ORIA from Audient is a professional grade audio interface and monitor controller purpose built as an advanced audio interface for mixing Dolby Atmos compliant immersive audio.
ORIA is designed with a dual purpose and can be integrated into your studio in two ways. Firstly, ORIA can be used as an all-in-one studio solution, acting as both your USB-C audio interface and monitor controller. Secondly, you can also integrate ORIA as a standalone monitor controller in a more complex studio configuration where you can take advantage of ORIA’s advanced multi-channel monitoring capabilities.
ORIA’s advanced onboard DSP processing lets you create custom onboard calibration profiles presets for any monitoring format from stereo to surround to 9.1.6 immersive setups making the process of reference checking your mix in different monitoring formats quick and easy. Each profile is a collection of levels, calibration parameters and choice of speakers condensed into one easy-to-use interface. ORIA is designed to let you calibrate, control, and monitor multi-channel speaker arrays from stereo up to 9.1.6 speaker setups that have been correctly calibrated to your particular acoustic space as well as store and recall profiles for different immersive audio speaker setups. Using ORIA’s onboard DSP, each speaker can be adjusted using an 8-band EQ, per-speaker delay lines, individual level trims to compensate for level differences, and has advanced bass management controls, so if some of your speakers in your studio setup are smaller bass response, you can send the low end to the subwoofer.
You might for example have your 9.1.6 immersive speaker setup, calibrated at 85dB with a flat tonal signature, which can be stored as profile number one. If you needed to check the same speaker setup with a Dolby Atmos music curve, you could store that as profile 2. If you want to mix on a completely separate set of stereos near field speakers with their own calibration settings, you can make that profile 3. Up to 32 profiles can be stored on the ORIAS for ease and convenience, and up to four of these profiles can be saved as favorites and switched between with a single press of the button on the front of the unit, or from the iPad remote, giving you full access to ORIA if it is installed in a machine rack away from your mixing desk.
Let’s assume you are using ORIA in an acoustically treated acoustic environment with multiple speakers correctly placed around your mixing position. To set up ORIA, the first step is to plug in your surround speakers via the analog TRS or AES outputs on the back of ORIA. Next, connect your near-field speakers to the two dedicated stereo output pairs, which are relay-switched from the first two left and right channel outputs. Note that these two stereo pairs can be used independently of your immersive speaker configuration, meaning you can keep your favorite near fields dedicated to stereo mixing.
To allow you accurately calibrate your multi-channel speaker configuration, Audient teamed up with Sonarworks to provide deep integration between the companies SoundID reference software and ORIA’s onboard advanced DSP speaker processing. ORIA unit ships with a SoundID reference measurement microphone and includes a 60-day trial subscription for SoundID’s multi-channel reference software. Using the SoundID measurement microphone which is included with ORIA alongside SoundID reference software gives you the ability to accurately measure and calibrate a multi-channel speaker setup. Once you have created a Sonarworks calibration profile, it can be directly loaded into ORIA’s onboard DSP, meaning your room stays calibrated while taking the load off of your CPU.
ORIA has the ability to check your work on non-immersive combinations of speakers, such as 7.1, 5.1 or stereo, to make sure everything you have been working on in your immersive audio mix translates down channel to everyone in your audience. Audient worked with Dolby to let you take control of your Dolby renderer’s downmix functionality directly from ORIA, which avoids having to switch screens in the middle of a session. ORIA lets you quickly cycle through different downmix formats using ORIA’s dedicated hardware control or from the available free iPad app.
The ORIA app software suite features an advanced set of tools designed to integrate into the workflow a professional film score composer or postproduction or mastering engineer will need. The ORIA software app gives you full control of ORIA’s front panel motion UI control or iPad app, to control calibrated volume levels as well as choose which speakers are active, check your metering and switch between different user profiles. Speaker groups are color coded for quick navigation, per speaker and speaker group mutes and solos are reflected as you make changes, as well as global volume dim and cut.
Other monitoring functions like return to reference level can be assigned to the user defined function button on ORIA’s front panel. If you are working in film post-production, making sure your audio and video is coordinated and Audient has included a global lip sync delay, which can be stored in each profile. This allows you to switch between low latency monitoring for recording sessions and perfectly synchronized video with no complex reset needed. ORIA’s software app will also provide the currently selected renderer status, so you know which formats you are monitoring at all times.
As an audio interface, ORIA provides more than enough I/O to take on immersive audio mixes while also having the flexibility to operate as a multi-channel recording interface. Connecting via a high-speed USB-C connection, ORIA offers ultra-low latency monitoring and rock-solid driver performance for both macOS and Windows, supporting 24-bit 96KHz.
ORIA has two of Audient’s console microphone accessible from the front panel via combo jacks. This means you can add sound sources such vocal performances even at the final stages of the production process. ORIA’s two preamps can be digitally remote controlled and optimized to give you the sonic benefits of all its analogue design combined with accurate digital control. An additional 16 preamps can be connected via ORIA’s two ADAT expansion ports. As an audio interface, ORIA is designed to be as transparent as possible with high-performance AD to DA converters. ORIA has a huge 126 dB dynamic range and professional grade AD/DA converters. When using ORIA as a USB-C interface, use the ADAT inputs to add another sixteen channels of preamps to expand the system into an 18-in, 16-out system for a versatile studio setting.
When using ORIA as a standalone monitor controller, you can use the ADAT inputs or the optional Dante card to feed 16 inputs from your pre-existing studio system into onboard calibration and monitoring system. While ORIA can be effectively used in a home recording environment to get the most out ORIA needs to be deployed in a multi-room, production, post, or mastering studios that are equipped with actual multi-speaker arrays properly configured in an acoustically treated environment.
On the other hand, as many people are successfully mixing immersive audio in home or project studios on headphones for delivery platforms such as iTunes and the growing number of delivery platforms which now requires music submitted to be Atmos compliant many project studio owners will find ORIA to be exactly what they are looking for.
ORIA is available now for $2,699. Find out more at audient.com.
