Omnia Audio Omnia A/XE - Manual (Page 61)

Increasing Loudness
Try to resist the temptation to just crank up the aggressive processing sections, like the
limiters. Those will add loudness of course, but usually at the cost of quality. Many times,
building a little more RMS level in the AGC sections will do the trick instead, and with
no obvious sonic penalties. The following are some suggestions on where to begin to make
changes. We suggest that you them in the order described.
1. Alter the following parameters in the AGC sections:
• Increase the AGC Drive to the WB (wideband) AGC section.
• Increase the Drive to each band of the Multiband AGC screen.
• Increase the Release time settings in each band to make it operate faster.
2. Drive the Final Limiter section harder.
3. A combination of the above steps, but in small increments! It might sound crazy, but it’s
true! In this situation, resist the temptation to make too many changes at once. When
that occurs, it becomes difficult to determine why the result of an adjustment did or did
not make sense. Focus on one specific area of your sound at a time. Once that area is
satisfactory, then move the focus to the next area, as needed.
Based upon the above suggestions, you can experiment with different styles of processing.
Some prefer to have their processing be perceptibly loud, but dynamic. This may give the
illusion of loudness, retaining detail and clarity, and reducing listener fatigue. This can be
done by centering your efforts in the multiband section, and avoiding heavy use of the
final limiter. One trick that works well is to use fast release times in the multiband limiters,
but do not let them produce more than 5 dB - 7 dB of gain reduction. This keeps the IM
distortion of the limiters to a minimum, and doesn’t “over-squash” your sound. Adjusted in
this manner, the Limiter sections are relied upon to generate higher long-term RMS levels,
which translates into increases in perceived loudness.
If the quest is to produce a “loud and proud” signature, then the limiters should be leaned
upon a bit more. Loudness at all costs is usually the reason for moving the processing in a
direction like this. Using larger amounts of drive to the multiband limiters, along with faster
release times will generate a signal of high short-term density. The effect of the processing
set in this manner is that the audio is consistently loud at all times . . . a wall of sound. The
drawback is that the density can cause fatigue. While Omnia A/XE is designed to minimize
fatigue, it is capable of generating large amounts of density that could eventually lead to
fatigue. Be careful!
Adding More Detail—When Loudness Isn’t the Last Word
Now that we’ve “squashed the grape,” lets look at what it takes to undo a heavily processed
signal. Basically, just reversing the procedures listed above will do the trick:
1. Reduce the drive to the Final Limiter.
2. Back off on the influence of the multiband stages:
• Reduce the amount of Drive to each band in the multiband.
• Reduce the Release times to slow down recovery.
3. Ease up on the Wideband-AGC sections:
• Reduce the Drive to the WB AGC.
fINE TUNING OMNIA A/XE | 55