Great sounding radio in any form (over-the-air, streaming, podcasts, etc) is a culmination of many factors. Believe it or not, you know when you’re hearing a great-sounding station. It has that ‘larger-than-life’ presence. The audio envelopes your ears in an exciting and magical way! There’s something about the signal that locks it in and you rip the knob off. Mix this with incredible content, and amazing things occur!

In the wild (and sometimes wacky) world of audio processing, there are many variables that contribute to the final result. Many discussions, and debates, have ensued over topics such as wideband or multiband: If multiband – how many bands, analog or digital, use phase rotation or not? EQ – what kind? And the list goes on. While all of these contribute to the final result, there’s one function that actually defines the audio signature more so than all of these, and that is the final section, known as the hard limiter, or clipper.

Before starting Omnia, I was very lucky to have worked at a couple of extremely successful radio stations, WMMS-FM, Cleveland, and WHTZ-FM (Z-100), NYC, where we prided ourselves on being the best. Anything other than #1 in the ratings was not an option. The motivation for Omnia growing from ‘worst-to-first’ was highly influenced by Z-100’s historic (and never since duplicated) journey from ‘worst-to-first’ in only one ratings period, in 1983. For Omnia (now a part of The Telos Alliance) it took a little longer to dislodge the long-time leader.

Frank Foti, founder of Omnia, has a new blog series! This six-part series will cover everything you ever wanted to know about broadcast audio processing from the man who practically invented the category. This month we are kicking it off with Frank's views on great sound, and why it matters more than anything else when it comes to audio attracting and retaining listeners...longer. 

Have you ever experienced something surreal? Recently, I had reason to visit and work at Abbey Road Studio in London, and it still seems surreal!! My colleague Jayson Tomlin, Gary Katz (producer of Steely Dan), and myself were there to do testing and evaluation of some new technologies we’ve been working on for broadcast and consumer applications.

Recently, I had the pleasure to have lunch with a good friend, Gary Katz. If that name sounds familiar - it should - Gary produced just about all of the albums for a little ol’ musical group you may know… Steely Dan! We were comparing notes about audio in the broadcast field, as well as life in the world of recording and music producing. He expressed how it has always been critical and vital for recording engineers, producers, and even the musicians to ‘hear’ the latest and greatest in technology. This is a practice that is still very common today.

Present-day audio clipping systems all employ methods to control distortion. Of interest is that each of these use a static method to mask harmonic distortion when clipping is active. Intermodulation (IMD), due to added presence and high frequency spectra, has overtaken the problem that once was dominated by harmonic distortion. Suffice it to say, all clipping methods must employ some form of harmonic distortion control, or they will not operate sufficiently enough to generate competitive sounding on-air audio. Modern content now requires additional processing means to reduce induced IMD.

IT’S NOT! WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!

Back when I was in grade school (a time long before electricity), the tallest building in the world was the Empire State Building in New York City. The majesty of that building has always held a special place in my heart; that’s why, in the summer of 1983, it was even more special that I got involved with a project that was to add a twelfth FM radio station to Master FM Antenna System at Empire.