AudioArts Voice 1 Voice Processor

Dynamics Processing tools


A high-performance and fully adjustable downward expander, de-esser, and smooth sounding broadband compressor create a powerful and authoritative presence on-air. 

Processing Presets

A variety of ready-to-use factory processing presets are provided, carefully tailored for different processing goals and formats. You can select a factory preset, confident that it will sound great just as it is. Or use a factory preset as a starting point and create a custom sound for each announcer, then save the new settings as a personalized user preset. In a facility with multiple microphone processors, presets saved in one unit can be easily copied to the others.

Wheatstone-designed Equalization

Based on great-sounding designs built for Wheatstone’s other high-performance professional audio applications, the Voice 1’s equalization section operates predictably and adds no noise, ringing, phasiness, or other undesirable coloration to the sound.

SQ (Super Quiet) Mic Preamps

Found in all Wheatstone processors, Voice 1’s SQ mic preamps ensure that your audio begins its journey to your listeners in the cleanest environment available. Wheatstone has taken its 30-year history of clean console microphone preamps and married it with advanced audio tools for EQ, Expansion, Compression, and De-Essing for mic processors that have quickly become the industry standard.

Networkable: WheatNet-IP and AES67 compatible

Voice 1 can be used as a standalone voice processor, or it can be used as part of your WheatNet-IP audio network or as part of any AES67 compatible network. Setup is easy. When enabling the WheatNet-IP or AES67 option, Voice 1 will present you with the information you need for configuration, including multicast address, port number and packet type.  As a WheatNet-IP audio network device, Voice 1 includes routable I/O and logic control to trigger settings based on events, microphones, and talent.

DECENT MICROPHONE INPUT

With noise figures within 1dB of the theoretical minimum, Wheatstone mic processors have a fairly high input impedance, high available gain and substantial headroom. The gain setting is digitally recallable, and can follow changes in presets. 48V phantom power (for most condenser microphones and a small handful of active ribbon microphones) is selectable.

PLENTY OF INPUT HEADROOM

As an example, Voice 1 has 32dB of input headroom, which is comparable to the best recording consoles — meaning one has to try very hard to break it! 

CAREFULLY CHOSEN DECORRELATOR PARAMETERS

These allow good performance over all voices, not just males. The 24dB/octave high-pass and low-pass filters (steep!) are constructed using lower 'Q's than is usual, rendering them sonically less disruptive. (Time-smearing has always been an issue with aggressive filters otherwise.)

NO FALSE-TRIGGERED GATING

The Voice 1 gate's sidechain is filtered to voice frequencies, radically reducing false triggering with those attendant annoying bursts of noise. In particular, table and microphone 'bumps' won't wake up the gate. Fine control over attenuation depth, threshold, and closing time affords transparent operation. 

SUBTLE AND SELECTIVE DE-ESSING

Rather than just a button, there is full control over the de-esser's threshold (where it decides how much 'ess' is enough), the center frequency, and recovery time. Not so obvious is that the Voice 1 de-esser attenuates only the frequency range sensed, unlike the wholesale broadband attenuation of many other units. This makes its action much less obvious. 

EQUALIZATION, A MIXTURE OF OLD AND NEW

The shelving sections are a mathematically exact emulation of a classic (1950s) Baxandall tone-control circuit, but with modern twists. The turnover frequencies are continuously variable, allowing fine-tuning of proximity-effect reduction at the low-frequency end, and choice of 'air' EQ (extreme high frequencies) or far more aggressive 'presence' EQ (high mids) — or anything in between. This is a highly versatile combination. Two fully parametric sections permit more surgical sonic control; although operationally identical to others, these circuits are more complex than standard 'cookbook' parametric sections, with the intention of offering EQ that does what one would expect equalization to do, rather than baldly perform as normal. The key to the equalizer overall is that through carefully chosen defaults, 'shapes', and sonic characteristics, things just fall to hand nicely to accomplish what the operator wants with minimum effort, rather than making him fight for it. 

COMPRESSION, ANOTHER BLEND OF CLASSIC AND MODERN 

The Voice 1 compressor design started out as a challenge to make 'the most analog-sounding digital compressor possible'. This it does, if not by direct emulation of classics, then certainly with serious nods to their salient characteristics — but with modern sensibilities applied. Signal sensing that algorithmically blends between peak- and power-sensing detectors, a very graceful soft-knee characteristic, and compound program dependent multiple release rates assure a smooth-sounding sonic result. Underlying the compressor itself is a slow-rate AGC, which allows the section to perform both level correction and more rapid compression effects simultaneously and transparently. The sidechain is subtly filtered to avoid 'bass build-up' and other sonic undesirables. The equalizer is switchable to be either before or after the compressor, as each style of operation has its own benefits. 

SUPER-RATE PROCESSING