OMEGA 2
MANUAL / DESIGN NOTES
I/O & VU METERS
Input / Output gain controls adjust gain pre- or post- effect, with a range of +/- 12dB
0VU Trim determines what dBFS value corresponds to 0dBu on the VU meter. The default is -18dBFS = 0dBu.
INTENSITY
Each Omega 2 plugin is designed to focus the ear on different aspects of a sound's often-hidden personality. Increasing the 'Intensity' knob gradually brings that character into focus and then, if you keep pushing, will light it up until it glows.
Phase
Sometimes a sound just works better flipped. Activating this push-button will flip the phase of the Omega 2's output.
-20dB Pad
Activating the -20dB pad trims the Input signal by -20dB and increases the Output by +20dB, giving Omega an additional 20dB of headroom. This allows for a wider range of subtle effects before heavier distortions kick in, especially on input signals that are hotter in level to begin with.
Pass Filters
Phase-friendly HPF and LPF filters shape the sound before it hits the Saturation engine.
6 • 12 • 18 • 24
Selectable dB/octave filter slope.
XY CONTROL
Allows simultaneous control over the Lo- and Hi-Pass filters. Dragging Horizontally on the X axis increases or decreases the LPF cutoff. Dragging vertically on the Y axis increases or decreases the HPF cutoff.
BLEND/MAKEUP
BLEND blends the unprocessed Input signal with the post-Makeup signal.
MAKEUP Raises or lowers the gain of the signal post-distortion, pre-Blend.
XY CONTROL
Allows simultaneous control over Blend and Makeup, similar to using both hands to tweak a piece of analog gear. Dragging horizontally increases or decreases the post-distortion Blend. Dragging vertically increases or decreases the amount of Makeup gain.
notes from the designer
If you’ve used the original Omegas, you’ll recognize Omega 2’s distortions, because they’re exactly the same. What we changed is everything around those distortions.
For the last decade we've obsessed over ways that subtle filtering, both before and after distortion, can shape an overall tonal curve that sounds like a natural result of the saturation rather than a separate, pasted-on effect. So rather than mess with the distortions we love, we left them untouched and used the original Magpha EQ algorithms to gently focus each saturation more on the parts of the signal where it naturally excels.
To our ears, the result is a bigger, more open sound at lower settings while remaining surprisingly smooth at more aggressive settings.
With the sonics handled, we turned to workflow and added just enough controls to increase the versatility of these plugins, while retaining the simplicity at the core of the originals. So Omega 2 remains centered around a single Intensity control, and every other control exists to shape what Intensity does.