How are they listening?
You can use headphones to verify signals or as a rough check on VOLT’s processing. But we don’t
recommend using phones for ne-tuning your station’s sound… In our experience, dynamics per-
ceived through headphones are dierent from those heard over speakers, and adjustments made
over headphones may be too subtle for loudspeaker use.
For critical adjustments, listen to VOLT through high quality monitors in a studio situation. Or though
speakers roughly equivalent to how your listeners will be hearing the station: some processing gurus
do their most critical tuning while sitting in their cars! Don’t rely on headphones for ne-tuning,
unless you’re sure the listeners are using headphones as well.
Front Panel Meters
VOLT’s left-most two meters are Left and Right processor input, with LEDs stepped from -28
to 0dBFS. These behave like standard digital level meters. The top (red) LED lights when the
signal reaches -0.05 dBFS or higher.
VOLT: SG has higher resolution input meters.
Input calibration is particularly critical with this DSP|Core, since it’s designed for program levels that
have already been controlled by a separate Omnia VOLT or other audio processor.
When running VOLT: SG, the front-panel input LED meters above -12 dBFS light for each 0.4 dB, rather
than each 4 dB.
The next 11 meters read the Gain Reduction [“GR”] in each of VOLT’s AGC and Limiter
sections, calibrated between -3 and -24 dB. The red LED at the bottom of each stack lights when
that section’s Gate is activated. There are 6 AGC meters (wideband, then the five individual
frequency bands), and 5 Limiter meters (one for each frequency band).
About GR Meters
The operation of a Gain Reduction meter might seem backwards, compared to the normal meters
on consoles and ampliers. When an AGC or limiter’s input signal is soft, the gain control algorithm
doesn’t need to lower the gain: only the top LED will be lit, showing 0 dB reduction. As the signal gets
louder, more reduction is applied, so LEDs below the top one start to light up. The meter “lls down-
ward” as volume increases.
These GR meters let you see how VOLT is conditioning your signal levels in real-time. The amount
of Gain Reduction at any moment depends on your signal… as interpreted by multiple parameters
provided by the preset, the QuickTweak controls, individual processor settings on the remote control,
and of course the nature of Omnia’s algorithms.
Experienced operators keep one eye on the GR meters and both ears on the loudspeakers while
adjusting a station’s sound.
CHAPTER 4
| 18
FRONT PANEL AND LCD
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