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Breakaway vs Omnia.9. Both running stock New York preset version that comes with each (some changes were made with Omnia.9 version to accommodate new features of the 9). 75uS emphasis. Realtime output from MpxTool. -3dB reference.
Breakaway vs Omnia 9 – Superbass.flac
Given that Breakaway’s clipper arguably sounds better than several other current boxes out there… I think you may find this enlightening as to how AWESOME the Omnia.9 can sound, even when operated at the extremes of signal physics. 😉
The second fragment is the Omnia, right? It sounds more agressive to me.
edit: Didn’t read the post title properly… Apparently it is using the composite embedder. So how come the difference?
The output from the Omnia.9 in this clip doesn’t seem to be as tightly controlled as it is in the clips from PFD2011. Has the mpx clipper been deactivated? Is the Omnia.9 also able to do L/R clipping instead?
And is it just me, or is the treble pretty muddy (for both Breakaway and Omnia.9)? Is it the source file’s fault?
Aside from that, wow! That’s some godly bass coming from the Omnia.9! 😯
[quote author=”Martin S”]edit: Didn’t read the post title properly… Apparently it is using the composite embedder. So how come the difference?[/quote]That’s the current public Breakaway, so it’s just an L/R clipper. Breakaway will never have a Composite Embedder for the foreseeable future.
[quote author=”Martin S”]The output from the Omnia.9 in this clip doesn’t seem to be as tightly controlled as it is in the clips from PFD2011. Has the mpx clipper been deactivated?[/quote]The MPX is much more tightly controlled than with Breakaway. The reason you’re seeing higher peaks is because it’s putting up to 160-170% audio into 100% modulation. So it’s peaking way above "0" before de-emphasis. With RDS the advantage is considerably more in favor of the Omnia.9. The reason you’re seeing more valleys is because I didn’t drive certain things quite as hard, to help compensate for the added loudness from the higher peak capabilities. This also allows more dynamics and space and clarity (on top of how much better the clipper itself is). =) The midrange is definitely not as crazily slammed, which isn’t a bad thing. 8)
[quote author=”Martin S”]Is the Omnia.9 also able to do L/R clipping instead?[/quote]No. There are no advantages to doing it. Only disadvantages.
[quote author=”Martin S”]And is it just me, or is the treble pretty muddy (for both Breakaway and Omnia.9)? Is it the source file’s fault?[/quote]Part of that does have to do with this being 75uS emphasis, and this is being driven as hard and loud as anything that’s ever been on the dial. Have you heard the original song?
[quote author=”Martin S”]Aside from that, wow! That’s some godly bass coming from the Omnia.9! 😯[/quote]Superbass. 😆 Yeah, especially at this extreme loudness.
Anyone else noticed that the Omnia clip is louder? If you level match them, Breakaway sounds more "up front". Yes the midrange is smashed… but it’s nowhere as bad as i hear on our local radio stations, and us here in Romania only have 50uS pre-emph so the clip should actually be worse than our radio stations, but it’s the other way round.
But the truth is that because Breakaway isn’t going to utilize anything groundbreaking in "foreseeable future", the Stereo Tool will come eventually and like a butcher, take this down 😛 (just predicting, that’s all!)
Never liked Stereotool, its loudness stage (the clipper) sounds very bad. The new declipping algorithm kicks ass tho. It’s funny – we go undoing other people’s clipping and processing, just so we can process and clip again before it hits the air. That’s kinda counter-productive if you ask me.
[quote author=”Modulator”]But the truth is that because Breakaway isn’t going to utilize anything groundbreaking in "foreseeable future", the Stereo Tool will come eventually and like a butcher, take this down 😛 (just predicting, that’s all!)[/quote]The Psychoacoustic Composite Embedder isn’t the only ground breaking thing in the Omnia.9. Hardly. 😉 There’s one thing in particular, Undo, which will be coming all the way down into the upcoming consumer-level Breakaway products. Just one example. 8) Anyways, it’s not a competition. It’s about what each of us personally like. There should be no other reason to use a different processor than the one you like the best, if it’s within your budget of course.
[quote author=”Th3_uN1Qu3″]Anyone else noticed that the Omnia clip is louder? If you level match them, Breakaway sounds more "up front".[/quote]Actually, on average, the Omnia.9 clip is about 0.2dB quieter. If it doesn’t sound that way, then your monitoring and room (or headphones) aren’t flat. I checked just now with an R128 meter, and my 3 calibrated setups back up what I’m hearing.
You can level match these, but you shouldn’t for any serious comparison between the two, because they are both recorded directly out of MpxTool’s output, with reference -3.0dB composite input. So the difference in levels is exactly like it would be on air.
[quote author=”Th3_uN1Qu3″]Yes the midrange is smashed… but it’s nowhere as bad as i hear on our local radio stations, and us here in Romania only have 50uS pre-emph so the clip should actually be worse than our radio stations, but it’s the other way round.[/quote]They need to step their game up. =)
[quote author=”Th3_uN1Qu3″] It’s funny – we go undoing other people’s clipping and processing, just so we can process and clip again before it hits the air. That’s kinda counter-productive if you ask me.[/quote]
It’s unfortunate that mastering has gotten so bad that we even need something like the Omnia.9’s Undo feature, I’ll grant you that, but not counter-productive. Here’s why:
Clipping already present in the source material (as the result of an agressively mastered CD, for example) puts traditional broadcast processors at an immediate disadvantage because they must pass all of that distorted audio through as-is. They have no way to "fix" it. The processor then clips it again, and adds clipping-induced distortion and artifacts of its own.
The 9’s Undo section ensures that the audio being fed to the subsequent processing stages is much cleaner and more dynamic than the souce audio, so right off the bat, the processor has better material to work with. Indeed, hearing music after Undo but before any processing whatsoever is testimony to its effectiveness – it already sounds better than the source material. Beyond that, though, its psychoacoustic composite embedder handles the clipping in such a way that you don’t hear clipper-induced artifacts like you do with other boxes – and there’s plenty of clipping going on.
Does good-sounding audio at the processors input matter? Yes! Listen to well-mastered audio (Steely Dan, Dire Straits) through ANY processor compared to the modern hyper-compressed stuff and there’s certainly a difference. Undo does a remarkable job of turning bad-sounding audio into something quite listenable.
Jim
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