Getting The Sound You Want; A Word About Loudness; Quality Versus Loudness - Omnia 6EX Installation And Operation Manual

Getting the Sound You Want

If you believe that you're in a loudness war and you need to react 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-6 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 station's sound. In many instances, it's not just about increasing the
drive to the limiters, the clipper, or the composite 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
station to be loud. Very, 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 used
multiple boxes in the signal chain and accepted the byproducts of the interactions and conflicts among them.
Omnia-6EX has changed all of that! It's been designed to look at the incoming audio, and know how to make your
station consistently loud on the dial, and without the artifacts or grunge created by your current processor. Omnia-
6EX makes loudness an effortless exercise for all formats.
One more confession. It's also OK for your station to not sound loud, yet sound incredibly musical and grunge-free,
because the Omnia-6 has given you the choice. Omnia-6EX 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 "dial presence," 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 might be
expected, the harder the limiters and clippers are driven, the louder the perceived audio. However, you are also
much more likely to encounter increased intermodulation and/or harmonic distortion.
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