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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 loud.
In the past, loudness was a problem due to the limitations of the processors you had available to you. If you
processed more heavily, then you either had to adjust your single processor outside of its “safe” range or use
multiple boxes and risk conflicts among each other.
Omnia-3 has changed all of that. It knows how to get a station sounding loud without the artifacts or grunge
created by your current processor when you try to make it loud. And Omnia-3 makes loudness an option 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-3 has given you the choice. Our intention is to provide you with a system that will
maximize the audio quality of your signal, yet at the same time satisfy your competitive requirements.
Quality Versus Loudness
The trade-off between quality and loudness is primarily affected by the use of the limiting and clipping sections.
While either function will generate more “dial presence,” they both offer differing artifacts and side effects.
With increased use of limiting, intermodulation distortion is increased. The added dynamic activity of the
limiters causes the audio to sound as if it is “tight” or “squashed.” This can be perceived to the ear as
“pumping,” “breathing,” “dense,” or “mushy.”
When clipping is increased, harmonic distortion is increased. The audio level is in effect “running into the brick
wall.” This may cause the audio to sound “broken-up,” “torn,” “rough,” or “edgy.” As you might imagine, the
harder limiters and clippers are driven, the louder the perception…and the more likely you have increased
intermodulation and/or harmonic distortion.
The following sections are provided to assist you in designing the personality of your station’s sound. As said
earlier, there is no precise recipe for setting audio processing. There are a few basics that can get you more
along the line of your desire. In the end, it will require a concerted effort of extended listening and subtle
changes over time to achieve the desired results. And remember the guidelines discussed at the beginning of this
section: know your goals, take your time, adjust methodically.
Increasing Loudness
Try to resist the temptation to crank on the aggressive processing sections. Those will add loudness, but usually
at the cost of quality. Many times, building a little more RMS level in the AGC sections will do the trick. The
following are some suggestions on where to begin to make changes. Try them in the order described.
Increasing loudness can be accomplished in four ways:
1. Alter the following parameters in the AGC:
• Increase the Drive to the AGC sections.
• Increase the Release time settings to operate faster.
• Increase the amount of Make-Up Gain.
2. Modify the Multiband Limiter sections:
• Increase the Drive to each section.
• Increase the Release time settings to operate faster.
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