Omnia Audio Omnia.11 - Manual (Page 63)

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There are 4 variable controls and 2 switches located in the WB AGC Basic tab menu area:
Drive controls the amount of drive to the WB AGC
stage over a + or – 12 dB range. Increasing the
drive causes deeper gain reduction to be achieved.
This allows quieter passages in the input audio to
be raised further than if lesser drive was used. By
default, if your input levels are correctly set, there
will nominally be about 12-18dB of WB AGC gain
reduction with normal “0VU” program audio
playing from your console or automation system.
WB AGC Menu (Basic Tab)
Gate Thresh (Gate Threshold): When the input audio falls below a certain level, the gain control action of the
AGC stage is “frozen” by the gate. The level at which this freeze, or hold takes place is controlled by the setting of
the Gate Threshold control. Higher settings cause the gate to activate at higher audio levels, causing more overall
gating. In most applications this control should be adjusted between about -30dB and -40dB to cause gating action
to occur when the input audio falls about that much below nominal. The action of gate also prevents noise rush up
during periods of no (or quieter) audio or during pauses in speech.
NOTE: Gating activity is indicated by a bright yellow outline around the blue gain-reduction meter and may show
more gating activity than you may be used to on conventional processors. In fact, it may look like the WB AGC is
gated most of the time. This is normal! It is due to the Omnia.11’s new smart windowed gating algorithms. (see
Window and Pause Threshold in the Advanced tab section on the next page for more info)
Don’t worry! This WB AGC will intelligently ride gain for you over a wider range with less side-effects than ever
before, keeping the following processing sections nicely in the “sweet spot”.
Attack: The attack control adjusts how fast the AGC responds to sudden increases in audio level, and higher
numbers equate to faster response times. Faster attack times reduce the transient nature of the input audio, while
slower attack times improve it. Omnia.11’s WB AGC is designed to work effectively with slow attack times. In
fact, be careful about using extremely fast attack times because these may cause sudden downward level shifts on
peaks during dynamic program material, dulling the natural transient nature of the program material. These peaks
are best controlled later in the Omnia.11’s Limiter section.
Release: The release control adjusts how fast the AGC recovers from periods of more gain reduction when the input
audio levels fall. Faster release times (higher numbers) result in quieter sections of the program material being
brought up faster. Try not to set the release too fast though, since that can cause the loss of the program material’s
natural dynamic “feel”.
Phase Rot (Phase Rotator): The phase rotator improves waveform symmetry for program material that is highly
asymmetrical in nature. Examples of such programming are the human voice, and sources with non-sinusoidal
waveforms such as certain string and wind instruments, as well as certain sounds created by electronic synthesizers.
By removing waveform asymmetry from the input program material, cleaner processing results because any limiting
that occurs is able to work equally on both positive and negative excursions of the audio waveform. We recommend
that this be turned on unless you have phase rotation enabled in your microphone processors.
Engage enables (ON) or bypasses (OFF) the WB AGC section.