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The Multiband AGC section has two primary functions.
The first is to build RMS energy which increases perceived loudness and delivers a more "processed" sound when compared to the original source material.
The second is to provide spectral consistency to the processed audio. This is often called the "sonic signature" of a stream or station. Songs that are bass-shy (think 70's rock) receive a boost in the lower frequencies. Songs that are overly bright (think synth-heavy 80's pop) get their top-end smoothed out.
Band Energy (B1 – B5): The primary method of achieving a particular frequency balance of the Multiband AGCs. Higher settings result in higher output levels from that band.
Per-Band Compression Boost: Available by expanding the "More" menu, these controls adjust the drive and activity of the Multiband AGCs on a per-band basis.
The Multiband Limiter section has two primary functions.
The first is to control audio peaks and transients in individual parts of the audio spectrum.
The second is to provide additional density and define the texture of the processed audio.
Density: Intelligently adjusts multiple parameters including the Drive and Threshold of all bands of the Multiband Limiter.
Higher settings increase the overall activity and density while maintaining approximately the same level of perceived loudness.
Spectral Tradeoff: Depending upon the nature of the program material (and of course various settings) traditional multiband limiters can significantly alter the "EQ curve" created by the multiband AGCs that precede them in an effort to produce additional density or better control peaks and transients to keep from over-working any downstream processing stages. Forza's multiband limiters can operate in this fashion, but also offer the ability to apply a varying degree of spectral correction to bring the balance more in line with what has been created in the multiband AGCs. The Spectral Tradeoff control adjusts how much spectral re-alignment occurs.
Moving the control to the right mimics the behavior of a traditional multiband limiter, allowing more overall spectral variation to achieve increased density and a cleaner sound but with more potential to change the frequency balance set by the Multiband AGCs.
Moving the control to the left reduces the amount of allowable spectral variation and better preserves the balance set by the Multiband AGCs but at the expense of density or cleanliness with some program material.
Per-Band Density: Available by expanding the "More" menu, these controls adjust the Drive and Threshold of the Multiband Limiters on a per-band basis.
Forza's controls can be roughly divided into six sections:
Texture: High-level "smart controls" that alter overall density and texture by adjusting multiple background parameters with a single knob or slider.
Wideband AGC: Adjusts the drive, density, and speed of the Wideband AGC.
Multiband AGC: Adjusts the density and spectral balance of the Multiband AGCs.
Bass: Contains the controls to adjust the amount of texture of the bass, including bass enhancement tools and bass clipper drive.
Multiband Limiter: Adjusts the density and spectral balance of the Multiband Limiters.
Final: Contains the controls pertaining to the output lowpass filter, Sensus® codec conditioning, final drive level, and ITU-R BS.1770 loudness leveler.
A full explanation of the controls in each section follows.
Omnia Presets are combinations of settings that have been carefully designed by our processing architects with a unique sonic outcome in mind. If you find one that meets your needs, it can be used as-is without modification.
Or, they can be used as foundational starting points to create your own signature sound by adjusting various controls in the user interface, then saving the changes as a custom user preset.
Each Omnia Preset offers a different combination of density, texture, perceived loudness, and spectral balance.
The first ten are general-purpose presets for music and are arranged with the most neutral, least processed-sounding options at the top of the list.
The last three are format-specific and designed especially for Classical, Talk, and Sports as these programs typically need a more specialized approach to processing.
Natural - Natural is an open-sounding preset that preserves transients and overall dynamic range. It provides a neutral but consistent frequency balance without noticeably boosting any part of the audio spectrum, making it a good starting point for customization.
Bright - Bright is similar to Natural in texture, but with more clarity in the presence region of the spectrum.
Clear – Clear is similar to Bright but with more prominent highs to provide extra sparkle and brilliance, and a bit more bass for balance.
Smooth - Compared to Natural, Smooth offers stronger bass and more spectral consistency.
Full – Compared to Smooth, Full has a bit more density with more prominent bass, smoother highs, and a warmer sound overall.
Forward - Forward has a similar texture to Full but with more bass, more brightness, and less overall warmth.
Slam - Slam is similar to Forward in the mid-range but with a strong, hard-hitting bass texture and a brighter top end.
Punchy - Punchy offers the warmth of Full but with crisper highs. It delivers a more polished sound without sounding overly processed.
Dense - Dense has a brighter, more compressed "radio-like" sound and renders a very consistent spectral output regardless of the frequency balance of the source material.
Hot – Like Dense, Hot has a processed sound overall but with stronger bass, less warmth in the mid-bass, and a noticeable presence boost.
Bold – Bold is similar to Dense but with noticeably more bass and more prominent highs. It offers the most processed sound of all the Omnia Presets.
Classical - Classical is specifically designed to transparently yet effectively deal with source material that has very wide dynamic range. It provides gentle re-equalization but stays relatively true to the spectral balance of the source material. It also employs a longer integration time in the BS.1770 loudness leveler than other Omnia presets to allow more overall deviation from the LUFS target.
Talk - Talk is optimized for voice and makes use of the phase rotator to help smooth out asymmetrical peaks. It uses fast multiband attack and release rates to help control the widely varying levels typical of multi-mic studios and call-in programs.
Sports - Like Talk, Sports is optimized for voice but with slower attack and release rates and more active wideband and multiband gating to prevent crowd and background noise from increasing during announcer pauses.
Click on one of the available Omnia Presets in the list (A) to highlight it, which will immediately apply your selection. The Omnia Preset name will also be displayed in the Current window (B).
Note - Regardless of the Omnia Preset you select, most of the controls in the Forza UI will be at their center position to allow adjustment in either direction (the exceptions being the Bass controls). Note that the actual "behind the scenes" values associated with the controls may be different from one Omnia Preset to another.
Also note that the Bandwidth, Sensus® Conditioning, LUFS target level, and Peak level are higher-level I/O settings that do not change when a different Omnia Preset is selected.
As soon as you adjust one of the processing controls, the Current window will change to a "MODIFIED" status (C) indicating that some change has been made to the original Omnia Preset but not yet saved.
Note - Please see the sections on Processing Controls and Getting the Sound You Want for detailed information about adjusting the processing.
Any altered controls (D) (which include Thrust along with Wideband AGC Drive, Normalization Power, and Speed in Figure 2 below) will visibly indicate that they have been changed and to what degree.
Clicking on the same Omnia Preset from the list will immediately discard any unsaved changes and return you to the original Omnia Preset. Clicking on any other Omnia Preset will discard unsaved changes and switch to the new preset.
To save your changes and create a new user preset, click in the box with the diskette icon (E) and choose Save As... (F) from the dropdown list. Give your new preset a name, then click "OK."
The Current window (G) will now display the name of your new preset, which is duplicated in the Last Saved window (H).
Note - When recalling a user preset, the Omnia Preset upon which it was based will be highlighted in the Omnia Presets list, providing a useful reminder of your starting point. Be sure to look at the Current window to determine if the highlight is referencing an unmodified Omnia Preset or the basis for a saved user preset.
Once one or more user presets have been saved, clicking in the Current window (I) will reveal the user preset list. Clicking on any of the presets will immediately take it to air. To delete a user preset, click on the trash can icon (J) next to the preset name.
Note - Presets loaded in the Current or Last Saved position cannot be deleted and will not have a trash can icon next to their name.
The import feature allows Forza user presets that were created on a different machine to be saved to your local host machine and uploaded to your Forza instance.
Click on the diskette icon (K), then click on Import Preset (L). A dialog box will open; navigate to the location of the desired preset, highlight it, then click "Open" (or simply double-click the preset file). A confirmation dialog box will appear. Once confirmed, the file will be uploaded and available from your user preset list.
The export feature allows you to save a Forza user preset you have created on your local machine either as a means of saving and safeguarding a copy for your own use later or for sharing and uploading to a different Forza instance.
Click on the diskette icon (M), then click on Import Preset (L). A dropdown list of available user presets will appear. Select the preset you wish to export, then click the "Export" button. The file will be downloaded to your Downloads folder (or whatever folder on your computer has been designated as the default for downloads).
Forza's user interface is web-based, and any mainstream browser (including Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Microsoft Edge) will work. As the UI is based on HTML5, a larger monitor will provide a better experience. It may be necessary to adjust the zoom level within the browser window to make the entire UI visible without the need to scroll on smaller screens.
To access Forza, enter the IP address of the host computer followed by a colon and the port number (3000) as follows, where "x" represents the IP address: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:3000.
Forza's processing controls are adjusted either by dials or by vertical or horizontal sliders.
Use a mouse or touchpad to position the cursor directly over the control you wish to adjust. Left-click and hold, then drag up and down to make adjustments to dials and vertical sliders, or drag left and right to adjust horizontal sliders.
You may also place your cursor over the control, then scroll or use the up/down arrows on the keyboard. Or, simply left-click anywhere in the control's range to affect an immediate change.
A box displaying a specific value will appear briefly while you are making the adjustment.
Controls whose values are always displayed can be adjusted by placing the cursor over the box, left-clicking, then scrolling, using the up/down arrows on the keyboard, or typing in the desired value followed by the Enter key.
The controls in this section are used to tune the level and texture of the bass.
The rule of "a little goes a long way" applies here, so make small adjustments and listen carefully over time using a variety of source material and a variety of speakers. Consider how your target audience will listen to your content. Boosting very low frequencies may sound good on higher-end home and car stereos, but tablets, mobile phones, and smart speakers are often incapable of reproducing these frequencies.
Bear in mind that changes to these controls can affect downstream processing stages and introduce audible artifacts in higher frequency ranges if not adjusted properly.
Deep Bass: Applies a static boost to the lowest bass frequencies.
Girth Bass: Adds subtle low-mid to upper-bass detail. The effect is program-dependent and is similar to the "Phat Bass" control found in other Omnia processors.
Warm Bass: Applies a static boost to mid and upper bass frequencies.
Bass Texture: Determines how much bass peak control is performed by the first band of the multiband limiters vs. the bass clipper. Settings toward "MB" will result in more bass limiting and a softer texture, while settings toward "Clip" will allow more peaks through to the bass clipper for more "slam" on low-frequency transients.
Bass Clipper Drive: Adjusts the drive to the Bass Clipper. Higher settings can add "punch" and "slam" to the bass, but too-high settings can introduce audible distortion on some material.
The Final menu contains the controls that manage Forza's final processing stages and output level.
Bandwidth: Sets the cutoff of the output lowpass filter. Streaming audio typically relies upon the use of lossy codecs that discard bits of data in order to reduce the required bandwidth. The effects of such data compression, especially when using less capable codecs and lower bitrates, can become audible in the higher frequencies. Adjusting the Bandwidth control to filter out frequencies above a certain threshold can help minimize such artifacts, though at the expense of dulling the sound.
Sensus Conditioning: Sets the frequency range of the dynamic conditioning applied to the audio to help mitigate audible coding artifacts, much like the "Sensus Frequency" control in the Omnia.11 processor.
Higher settings increase the available range to include lower frequencies, allowing the algorithm to react to more of the audio spectrum.
Lower settings decrease the range, allowing the algorithm to work on a narrower portion of the audio spectrum more limited to higher frequencies.
Setting this control to "0" disables codec conditioning altogether.
LUFS Target: Sets the desired loudness target for the ITU-R BS.1770 LUFS/LKFS loudness controller. The main Forza algorithm provides very consistent output levels, but variations in the energy and texture of the source material can still cause variations in excess of what is tolerable on a particular streaming platform or service. The loudness leveler measures and adjusts the output level to ensure a consistent "set and forget" long-term loudness target.
Note - The loudness controller can be disabled entirely where strict long-term loudness management is not required by clicking on the "Power" button at the top of the BS.1770 meter.
Peak Target: Sets the highest allowable peak value to prevent overshoots which can cause distortion at the output of Forza or at the input to downstream encoders.
Final Drive: Adjusts the drive to the Bass Clipper and the Final Limiter.
Higher settings will result in increased loudness and density, but care must be taken when making adjustments here since the affected parameters are at the very end of the processing path.
Forza features three powerful high-level controls that offer a quick way to alter the overall processing texture and density by changing multiple parameters in the background with a single adjustment: Thrust, Activity Balance, and Limiting Balance.
Thrust: Adjusting the Thrust control is the easiest way to achieve more or less overall processing without having to adjust individual settings.
Thrust affects Multiband AGC drive, Multiband Limiter drive, the Bass Clipper, and the Final Limiter.
Small adjustments to the Thrust control will have more of an effect on the Multiband AGCs, while larger adjustments yield more changes in the Multiband Limiters.
Activity Balance: The Activity Balance slider controls the amount of processing taking place in the Multiband AGC section compared to the Multiband Limiters.
Sliding the control toward "Compression" works the Multiband AGCs harder in comparison to the Multiband Limiters. Sonically, this tends to provide a more homogenized and compressed sound overall while allowing peaks and transients (such as the attack of a snare drum) to pass through. This can help create a more dynamic and "punchy" sound, especially with "peaky" material (think of well-recorded music such as Steely Dan).
Sliding the control toward "Limiting" relaxes the multiband AGCs and transfers more of the heavy lifting to the Multiband Limiters. This approach can make music sound less "squashed" and compressed overall but at the expense of attenuating transients.
Limiting Balance: Though the Multiband Limiters and Final Limiter are designed to work together, adjusting the balance between them can have a very audible effect on the texture of the processing.
Sliding the control toward "MB" relies more on the Multiband Limiters. This approach ensures that high peaks in one band won't affect the audio outside of that particular frequency range, but can cause unwanted density or spectral compromise in the Multiband Limiter section.
Sliding the control more toward "Final" relaxes the Multiband Limiters and drives the Final Limiter harder. This avoids building up too much multiband density and the "busy" sound that can result, but controlling peaks in one frequency range can sometimes cause audible artifacts elsewhere in the spectrum. Driving the final limiter too hard can also flatten transients to the point of making music with a high peak-to-average ratio sound lifeless, so adjust with care.
The level of the unprocessed source audio is displayed on the Input Meters. The Output Meters show the level of the processed audio.
The blue bars show the individual level and activity of the left and right channels of the Wideband AGC.
If the audio has settled into a window where no additional correction is necessary, the meters will turn red and stop moving. When the audio falls below the gate threshold - the point at which any additional increase in gain is undesirable - the meters will remain red and begin moving toward zero.
Note - The range of the "do nothing" window, the gate threshold, and the speed at which the AGC returns to zero once gated are determined by inherent settings in each individual Omnia Preset.
The blue bars show the level and activity of each of the five bands in the Multiband AGC. When the audio falls below the gate threshold, the meters will turn red and begin moving toward 0.
The dark gray section at the of the meter marks the maximum allowable gain increase for each band.
Note - The gate threshold, the speed at which the AGC returns to zero once gated, and the maximum allowable gain for each band are determined by inherent settings in each individual Omnia Preset.
The blue bars show the level and activity of each band of the Multiband Limiter.
The floating white bar across all bands indicates the amount of spectral compensation being applied as set by the Spectral Tradeoff control. More variation in the blue bars above this line indicates the limiters have more latitude to alter the spectral balance to provide more consistent loudness and fewer artifacts.
The blue bar shows the level and activity of the soft bass clipper. The magenta bar shows the level and activity of the hard bass clipper.
Note - Some Omnia Presets may use only the soft or hard clipper, while others may use both or neither depending on their sonic goals.
The blue bars show the individual level and activity of the left and right channels of the Final Limiter. The meter is an indicator of actual peak levels, not necessarily of how hard the limiter is being driven. Therefore, its activity may not directly correlate to the audible effects of the limiter.
The blue bar shows the amount of Sensus conditioning being applied to dynamically optimize the audio for lossy codecs. When Sensus is disabled by setting the Sensus Conditioning slider to 0, the meter will be grayed out but will still deflect indicating how much activity would be taking place if Sensus were enabled and set to the default level as set by the selected Omnia Preset.
The blue bar indicates the level and activity of the ITU-R BS.1770-based loudness leveler. The meter turns red when the audio falls below the threshold where additional level correction is necessary to maintain the target output level set by the LUFS control.
The loudness leveler can be enabled and disabled by clicking on the Power button at the top of the meter.
Note - Depending upon how much correction is being performed by the leveler in order to achieve the desired target level, enabling and disabling it may result in sudden output gain changes.
Source input audio levels are often very inconsistent. Songs may have been imported into an automation system at different levels over the years. Modern music is mastered at much higher levels than material from 20 or 30 years ago. Live sports and talk formats are a challenge to mix well due to multiple microphones and phone calls.
The Wideband AGC automatically compensates for those variations and also keeps the levels in downstream processing stages consistent. It is often described as a "slow hand on the fader."
Drive: Adjusts the gain to the input of the Wideband AGC. More drive results in more gain reduction which in turn allows low-level audio to be increased more. Adjust the Drive control so that the average program material puts the Wideband AGC meters around 0 (mid-scale).
Normalization Power: Simultaneously adjusts the Ratio and Threshold of the Wideband AGC. Higher settings provide more source-to-source consistency and more overall Wideband AGC activity.
Speed: Simultaneously adjusts the Wideband AGC Attack and Release rates. Higher settings will more quickly and aggressively attenuate high-level audio and boost low-level audio, but settings that are too fast can cause audible "pumping."
