General Processing Advice
Know Your Goals
The first step to successful processing – and this applies to ANY processor, not just Omnia.7 - is defining
your goals. Whatever those goals are, Omnia.7 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.
Don’t Touch That Dial! (too much)
One big temptation when installing a new processor is to play with every available control, and there’s
really no better way to find out what each control does. But that sort of experimentation and exploration is
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.7 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.7’s controls. There is much to be
learned by studying.
By default, each preset loads up in “Basic” mode to keep things simple. Despite the name, this mode is
still very powerful and may provide all the controls you need to achieve your desired sound and loudness.
It is always possible to go back and forth freely between “Basic,” “Intermediate”, and “Advanced” modes
even after making changes in one mode or another. You can switch between modes in the
About Preset
menu.
Once you are comfortable with navigating through Omnia.7’s various 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 goals and then make any modifications from there as needed.
Most processors use radio format names to try and define their sound but then go on to explain there’s no
reason a rock station shouldn’t try out the “Country” preset – which is very true. As befitting its lineage to
our Omnia.9 processor, Omnia.7 takes a deliberately different approach and most of its presets 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” a bit and
explore.
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