Omega Review by Douglas Edge

The Lexicon Omega is a beast of an interface compared to other, more portable USB interfaces. There are 6 knobs and 8 buttons on the front panel alone. This is definitely a device geared towards a home studio setup –even though it connects to the computer via USB it is not a self-powered unit. Of course, that is not to say that you couldn’t drag it along with you for a gig or live recording situation -as it is still lighter and more compact than traditional audio interfaces. Because it relies on AC power only, you do gain a few advantages. For one, you get true 48 volt Phantom Power. Second, you get a very powerful headphone amplifier that will give you plenty of volume.

The Omega has a ton of I/O. You get 2 XLR Mic inputs (with their own insert jacks and 20db pads), a High-Z guitar input, 4 line ins, two balanced line outs, MIDI I/O, and S/PDIF I/O. Surprisingly, this is a new audio interface that does not support 96kHZ recording, opting for a maximum of 48kHz/24bit recording. Of course, I will take a well-implemented 44.1 AD over a not-so-well designed 96kHz converter any day. The one thing I was interested in with the Omega was the fact that it had 4 inputs and I wanted to see how well it handled multi-channel audio over the USB bus.

A nice addition on the Omega is an insert for each of the two mic pre's. This allows you to easily insert a compressor or EQ into the signal path before you record. As well, you have a High Z input for directly connecting a guitar or bass.

Setup on my G5 with Panther installed was a breeze. It went something like this -connect power to the Omega, connect USB cable to computer, and select Lexicon as my default I/O in Audio/MIDI Setup –no driver needed. You just can’t get easier than this.

Latency…What Latency

The first thing I did once I had the Omega patched into my system was to check out the High-Z input with my guitar. Everything worked fine and sounded good as I monitored directly from the Omega. To check out the latency issue I hooked up the stereo outputs of my Adrenalinn to the Omega and started up Logic. By default I was set at 1024 samples and though the converters sounded great the latency was too high to monitor my playing via Logic. When I jumped down to 512 samples I was surprised to find that there was no digital ugliness and the Omega was performing great compared to other USB audio devices that seem to start chocking at this setting. Once I dropped it down to 256 samples I didn’t notice any latency whatsoever and I started to fire up some plug-ins in Logic to get some delay and reverbs on my guitar. At this point I was impressed -a USB device with low latency and no digital artifacts with a stereo signal. If I was impressed before I was totally amazed once I went down to 64 samples and found the same great results -I could play my guitar into Logic and monitor thru the plug-ins without a problem -impressive for a USB interface.

The next test was to see how well the Omega handled 4 simultaneous tracks. I kept the setting at 64 samples and had a stereo drum track as well as a stereo synth track pumping into Logic. I monitored thru a reverb plug-in on the drums and an EQ on the synth track. The Omega handled all four tracks without a glitch.

Mic Check

The Lexicon Omega comes with two mic pre’s that were originally found in DBX’s Silver Series of channels strips. I found the mic pre’s very useful and above the norm in quality when you consider the price of the Omega. Definitely a nice plus.

In Summary

The Omega is a great unit. It's not as portable as some other USB devices and might not be a first choice if you do laptop based production unless you know you'll always be able to power off of AC. The greatest strength of the Omega is that it can achieve very low latency, which is a must if you want to monitor thru your DAW program or use plug-ins to effect your tracks as you record them. This is a huge feature for me because I like to play my guitar thru plug-ins to get strange and synth-like textures.

The other great thing about the Omega is the easy routing and monitoring of the interface –although the writing on the unit itself for the Monitor and USB Assign buttons can be hard to read because the print is so small.

My only real gripe about the Omega is that it ships with tracking software for both Windows and the Mac platform, as well as a nice reverb plug-in. The problem is that the Pantheon reverb plug-in will only run with the BIAS Deck software it shipped with. I was not happy to find that I couldn’t use this VST plug-in in Ableton Live. As a consumer it would seem strange that I would be forced to use the DAW program that shipped with the unit if I wanted to use the plug-in that was paid for when the interface was purchased.

In the end, the Omega is a great interface for a small home based setup, or for those that don’t need to track more than four analogue signals at a time and can probably give some more expensive Firewire units a run for there money with its low latency ability. In fact, the Omega meets all the needs of my little set-up and just might become my next purchase. With its low price tag I would be able to afford other things like a nice mic or some pedals for my guitar rig.