JOE WALLACE: Today we’re going to look at the Lexicon Omega desktop recording solution. We’re going to examine what this unit is all about, the kinds of inputs it can handle, and we’re going to see how it interfaces with the included Cubase LE digital audio workstation software bundled with the Omega. And we will, as part of the series, take a look at the Pantheon VST reverb plugin which a lot of users rave about when they talk about the Omega, and we’ll start pretty basic with the first video here. We’re just going to take a look at the unit itself, the inputs and other little handy features.

At the top here, we’ve got gain for Mic 1 and 2. Just below Mic 1 and 2, we’ve got four line gain controls, and the image might be a little small but you may notice just to the right of each gain control, there is a peak LED. Now, these LEDs will light up when the input is within about 5 dB of analog clipping. Now, if the peak LEDs flicker once in a while, that means that the signal is coming close to clipping but it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to get clipping but beware when that light starts staying on.

You can record four separate channels at once. On playback, each of these sources are going to be on its own. They’ll be separate tracks panned anywhere in the mix that you like. On the left, you see the monitor mix control. Now, this is an interesting feature. The Omega let’s you hear analog input signals direct and without adjusting levels in software. In other words, this is a zero latency analog monitoring feature, and you can basically control this with the monitor mix knob. You adjust the blend between the Omega’s live analog inputs to any sounds coming back from the computer through USB cable and to adjust the playback mix coming back from the computer, use the faders on the mixer screen of the software. If you want to hear only the live source input signals plugged into the Omega, just turn the mix knob all the way to the left. If you only want to hear the mix coming from the computer, turn the mix knob all the way to the right and then you’ve got playback. The output from the monitor mix control is sent directly to the line and headphone outputs that you control the levels of playback and basically decide how latency free you want to go.

Now, to the right here is the output level knob that controls the overall output level for the line and the headphone outputs. Directly below the monitor mix, you’ll notice that we have an instrument input here, and that corresponds directly to Line 3. That is the only front accessible in for instruments. All of the other inputs are on the back. You’ll notice that on each stage for Mic 1 and Mic 2, Line 1, Line 2, Line 3 and Line 4, the print is kind of small here but you basically have the choice to monitor in stereo or in mono depending on what you select. You just press the button in for mono or press it out for stereo, and this top stage here on each of the three sections is your USB assign. You can assign USB 1 and 2 or USB 3 and 4 for each of the three sections here. But directly below that is the meter assign section where if you leave this punched out, it meters for 1 and 2. If you press in it meters for 3 and 4.

I’m going to turn the unit around now and we will take a look at the various inputs on the back of the unit. We have lines in for channels 1 and 2, 3 and 4. Here is your XLR mic input and a second XLR input. There’s a 20-dB pad here. You just press the button in for the 20-dB pad, pretty simple stuff for the Lexicon Omega.

The Lexicon Omega is compatible with both Windows and Macintosh. You basically need at a minimum a Pentium III 500 MHz or an AMD K7 processor or better. They recommend the Pentium IV or an Athlon 1 GHz or faster. The operating system needs to be Windows XP Home or XP Pro. It’s recommended at 0.5 GB of RAM and 1 GB of hard drive space.