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Omnia.9–ABriefOverview
HowOmnia.9CametoBe
The story of Omnia.9 actually began when its creator and designer, Leif Claesson, got tired of
listeningtoclassicrockmusic.Therewasalotofgoodmusicout,buthecouldn’tstandthewayCD
masteringwasfallingvictimtoitsown“loudnesswar”reminiscentoftheonestillbeingwagedby
many major market FM radio stations. The CDs themselves were overprocessed, hyper
compressed, and clipped to death, and so he found himself listening only to older recordings.
Growingtiredofhisrelativelysmallplaylist,hedecidedtodosomethingaboutit,andtheideafor
“Undo”wasborn.
ProcessingforFM,HD,Studio,andStreamingAudio
Each processing core of Omnia.9 contains an Input AGC, a 6band fully parametric equalizer,
multibandnoisereductionviadownwardexpanders,amultibandstereoenhancer,awidebandAGC,
a second (defeatable) wideband AGC, up to 7 bands of multiband AGC andpeak limiting,and an
adjustable bassclipper.TheFMcorefeaturesafinalpsychoacousticallycontrolled distortion
maskingclipperthatnotonlyallowsyoutobelouderonthedial(ifthat’syourgoal)butfarcleaner,
too.ItalsoprovidesbuiltinRDS injectioninthecompositetoensureperfectintegrationofRDS,
pilot, and audio. The HD, Studio, and Streaming cores utilize a lookahead final limiter for peak
control.
Therearenohiddenor“backdoor”controlsinOmnia.9. We’vegivenyoufullaccesstoallof its
controlssoasnottolimityourabilitytocreateexactlythesoundyouwantontheair–andasyou
willsoondiscover–thereisnoshortageofcontrols.
TheOmnia.9Toolbox
Omnia.9is uniqueinthatitprovidesyouwithsomebuiltintoolsthatwe believeareessentialto
havewhensettingupyourprocessing.Inthepast,tuningaprocessorwasdonepurelyby earin
mostcases.Andwhileprocessingiscertainlyasubjectiveprocess–it’sasmuchartasitisscience–
havingtherighttoolsinyourtoolboxcanbeveryhandy(nottomentionrevealing)whenyouwant
tofindoutwhysomethingsoundsthewayitdoes.
For that reason, we’ve chosen to include a builtin oscilloscope, an RTA, and an FFT spectrum
analyzer that can monitor dozens of different points within each of Omnia.9’s processing cores.
There’sevenapinknoisegeneratorandapowerfulparametricequalizersothatyoucancalibrate
your speakers, giving you an accurate monitoring point from which to adjust your processing.
LearningtousethesetoolstoyouradvantageisjustasimportantaslearninghowtouseOmnia.9’s
controls,becausewiththem,youcanseewhatyouarehearingandmakeinformedandintelligent
adjustmentstoyouraudiothatwereheretoforedifficultifnotimpossibletomake.