New Media Technology Omnia ONE Multicast Adding More Detail-When Loudness Isn’t The Last Word

Some users prefer their processing to be perceptibly loud but very dynamic. While this may not result in the loudest sound, it gives the illusion of competitive loudness while still retaining a lot of detail and clarity. To achieve this sound you should target most adjustments to the Limiter sections, and avoid heavy use of the Final Limiter and fast settings in the AGC sections. Using very fast attack and release times in the multi-band limiters - without pushing them beyond 5dB or so of gain reduction - keeps IM distortion to a minimum and generates higher RMS levels. This translates into higher perceived loudness.

On the other hand, using larger amounts of drive to the multi-band limiters, along with faster release times will generate far more consistency and density. Increases in final limiting depth (more drive) will further add to this. The end effect is that the audio is now consistently loud - at all times.

The drawback to this kind of sound is that when taken to extremes, the excessive density can cause listener fatigue and add additional coding artifacts. While OmniaONE Multicast is designed to minimize listener fatigue, when adjusted to do so it is capable of generating large amounts of density that could eventually lead to listener fatigue.

Adding More Detail—When Loudness Isn’t The Last Word

Now that we’ve “squished the grape,” lets look at what it takes to undo a signal that is being too heavily processed. Basically, we’ll just be reversing the procedures listed above and in this order:

1.Reduce the Drive to the Final Limiter.

2.Back off on the influence of the Limiter stages:

•Reduce the amount of Drive.

•Lower the Release settings in each band to slow down recovery.

•Raise the threshold of the Hold function.

3.Ease up on the Wideband-AGC sections:

•Reduce the Drive to the Wideband-AGC.

•Lower the Release setting to cause it to operate slower.

Backing off the limiting sections first will allow the processing to still retain a level of loudness while restoring punch and quality. Start with reducing the Final Limiter amount in 0.5 dB steps. It’s surprising how much detail can be restored from such a small change. Generally, a change in the Final Limiter drive will have the most noticeable effect on quality, but it will also affect the relative loudness level, too. You’ll need to find a “happy medium” that’s right for your application.

Equalization (EQ) Changes

Tailoring the shape of the overall audio spectrum can be done in four different ways:

¾Adjusting the Drive to the individual bands from within the XOver menu, which sets the input levels to the multi-band AGC sections.

¾Changing the relative amount of Drive to the multi-band limiters.

¾Adjusting one or more bands to have faster release times than the others.

¾Adjusting the settings within the final Mixer.

All four options will provide a noticeable change in EQ and each will have a different character. We suggest you use the first two listed options before trying others. In each case the EQ change you make is followed by a dynamically controlled stage, so the subsequent AGC or Limiter will counter any excessive EQ adjustments.

OmniaONE Multicast - Use and Operation Manual – Version 0.90

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