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The Omnia.One: I was wrong about it

whit979

whit979

Sometimes, you have to admit when you’re wrong. For me, that day is today.

I was just plain wrong in my assessment of the Omnia.One processor.
About a year ago, I got my hands on one and gave it a negative review.
I’m here to say that I was wrong. No doubt about it in my mind—if
you’re in need of a processor but the budget is tight, Omnia is the
way to go.

We were on the air with a Vorsis VP8 for about nine months prior to
now. For the past several months, we’ve had some frustration with the
unit; perhaps because there was just too much going on in the
processor—we’ll never know. My point is that we just couldn’t get our
sound dialed in with the VP8, as much as we tried. The Vorsis support
team was nice, and they did all they could to assist us. I will always
be grateful for their efforts.

But, when it comes down to a straight a/b comparison, Omnia ultimately
won with us. The team at Omnia gave us the opportunity to return to
the Omnia.One FM processor, and we took it. Cornelius Gould helped us
get our Omnia.One set up; many of you are already familiar with
Cornelius and his golden ears. The result: Loudness immediately
regained. Vocals smoothed out. Clarity in the bass and highs,
unparalleled at that price point. An AGC that works for us—not against
us. Intelligent clippers that do the same.

So, what’s the difference between then and now? Well, perhaps it’s a
particular Omnia feature that I didn’t discover last time—one you
won’t find in the menu system. As large and renowned a company as
Omnia is, they still operate with the goal of earning each individual
customer’s business, and they’re willing to lay it all out there to
get it. Have a question? Assistance is a call or email away. Got a
problem? Omnia gives you access to their entire team. Is there a
specific, unique, or even unusual, goal that you want to fulfill with
your processor? That’s their specialty.

I still believe in each individual putting a processor to the test
before purchasing. Many of you got to hear some of Omnia’s own ‘stress
tests’ on the Omnia.One at NAB this year. I would encourage anyone who
is in the market for a processor to demo the Omnia.One, and see if you
come to the same conclusions that I recently realized.

Sometimes, you have to admit when you’re wrong. Thanks, Omnia, for
helping us get it right.
 
WOW!

Thank YOU SO much Whit for giving us a second shot.
I've been working hard to greatly expand on the Omnia.One FM for maximum flexibility for most users, and I'm glad we were able to get you back as a result!

Omnia cheer leader rant here.... :-D

Here at Omnia, we've always prided ourselves on solid performing products, and these days the entire Omnia team is tighter, and better than ever, and its a really exciting time to be here! Keep an eye out on us. The Omnia.one perfomance gains - including my recent preset enhancements, are just a taste of what's to come! :)

-Cornelius
 
I was listening to WJCF 88.1/Morristown,IN the other day. It's no secret they've struggled with getting the sound right over the years. This particular day, it was 'right' for the first time I recall. I called the owner...had to know what he was using. Omnia One with a very minor tweak to one of the stock presets. I've never even seen an Omnia One (but plenty of Omnia 6's), but based on what I've heard with my own ears & what I've just read here, the Omnia One is suddenly on the consideration list. Good job Frank!
 
Not to change the topic subject too much, but does anyone have any experience with the Omnia one AM vs. the current Optimod 9300 and 9400?
 
The Omnia One is really a great box. When I stopped by the Omnia booth at NAB this year, I had a big laugh - there in the rack with all the Ones was a Vorsis AP-2000. They were running a comparison between the two. Talk about David and Goliath!

At first I had a hard time telling the difference between the audio the two units were putting out, but after a few minutes of careful listening it became obvious that the bass and mid-bass on the Vorsis really falls apart. Really loudly mastered songs also break up the highs, too.

The kicker: my companion listened and thought they both sounded the same. So he asks the Omnia guy standing there "What's the difference between the One and the Vorsis?" and the guy says to him "About $8000." :D Priceless!

- Doc
 
Cornelius has changed the whole box with his work on it. It does sound good now. It wasn't ready for prime time for FM when it first came out. It was OK for streaming if you didn't push it hard, but it had a less than spectacular presense on the air.

I do remember mentioning the problems with the High band limiter pumping back in the summer of 2007 when I was testing the box... and I'm glad that Cornelius got around to correcting the problem (at least I knew I wasn't crazy... or at least VERY crazy! :)

That being said, the VP-8 is also a good box and there is new software for it!
 
wgliradio said:
Cornelius has changed the whole box with his work on it. It does sound good now. It wasn't ready for prime time for FM when it first came out. It was OK for streaming if you didn't push it hard, but it had a less than spectacular presense on the air.

I do remember mentioning the problems with the High band limiter pumping back in the summer of 2007 when I was testing the box... and I'm glad that Cornelius got around to correcting the problem (at least I knew I wasn't crazy... or at least VERY crazy! :)

That being said, the VP-8 is also a good box and there is new software for it!
Click to expand...

First off, I wish to thank Whit for the opportunity to work with him again. We're honored and humbled by his post.

IIRC: The A/B he did with the other product was done with their latest version of software.

Mike, your comment regarding Omnia.One not ready for prime time is a bit baffling. Reason being is you were one of our beta testers and raved about the box. Not sure what gives there, but in any case, we have made changes to it. Corny has done - and continues to do - an amazing job with creating presets.

Thanks to all of you for your feedback!!

-Frank Foti
 
BobOnTheJob said:
I was listening to WJCF 88.1/Morristown,IN the other day. It's no secret they've struggled with getting the sound right over the years. This particular day, it was 'right' for the first time I recall. I called the owner...had to know what he was using. Omnia One with a very minor tweak to one of the stock presets. I've never even seen an Omnia One (but plenty of Omnia 6's), but based on what I've heard with my own ears & what I've just read here, the Omnia One is suddenly on the consideration list. Good job Frank!
Click to expand...

Bob,

Thank you...But, I can only take a piece of the credit. There's a very talented team - now - behind Omnia processors. A lot of the dynamic stuff is tuned by Cornelius, Mark Manolio, Ted Alexander, and a little myself. Actually, they've taken on the bulk of Omnia.One over the past year, which is a testament to the growth of the product in general.

I tip my hat to them!

-Frank Foti
 
With the current finacial state of radio I'd say the One should continue to be a real winner for Telos-Omnia. I put one of them about a year ago in a smaller market station. The manager and I still are floored by how good it sounds for the budget box it is. All I did is plug it in and dial up a preset and set levels and it became instantly acceptable to us. At some point when I get bored I'm going to certainly try out Corny's settings. That brings up an interesting point. Do we just download the presets somehow to the processor or is it a manual setting we have to enter into the box via the software? I honestly haven't read up on it much. I am very familiar with the Optimod 8300 product, mainly because when I hooked it up, I didn't necessarly like what I heard. I spend a month tweeking on it to get it the way I wanted on a station that litterly plays stuff from the mid-50s on up to 1987. Something tells me the One would have been more of just a preset setting and have a nice day (for thousands less).
 
FFoti1 said:
First off, I wish to thank Whit for the opportunity to work with him again. We're honored and humbled by his post.

IIRC: The A/B he did with the other product was done with their latest version of software.

Mike, your comment regarding Omnia.One not ready for prime time is a bit baffling. Reason being is you were one of our beta testers and raved about the box. Not sure what gives there, but in any case, we have made changes to it. Corny has done - and continues to do - an amazing job with creating presets.

Thanks to all of you for your feedback!!

-Frank Foti
Click to expand...

I thought the box was good and had lots of potential, but I do have emails as a tester talking about things I felt were problems back in 2007. If you recall, one of the complaints I had in the Radio Guide article was a wish for the box to have more flavor. I also wanted it known that the One... at the time of review, was better as an internet streaming processor (I did carefully choose the words that the box "really shines" as an internet processor) where you could relax the HF limiter so it would not pump, in an environment that did not have the problems of pre-emphasis payload.

My biggest complaints were the texture of the HF limiter and the fact that the box for FM broadcast was very flat sounding... much cleaner than the 3 Turbo.,.. but still flat and vanilla. I was disappointed when neither issue was addressed. The ONE eventually was just sitting in my rack when Cornelius changed the software. I uploaded his adjusted code and felt like I had just purchased a new box.

I know the evolution of an audio processor takes awhile... what was disappointing was that I felt I had my finger on the pulse of the problem 14 months earlier, but even as a beta tester that my observations were being dismissed. I was afraid the ONE was another Omnia 3. Considering your success with the 4 band structures of the Unity 2000 and Omnia FM flavors, the ONE was disappointing at first.

And yes, Cornelius builds some amazing presets, none of which would have been possible if the initial problems with the ONE were not corrected by him to allow it. When I said it wasn't ready for prime time, it really wasn't for serious processing. The HF problems, to me, were VERY pronounced and not hard to produce.
 
Well,

I guess the important thing here is that you seem to be quite a happy camper now, and that's a really good thing in my book!

;D

Rock on! Glad you like the presets!

-Cornelius

wgliradio said:
FFoti1 said:
First off, I wish to thank Whit for the opportunity to work with him again. We're honored and humbled by his post.

IIRC: The A/B he did with the other product was done with their latest version of software.

Mike, your comment regarding Omnia.One not ready for prime time is a bit baffling. Reason being is you were one of our beta testers and raved about the box. Not sure what gives there, but in any case, we have made changes to it. Corny has done - and continues to do - an amazing job with creating presets.

Thanks to all of you for your feedback!!

-Frank Foti
Click to expand...

I thought the box was good and had lots of potential, but I do have emails as a tester talking about things I felt were problems back in 2007. If you recall, one of the complaints I had in the Radio Guide article was a wish for the box to have more flavor. I also wanted it known that the One... at the time of review, was better as an internet streaming processor (I did carefully choose the words that the box "really shines" as an internet processor) where you could relax the HF limiter so it would not pump, in an environment that did not have the problems of pre-emphasis payload.

My biggest complaints were the texture of the HF limiter and the fact that the box for FM broadcast was very flat sounding... much cleaner than the 3 Turbo.,.. but still flat and vanilla. I was disappointed when neither issue was addressed. The ONE eventually was just sitting in my rack when Cornelius changed the software. I uploaded his adjusted code and felt like I had just purchased a new box.

I know the evolution of an audio processor takes awhile... what was disappointing was that I felt I had my finger on the pulse of the problem 14 months earlier, but even as a beta tester that my observations were being dismissed. I was afraid the ONE was another Omnia 3. Considering your success with the 4 band structures of the Unity 2000 and Omnia FM flavors, the ONE was disappointing at first.

And yes, Cornelius builds some amazing presets, none of which would have been possible if the initial problems with the ONE were not corrected by him to allow it. When I said it wasn't ready for prime time, it really wasn't for serious processing. The HF problems, to me, were VERY pronounced and not hard to produce.
Click to expand...
 
wgliradio said:
I know the evolution of an audio processor takes awhile... what was disappointing was that I felt I had my finger on the pulse of the problem 14 months earlier, but even as a beta tester that my observations were being dismissed. I was afraid the ONE was another Omnia 3. Considering your success with the 4 band structures of the Unity 2000 and Omnia FM flavors, the ONE was disappointing at first.
Click to expand...

Mike,

You're leaving out the rest of the story...

You shared your feedback a bit after we started shipping the product. I remember explaining to you we were not getting the same comments from other users, as you had made. It came down to a difference in taste.

Omnia.One FM units flew out the door, and continue to fly out the door. As such, we felt it best to leave it alone, due to the extremely fast success of the product. So much so, Omnia.One sales are the fastest growth of any product in the entire history of Telos, Cutting Edge, Omnia, Axia, and Linear Acoustic...EVER!!

Had your comments been the view of the majority, then the product doesn't move as it has, and continues to. Corny's contributions have further augmented what was already a highly successful product launch.

In closing, you were not dismissed, we took your comments into consideration, and had the same feedback become common, then modifications would have been made. IIRC, that viewpoint was shared with you at the time.

-Frank Foti
 
Alot of engineers don't have the time to get intimate with a piece of audio processing. Case in point, we have a ONE on our HD-3 in NYC. It has the old software and we are simulcasting our AM. The engineer from the AM doesn't like the sound and has been pestering me for the 6200 I have in storage to replace it. I told him of the software update that makes it work right and both of us want to upgrade it. Finding the time to do it while keeping 4 PPM encoders (per station), TRE software, Streaming (and ad insertion) Audio Vault, Production, Voice tracking, EAS, remotes, small fires all on my plate... you just don't get to it. Just this coming week I am finding time to get to my HD-2 processing because the format is being modified and I am trying to get clearance to pull the HD-3 off to upgrade the Omnia ONE.

ANy time I devote to processing my FM's in New York is precious because it usually happens during off hours when I have enough energy to do it after long days.

I think the same can be said of other end users, who purchased the box based on NAME and probably didn't have too much time or maybe knowledge to adjust it and get to know the box in and out. The people who observed the ONE in its original form in front of me came back with the same that it's "very good" for a processor that costs $2900. I'm glad it's better than that now.
 
Mike,

After a long stint under the same company / conditions as you, I know what you mean. It was QUITE frustrating for me to not have much time to really do what I love to do (processing), and the only time I really had to devote to it was on my own time....which didn't make the family happy.

Out of those experiences, I made it a point to provide options for fellow engineers & programmers who are too busy to either play with processing, or too busy to go hunting and pecking around the internets to try to even learn what audio processing is in the first place. Yes, I did say "Internets". Bush said it, so it must be right. hehe

Anyway, this new broadcasting world we live in today drives me to be innovative in ways to make life easier for folks using our products in the field.

Since I was not around Omnia during your beta testing era and all, I have nothing to comment about with respect to details there. I'm just hijacking the discussion for my own selfish reasons.

:-D

-Cornelius

wgliradio said:
Alot of engineers don't have the time to get intimate with a piece of audio processing. Case in point, we have a ONE on our HD-3 in NYC. It has the old software and we are simulcasting our AM. The engineer from the AM doesn't like the sound and has been pestering me for the 6200 I have in storage to replace it. I told him of the software update that makes it work right and both of us want to upgrade it. Finding the time to do it while keeping 4 PPM encoders (per station), TRE software, Streaming (and ad insertion) Audio Vault, Production, Voice tracking, EAS, remotes, small fires all on my plate... you just don't get to it. Just this coming week I am finding time to get to my HD-2 processing because the format is being modified and I am trying to get clearance to pull the HD-3 off to upgrade the Omnia ONE.

ANy time I devote to processing my FM's in New York is precious because it usually happens during off hours when I have enough energy to do it after long days.

I think the same can be said of other end users, who purchased the box based on NAME and probably didn't have too much time or maybe knowledge to adjust it and get to know the box in and out. The people who observed the ONE in its original form in front of me came back with the same that it's "very good" for a processor that costs $2900. I'm glad it's better than that now.
Click to expand...
 
Most processors will take time to dial in the sweet spot for an end user's taste.CG's presets helped alot.You never know until you get the box in the air chain.had similar issues with the dsp-x.Now all the users are happy and content,and that is a good thing.Just finished a ONE on an AM.Very nice sound.The higher end Orban AM boxes would probably work just as well, but this owner is on a strict budget and the Omnia One AM was a good fit.Plus it was about 2 grand less than the Orbans,and i doubt you'd hear 2 grand difference on the air.IMHO
 
Interesting to note how popular Omnia processors must be, and Vorsis processors aren't. This thread is about someone who tried the Vorsis box, and after nine months REGRETTED his decision, changed back to Omnia and is now happy. I think this is the same guy who's the poster boy on the Vorsis website, with a product review. Wow, that's gotta hurt Vorsis pretty good.

If Vorsis had any fans out there, they'd be defending the box. Since there's next to no one defending them, that says there's not many of the units out there. Seems after trying to play in this game now for awhile they haven't made much headway.

I too, saw Omnia.One keep pace, and on most material, beat the Vorsis AP-2000 processor at NAB. (I asked what software version they had, and they told me the latest on both boxes.) At first, it appeared strange, but the Omnia folks let me play to my heart's content on both boxes. Dang, Vorsis top box can't keep up with Omnia's little guy. What does that tell you?
 
There are two AP-2000's on the air in NYC and they sound good. I do not have one on, but I do have a VP-8 on an HD 2 and it sounds just fine. I also have an AM version of the VP-8 on the air on Long Island and it really sounds good.
 
Any modern processor can be made to sound fine if you take the time to work with it. I was always an Orban guy but got handed a number of high end Omnias at a job I took a couple of years ago. I didn't like the way the Omnias sounded until I spent a little time understanding the architecture and tweaking on them a bit, then they were fine. A problem you'll have just taking someone else's settings and duplicating them is that your air chain won't be the same as theirs. I don't doubt that Corny comes up with some nice adjustments, but there would still have to be some final tweaking involved to make it fit. Some of the higher end boxes offer too much tweaking power for some people, and you can get yourself in trouble very easily.
 
wgliradio said:
There are two AP-2000's on the air in NYC and they sound good. I do not have one on, but I do have a VP-8 on an HD 2 and it sounds just fine. I also have an AM version of the VP-8 on the air on Long Island and it really sounds good.
Click to expand...

Which stations in NYC using Omnia One's and AP-2000 yet?
 
Hey PaulyBoy -- everytime someone posts about processing you get another chance to bash Vorsis.

Admit it that you are either a bitter former Wheatstone/Vorsis employee or a shill for another processing company.

What difference does it make to you whether some people prefer Vorsis?

Give it up man.
 
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