent them to me.

I'm sure this is all blisteringly important to all of you since you all have SEP-400's sitting around :rolleyes:, but just in case somebody with one happens to trip over this thread its there and I sent the updated manual back to Scot and I expect at some point he'll update the version on their ftp server.

Really cool when you email a company that is two generations away from the manufacturer of your 25 year old piece of gear and get a response like that. ;)
 
Oh and BTW I powered up one of the units with the cover off to see if the test LED's all lit up on the main board and they do. I'm sure there will be some niggling to do but so far at least one of the units tells me it is healthy, and now I have schematics which will help make any of them healthy in the event they aren't or become so at some point in time.
 
Just an update...

I got the matched pair of these cleaned up and mounted in my hybrid mastering rack. I was surprised at how well they cleaned up. Look at post #1 for the "before" picture.

The power indicator lamps were toast on both of them. I found (what I thought) were exact replacements at my local electronics shop. Turns out the originals are 24VDC versions and I bought 125VAC flavor. So I tapped the indicators off the neutral and the output of the fuse on the hot. It'll tell me the same thing, but I don't know if the short runs of wire now inside the units carrying line voltage will effect noise levels...I'll have to see.

Still haven't tried these things out, but at least now they're inspected and cleaned. They are still loaded with 4558 opamps and orginal electrolytic caps. The caps should be changed I think. There are only 16 per unit. The schematics call for 072's, not 4558's so who knows what happened there but they are all socketed so we'll see. I'm doing nothing to them before I try them out. Just have to make up some cables as the interconnects are on barrier strips, but I'll try to put up some A/B samples once I get around to trying them.

Here they are:

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That is just too cool. Having socketed IC's is unbelievable as well. You can try out different opamps and see what sounds the best.
 
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