User's Manual

Omnia 4.5 Use and Installation Guide – Ver 1.00a
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of them not as limiters, but as "Clipper Resource Allocators". The secret to being "screamingly loud" on the
dial but without squashing the life and dynamics out of the audio is to carefully balance the amount of work
being shared
by the limiters and clippers. The limiters should only do just enough work to keep the audio in
each frequency band from driving the final clippers too hard, and no more
.
Multiband Limiter Windows
Limiter Submenu – High Limiter shown as example
(the Limiting G/R meter is displayed in the page
along with the controls)
The controls in these adjustment windows are similar in function to the previously described AGC stages.
However, there are only four controls for the limiters. The Attack and Release controls work similarly to
the AGC sections, but are of course much faster on overall action. There are also two new parameters as
well. The first is the Hold Threshold. This control sets the threshold where the limiter’s Hold algorithm
begins when it detects pauses in the audio. When it’s in the OFF position, the limiters will attack, and then
release completely, just as you would expect them to. With Hold Threshold enabled, the limiters will
momentarily stop and rest during very short pauses, especially during live speech. Functionally, this is
similar to how the Gate function works in the preceding AGCs. The other control is Limit Threshold. This
control sets the threshold where audio peak limiting begins. Care is needed when adjusting this control
because raising the threshold (counter-clockwise) causes less limiting to occur, and the resulting
uncontrolled peak energy will go to the clipper instead. Thus, with this control you can artistically trade off
the dynamic limiting against brick wall clipping, as each has its own "sound."
As the limiter threshold is lowered by turning the Limit Thresh clockwise, the peak output level of the
limiter is reduced. The signal in that band won't hit the clipper as hard, and you'll notice more action on the
limiter bargraph for that band. In fact, instead of reducing the output of one of the audio bands in the Final
Mixer section, you could instead “dynamically reduce” the level in that band (which also increases density
in that band) by lowering the limiter threshold.