3 May 2002, Cleveland, OH USA

Kirk Yano, Internationally-known music producer and recording engineer, will attend the 112th Audio Engineering Society convention in Munich as a special guest of Telos Systems / Omnia, demonstrating the new Omnia-6cd, a digital processor specifically designed for audio mastering studios.

Yano, Grammy award winner and owner of New York’s renowned Planet To Planet recording studio, has done recording and mixing work for a number of notable artists including Mariah Carey, Blues Traveler, Miles Davis, Public Enemy and Puff Daddy, to name just a few. Visitors to AES can meet him at the Telos / Omnia booth Friday, May 10 through Sunday, May 12.

“Omnia-6cd is a huge help in mastering CDs and even movie soundtracks,” says Kirk. “Although I have only had the product about a month, I can't imagine being without it. It makes everything sound great.” Yano recently used his Omnia-6cd to master the debut CD from Motown recording artist Her Sanity, as well as new releases from Davis Gaines and Mountain.

A multi-band processor based on the hugely popular Omnia-6fm found in top radio stations worldwide, Omnia-6cd employs a unique final limiter specially designed for Compact Disc mastering which eliminates the processor-induced aliasing distortion often generated when processing for a “hot” sound. It also provides precise peak control so that mastering can be done at 0 dBfs.

Omnia-6cd developed as a result of a trend in recording studio mastering practices, says Telos Systems President Frank Foti. “About three years ago, we began noticing that CDs arriving at radio stations had been pre-distorted in production or mastering to increase their apparent loudness.”

This practice is actually counter-productive, Foti explains: “Broadcast audio processors react to pre-distorted CDs exactly the same way they react to accidentally clipped material: they exaggerate the distortion. The end result is more grunge, not more loudness.”

So, applying lessons learned in broadcast processing, the Omnia development team devised a unique final limiter especially suited to the needs of the mastering environment. Using Omnia-6cd, harmonic energy from the clipping process is controlled and managed in the final limiter's filtering process, giving recording engineers the ability to master “hot” while avoiding offensive aliasing products.

Omnia is a pioneer in the field of digital audio processing, and Omnia audio processors were the first digital systems to offer an alias free clipping method that also controls harmonic distortion (THD). Using an innovative proprietary method, this system yields added perceived loudness yet retains the punch and clarity that is desired by so many producers and engineers in the broadcast and recording fields.

Omnia processors are used in 4 of 5 leading stations in New York, 2 of the 3 top stations in Los Angeles and 5 of 6 of the most listened to stations in the US. They are on the leading stations in Paris, all of the BBC’s FM stations in the UK, and the number one stations in Canada, Ireland, Germany, Finland, Australia, India, China, Denmark and Sweden.

Pricing and availability of Omnia-6cd are to be announced. To find out more about Omnia, browse www.omniaaudio.com, and visit Telos Systems / Omnia in Stand 4B21 at the 112th AES Convention in Munich, Germany, May 10th – 13th , 2002.

Telos Systems, with headquarters located in Cleveland, Ohio, and offices in Baltimore, Maryland; San Diego, California; and Freising, Germany is a leading manufacturer of ISDN, digital network and telephone interface products for talk-show programming, call-in radio segments, teleconferencing, audio production, remote broadcasts, and intercom applications.

Omnia, a Telos company, is world-renowned for its innovative digital audio signal processing expertise. Its family of digital audio processors for FM, AM, TV, DAB, Internet, and broadcast audio production are setting new standards for audio quality in the broadcast and Internet industries worldwide.