Omnia 5EX distorted voices

[westlife]

Re: Ariane

> The Ariane is a good box, but screws with the L-R a little
> too much for my liking. Also, it has a tendency to really
> "muddy up" CHR and Pop music. There are those that will
> disagree... like I said, just my opinion.

Most pop music recorded in the past decade is so bright to begin with that if the Ariane is using its dynamic EQ to restore it to a more balanced tonality -- exactly as it should -- then of course the resulting audio is going to sound "muddy" compared to the original tweeter-sizzling CD audio.
<P ID="signature">______________

</P>

 

[DudeFan]

> I set an Omnia 3 up for a college radio station once and
> remember there was actually contradictory information in the
> manual about how to read the in/out level meters on it. One
> part said it was referenced like VU meters while the other
> (and correct) portion says that the scale is dbFs (dB below
> A/D full scale). I set nominal level to be around -15dbFs
> at the input. The station had a hardwired balanced line for
> STL with a Compellor in front for AGC. Post-processing
> levels were fine at the exciter.
>

We have no STL (we go fiber from the studio to the XMTR) but we have some volunteer jocks, so an AGC in addition to the Omnia was a necessary safety belt to keep the overenthusiastic from doing real damage. The advantage is that overall we're just as competitive with the O6's and Orbans in town and with one of our boxes, we've got a real nice AM Gold era presence and warmth to the sound.

 

[FFoti]

Deej,

Have you contacted our Engineering Support Group for assistance? They can be reached at: +1 216 241-3343.

Regards,

-Frank Foti

> This is my first post on this board, so I'm saying HELLO to
> everyone.
>
> I am running an Omnia 5EX on our HipHop/R&B station in
> Europe. Started with checking all the presets, ended with
> the CHR Dense. This was for me the most consistent preset,
> tweaked it a little to get rid off the massive Omnia Bass.
> I'm sorry, but compared to the other stations this amount of
> bass is a little strange.
>
> From that point, I am now firing up the unit, getting the
> most loudness without the disadvantage of highly distorted
> sound. The problem I have is that talent voices are
> distorted, especially the first word of a sentence. The
> attack seems to be not fast enough. Tried to increase the
> Gate Threshold to keep the processing window at this level.
> Also increasing the attack-speed etc. etc. But without any
> luck. The only thing which works in decreasing the Clipper
> drive, but you know what happens then, decreasing of
> loudness.
>
> Hopefully there's anyone who can help me with this unit?
> Placing something in front of it, tweak my settings?
>
> Regards,
>
> Deej
>

 

[FFoti]

Seems you're referring to the Original-Omnia. The present versions of the product do not activate the Composite Clipper, unless the user chooses it.

I'd be happy to demo an Omnia side-by-side to any processor of your choice, then augment this discussion.

Regards,

-Frank Foti

> Bob Orban, on the Orban website, used to talk about the
> distortion on voices by the Omnia, especially on certain
> male voices.(See "Why is Bob laughing?")It seems to be a
> common problem with the Omnia.
> Ask Bob Orban why the voice is distorted....Orban knows
> these boxes better than even Frank Foti....
> My experience has been that Omnia builds loudness through
> composite clipping....take that away and the box falls off
> the dial.
> I know many of you guys love Omnia, and the box has gotten
> much better than the earlier ones, but an Optimod will beat
> an Omnia every time, in subjective quality. And note, I said
> SUBJECTIVE! Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.....
>

 

[Hot947]

The Omnia 6 has the same problem with even moderate clipping. A good solution is to back the clippers on the Omnia all the way down and throw in an external composite clipper after the Omnia. You can play with the discrete clipper on the Omnia to see how much you can do without distorting, I think the bulk of the distortion comes in the Omnia's composite clipper.

Another solution? Trade it in for an old Omnia Hot box. No distortion there. And the audio is juicier and denser... and delicious. Like a big audio hamburger. Except you'll probably clip your stereo pilot if you use its composite clipper.

 

[gtomas]

> The Omnia 6 has the same problem with even moderate
> clipping. A good solution is to back the clippers on the
> Omnia all the way down

That has been my experience with Omnia 6 as well.

> distorting, I think the bulk of the distortion comes in the
> Omnia's composite clipper.

I think it's the main clipper (if you turn off the composite clipper, you can still hear it).

> Another solution? Trade it in for an old Omnia Hot box. No
> distortion there. And the audio is juicier and denser...
> and delicious. Like a big audio hamburger. Except you'll

Interesting you mention that. One station here used Omnia-fm before they switched to 8400 and I never noticed voice distortion or other HF splatter I can hear with my Omnia-6. Unfortunately I can't make a comparison now as there are no more Omnia-fms on air here, but as I can recall it actually might have sounded better than O-6. Maybe not as loud, but no problems. IMHO. YMMV.


Regards,
Goran Tomas

 

[deejens]

I solved the problem!

Installed a gentle compressor in front of the Omnia 5EX and slowed down the attack and release of the Wideband AGC.

No more distorted voices, I am soooo happyyyyyy with this thing!