How does my processing sound?

[shaund]

Hi everyone,

Long time lurker of the boards here. I recently made a few changes to the processing on my Omnia One FM, and was hoping a few of you would take a few minutes and let me know how it sounds.
I'm the Engineering Director of an Alternative college student-run station operating out of Champaign, IL. Here's our live stream.

Before I took over, we were definitely "quieter" than our competitors. That's no longer the case, but now I'm afraid that I'm processing the audio too aggressively.

I would really love to hear your thoughts on our sound! Thanks.

Shaun

 

[TomZ]

I'm listening and don't think you are too aggressive; but you might be pumping music that's already on steroids.

Are you feeding theOmniaONE's analog audio into your streaming encoder? In other words, describe your audio chain(s).

 

[oldiesstation]

Look at the bright side! Half of your listeners are mostly deaf,the other half probably stoned. So,it's a win win situation!! Seriously though, i would back down on that baby.The cd's are already smashed enough and don't need anymore help.Remember the fatigue factor.

 

[shaund]

I'm listening and don't think you are too aggressive; but you might be pumping music that's already on steroids.

Are you feeding theOmniaONE's analog audio into your streaming encoder? In other words, describe your audio chain(s).

Ok, thanks so much for listening. The streaming encoder is fed directly by the Omnia, yes.

Look at the bright side! Half of your listeners are mostly deaf,the other half probably stoned. So,it's a win win situation!! Seriously though, i would back down on that baby.The cd's are already smashed enough and don't need anymore help.Remember the fatigue factor.

Haha, that's what someone told me after my first on-air shift. Of course I would like to back down a little, but I don't want to lose any perceived loudness. In other words, I don't want to sound dull compared to the other rock stations in town. I thought about fatigue, but I didn't think it would really matter since, from what I gather, people really don't listen for too long to one station. The average commute time in my town is 20 minutes.

I guess what I'm asking is: how do I back down the compression while still sounding competitive?
(I should also note that, while we are student-run, we are a commercial station. We're not affiliated with the University and almost all revenue comes from ads, so being competitive is important obviously...otherwise I'd definitely back down on the processing.)

 

[TomZ]

Take a screenshot of your settings and post it; better yet, give us the ip addy, user name and password so we can tweak it for you.. ;D

 

[shaund]

Take a screenshot of your settings and post it; better yet, give us the ip addy, user name and password so we can tweak it for you.. ;D

Haha, part of me wants to give it to you. I'm out of town right now, but I'll post it when I'm back on Monday. Thanks for your help.

 

[oldiesstation]

Hope you know i'm kidding around. We all started as novices and built from there.Some stations get it,some don't.On a recent road trip i checked up and down the dial,amazing some FM's don;t have the processing right.Heard a couple that were awesome.A good set of ears can dial one in.I've found about half of the factory presets need further tweaking.Some are just too over the top.Have fun and keep tweaking!!

 

[WNTIRadio]

Start by slowing down the release times of the AGC and the limiter sections a bit... then bring the clipping control up to get some of the loudness back. Bring the clippers up until you hear objectionable distortion, then back it off a couple tenths of a dB.

Start there. You will be surprised how it will still sound competitively loud yet retain a little bit of breathing room. Instead of being *as loud* as the other rock stations in town, be in the ballpark and *cleaner*.

 

[shaund]

Hope you know i'm kidding around. We all started as novices and built from there.Some stations get it,some don't.On a recent road trip i checked up and down the dial,amazing some FM's don;t have the processing right.Heard a couple that were awesome.A good set of ears can dial one in.I've found about half of the factory presets need further tweaking.Some are just too over the top.Have fun and keep tweaking!!

Oh I know. I'm gonna spend some time with it on Monday and try to trust my ears a little more. Thanks for your thoughts!

Start by slowing down the release times of the AGC and the limiter sections a bit... then bring the clipping control up to get some of the loudness back. Bring the clippers up until you hear objectionable distortion, then back it off a couple tenths of a dB.

Start there. You will be surprised how it will still sound competitively loud yet retain a little bit of breathing room. Instead of being *as loud* as the other rock stations in town, be in the ballpark and *cleaner*.

Ok, will do. Thanks for taking a listen, and for giving me a place to start. It's a bit overwhelming and hard to know where to begin with all the controls available. I'll do a little tweaking on Monday, and I'll post back here and see if you guys have time to listen again. Thank you!

 

[DRoberts]

I'd probably back that thing off a little. The compression is almost "pumping". Don't forget, the music is already processed to death then you're processing it some more. Get it clean.....forget loud.

 

[TomZ]

The OmniaOne that I installed had several 'presets' and other folks have their own recipe that you can download and install. I opted to try one of the factory presets and ran it for about a month and then tried another preset and found no reason to change it after that.

 

[TomZ]

Via TeamViewer I took a screenshot of the OmniaOne I installed last year.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/15067584/omniaOne%20screenshot.bmp

 

[Smiths and Smittys]

Not an engineer but a PD for many years and I've always felt I have decent audio ears.
For the record I have 0 experience with an Omina One so pardon the primative advice.
I think this sounds really clipped and really thin and as though the input is too hot. The sweepers sound really flat.
My ears would say back off the AGC drive and the clipping, then drive the multi band more to add a little roundness to it.
FWIW, Just my two cents.

 

[GeneSavage]

I have to agree with the "more multiband / slower AGC" suggestion. It sounds REALLY busy to me. You ought to be able to drive the limiters and even the clippers pretty hard if you have the AGC slowed down, giving you the loudness you crave without the pump / breathe issues I feel like I'm hearing now.

It's not impossible to listen to right now; in fact, there's a station in my town that sounds about like this today. I find myself tuning out after not too long because it's just so "crunchy."

Catch the transients instead of buzzing every wave, and I think you'll be happier with the results. The live mic is REALLY crunchy; if you can get the voice clean, your music is going to sound fantastic.

Keep at it; you've done a good job so far, but I'm convinced you can make it even better!

 

[WNTIRadio]

Can you post the settings you have running now? Without a starting point it's tough to say exactly what's going on and where. It IS over driven and/or over clipped, that is for certain.

 

[shaund]

Thanks for taking a listen, everyone. I messed around with it a bit yesterday, and it's worse than before...somewhat on purpose. I just wanted to see what I would have to sacrifice to get the "loudness" I was initially after. I guess I wanted to figure out what NOT to do, in a way. Mainly, I decreased the release times of the AGCs and really drove the clipper.

Unfortunately, I'm away for the summer, and won't be able make it back physically to the station until at least after the weekend. (It's also worth noting that it didn't sound quite this bad to me when I left...) I'm going to have someone switch back to the preset I was using earlier (which will reverse the changes I made) and I'll hopefully be able to get down there to work with it some more next week, or I'll find a way to access a computer there remotely.

Thanks for bearing with me, and for your help!

 

[FFoti1]

You mentioned the processor in use is an Omnia.One. Have you contacted our Customer Support Dept for assistance?

-Frank Foti

 

[tjm_pro]

Good Day shaund -

You mentioned in your original post that your post that you were using the Omnia.One FM. It may be worth downloading the Multicast version of the software. The Multicast version will play better with coded audio and mitigate some of the bit reduction artifacts.

It's a free download @ http://omniaaudio.com/software/one/multi

 

[oldiesstation]

He needs the FM for on air.Not sure how he is streaming on the net.The box needs tweaking.Then he will be rockin!

 

[tjm_pro]

Hi Oldies -

I think he originally posted that he was streaming using the FM version and provided a link to the live stream. I have three Omnia.One boxes. Two on air (FM) and one processing a stream and I'm sure with a call to support he should be all set!