Omnia Omnia.9 - Setting U P T He M IC; Choosing a C Alibrated M IC

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ClientFileRecorder
Justasitispossibletorecordaudiofromvariouspatchpointswithintheprocessingchainonthe
actualOmnia.9itself,youcanalsorecordaudiostreamedtotheclientPC.Therecordersinthe
clientsoftwareworkinexactlythesameway.Detailedinformationonhowtousethefilerecorders
canbefoundonPage14ofthemainOmnia.9UserManual.
SpeakerCalibration
Asmentionedearlier,takingthetimetocalibrateatleastonesetofspeakerstoactasyour
referencemonitorsistimewellspent.Inordertoperformaspeakercalibration,youneedfour
tools:
 Acalibratedmicrophonetocapturetheaudio.
 Apinknoisegeneratortoprovideaudioformeasurement(pinknoisehavinganequal
amountof“noisepower”ineachoctave).
 Arealtimeaudioanalyzer(RTA)tovisuallydisplaywhatthemicrophoneishearing.
 Somemeansbywhichtocorrectforspeakerand/orroominaccuracies(suchasaparametric
equalizer).
Omnia.9providesthreeoutofthefourtools–thepinknoisegenerator,theRTA,andtheEQ.All
youneedtoaddisthecalibratedmic.
ChoosingaCalibratedMic
Itisimportanttounderstandthatyoumustuseacalibratedmicrophonedesignedforsound
measurementpurposestoperformapropercalibration.Studioorrecordingmics–eventhehigh
end,highdollarones–areofnovaluewhencalibratingasystem.
Youcanspendthousandsofdollarsonascientificgrade,highprecisioncalibratedmicrophone,but
thegoodnewsis–youdon’thaveto.Eventheleastexpensivemodelswillprovidegoodquality
resultsandareworthyofconsideration.
Whilewearenotinthebusinessofsellingmicrophones,nordowehaveanyinterestinpromoting
anybrandormodeloveranother,wecantellyouthatBehringerECM8000worksquitewellandcan
bepurchasedatlocalmusicstoresandfromvariousonlinevendorsforunder$100.Ifyoupreferto
connectyourmicviaUSBorFirewire,severalmanufacturers(MAudio,EMu,andBluecometo
mind)offerXLRtoUSBandXLRtoFirewireconvertersstartingatunder$50).
SettingUptheMic
Placethemicrophoneascloseaspossibletothepositionyouwilloccupywhenmonitoringsothatit
hearswhatyouwillhear.Incaseswhereyouarecalibratingtwoofthesamespeakers,andbothare
placedinsimilarlocationsintheroom,youcancalibrateboththeleftandrightchannels
simultaneously.Ifyoufindyourselfinasituationwherethespeakerswillbeaffecteddifferentlyby
theirindividualplacementintheroom–oneissuspendingfromtheceilinginacornerandtheother