Omnia Audio Omnia 8x - Manual (Page 34)

period over a number of days is recommended. If what you've done still sounds good after you have “slept on
it,” stop adjusting. If you're not quite there yet, continue with small iterations until you’re satisfied. If you are
homing in on your goals, you'll find that each day the discrepancies become smaller and you’re making fewer
adjustments.
6. When you get it where you like it, stop and enjoy!
Getting the Sound You Want
If you believe that your desire is to process aggressively, here are some suggestions that should help you achieve
that goal. Conversely, if you have the rare luxury to strive for increased sound quality, we have suggestions for you
too! Omnia 8x is designed to minimize the impact of the quality vs. loudness trade-off.
We recommend that before starting the process of cranking it up just for the sake of raw loudness, try to decide
what sonic characteristics you feel are lacking in your final sound. In many instances, it’s not just about increasing
the drive to the limiters, or the clipper. It can be as simple as creating an illusion of added loudness by changing a
single time-constant parameter. There are even known instances where the use of stereo enhancement created the
necessary apparent loudness. Please don’t bite at the first temptation to crank the system. Sometimes the old adage
of less is more really applies!
Before delving into alternative processing possibilities, please give the next brief section some thought. It may help
provide you with some needed direction in your overall processing plan.
A Word about Loudness
Making this confession is a little like telling your parents you dented the car. But here it goes: It’s OK for your final
mix to be loud…very loud!
In the past, loudness was a problem due to the limitations of the processors of the day. In the quest for ultimate
loudness, you probably either adjusted (or modified) your old processor well outside of its “safe” range, or pushed
the 0dBfs ceiling level in the signal chain and accepted the byproducts of the interactions and conflicts among them.
Omnia 8x has changed all of that! It's been designed to look at the incoming audio, and know how to make your
final mix consistently loud, and without the artifacts or grunge created by your current processor. Omnia 8x makes
loudness an effortless exercise.
One more confession: It’s also OK for your master to not sound loud, yet sound incredibly musical and grunge-free,
because the Omnia 8x has given you the choice. Omnia.6CD is a system that maximizes the audio quality of your
signal, yet at the same time satisfies your competitive requirements.
Quality versus Loudness
The trade-off between quality and loudness is primarily determined by how you choose to use the limiting and
clipping sections. While each function alone will generate added loudness, they each have different advantages, as
well as side effects.
When excessive limiting is used, intermodulation distortion is increased, making the audio sound "mushy", and
"smeared." The added short term density can also cause the audio to be “tight”, “squashed", or “dense.” The
"dynamics" artifacts caused by excessive limiting might sound like “pumping,” “breathing.” The rule for limiting is
"a little goes a long way!"
When excessive clipping is used, harmonic distortion is increased. The audio level is in effect “running into the
brick wall.” Too much clipping can cause the audio to sound “broken-up,” “torn,” “rough,” or “edgy.” As you
might imagine, the harder the limiters and clippers are driven, the louder the audio perception. However, you are
also much more likely to encounter increased intermodulation and/or harmonic distortion.
The following sections are provided to assist you in designing the personality of your sound. As we said earlier,
there is no precise recipe for setting up audio processing. While there are some basic fundamentals that you can use
to get started toward the sound that you desire, it may require a concerted effort with extended listening and subtle
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