[AMRadio] re: Apache audio not good

[SBJohnston at aol.com]

 billsmith at ispwest.com writes:

>Not necessarily.  A clipper is a limiter.  A limiter need not introduce
>the severe distortion a "brick wall" diode clipper will contribute.   :-)

That's true and you say it well:  "A clipper is a limiter."  If the stage in 
the Apache is a clipper, then the fellow who called it a limiter isn't wrong. 
 The control behind the CW key jack sets the drive to the stage where the 
peak-limiting is taking place.  Set the drive toward the low end and you're 
just clipping off the peaks that you don't readily hear.  Drive it harder and 
now you're tearing off nasty chunks of the waveform and you can really hear 
it.

I've always thought of a limiter as a device that reduces the peak values of 
a signal down toward the average level.  It can rip and tear those peaks off 
(simple back-to-back diodes) or it can gently smooth them off (as in 
sophisticated audio processing).

Some confusion can come in as some folks use the term limiter to cover a 
device that I know as a "compressor" which adjusts its gain to maintain a set 
average output level.  It has the effect of reducing the dynamic range of the 
signals applied.  But it doesn't peak-limit unless its action is set fast 
enough top respond to the transients - but then it is a limiter.

Words, words, words... sigh.   -grin-

73  Steve

sbjohnston at aol.com