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4.
A combination of all of the above! Sounds 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, or why not, an adjustment
made sense. Let one specific area at a time be the main focus. After that area is satisfactory, then move the
focus to another area, as needed.
Based upon the above suggestions and theories, experiment with different styles of processing. Some
broadcasters prefer to have their processing be perceptibly loud, but dynamic. This may not result in the loudest
station on the dial, but it gives the illusion of loudness, yet retains detail and clarity. This can be done by
centering the efforts in the Limiter sections, and avoiding the heavy use of the clipper. A trick to consider here
is to use very fast attack and release times in the multiband limiters, but make sure that they do not produce
more than 5 dB - 7 dB of gain reduction. This keeps the IM distortion of the limiters to a minimum. Here the
Limiter sections are relied upon to generate higher RMS levels, which translates into increases in perceived
loudness.
If the quest is to produce the “loud and proud”
appearance of the “big boys” in town, then the limiters and
clippers 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 consistent density. Also, an increase in clipping will further aid this. The effect of the
processing set in this manner is that the audio is consistently loud at all times. The drawback is that the
density
can cause listener fatigue over a prolonged period of time. While Omnia-3 is designed to minimize listener
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 “squished 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 Clipper.
2.
Back off on the influence of the Limiter stages:
• Reduce the amount of
Drive
.
• Reduce the
Release
time 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.
• Reduce the
Release
time to operate slower.
• Reduce the amount of
Make-Up Gain
.
Backing off the clipping sections first will allow the processing to still retain a level of loudness while restoring
quality. Start with reducing the
Clipper
amount in 0.5 dB steps. It’s surprising how much detail can be restored
from just a small change of 0.5 dB. Generally, a change in the
Clipper
amount 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 you.
EQ Changes
Tailoring the shape of the overall audio spectrum can be done in three different sections:
1.
The drive settings in the
X-Over
menu. This sets the drive to the multiband AGC sections.
2.
The relative amount of
Drive
to the multiband limiters.