GENERAL PROCESSING ADVICE
Know Your Goals
The first step to successful processing – and this applies to ANY processor, not just Omnia.9 - is defining
your goals. Whatever those goals are, Omnia.9 is capable of getting you there.
You may wish to maintain as much quality as possible while increasing loudness somewhat over your
existing processor. You might want to create very consistent source-to-source spectral balance and
develop a “signature sound” for your station. You may find yourself in a situation where you need to stay
competitively loud on the dial at the expense of the best possible sound. Or you may have the luxury of
aiming for a more open, cleaner sound that will draw and keep listeners for longer periods of time without
having to worry about all-out loudness.
In any case, it is best to start with a goal in mind and work toward it carefully and deliberately.
Tweaking and Fiddling
One big temptation when installing a new processor is fiddling with every available control, and there
is no shortage of those in Omnia.9! There’s really no better way to find out what each control does,
but experimentation and exploration are probably best done “on the bench” before you put your new
acquisition on the air. That way, you’re free to tweak away without having to worry about jeopardizing
your on-air sound or being unnecessarily timid about making adjustments because you don’t know what
affect they will have.
Another suggestion for getting to know your way around Omnia.9 is to find a factory preset that you like
and then go exploring in the various menus to see how that sound was achieved. For example, let’s say
you find a preset with a smooth, open sound which matches your general processing goal. As you explore,
you might find some controls set as you would expect to deliver that sound, but you may also find some
unexpected settings that make more creative use of Omnia.9’s controls. There is much to be learned by
understanding the underpinnings of our factory presets.
Once you are comfortable with navigating through Omnia.9’s menus and have a good understanding of
how its controls operate, you’re ready to take it for a test drive on the air.
Choosing a Preset
Regardless of whether you end up using a supplied preset “as-is” or make adjustments to customize your
sound, you must start with one of the factory presets. We recommend you find one that most closely
matches your sonic goals and then make any modifications from there as needed.
Remember, preset names are just labels. Most processors use radio format names to try and characterize
their sound, but then go on to explain there’s no reason a rock station shouldn’t try out the “Country”
preset. Omnia.9 takes a different approach, and most of its presets (with notable exceptions for AM)
don’t give you any hint as to who should use them (or how) in the hopes that you’ll “step out of your box”
and explore.
GENERAL PROCESSING ADVICE