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The emergence of surround sound and stereo has made high-quality audio-for-video production eminently important. One option for video pros looking to perform audio processing on their video's sound is the Omega Desktop Recording Studio from Lexicon. The Omega is actually three products in one: the eight-input hardware unit with stereo outputs, Steinberg Cubase LE audio recording software, and the well-known Lexicon Pantheon Reverb plug-in. Via USB, you can record four simultaneous stereo tracks from eight separate sources or mix up to 48 tracks in post. All analog-to-digital conversions happen in 24-bit to maintain a high level of quality. The line inputs feature 20dB pads and RF filters for low noise, and the Omega's preamps provide up to 50dB of gain and use the solid-state portion of the much more expensive 386 preamps from sister company Dbx. The system also features a handy LCD signal meter with different colors representing different levels of I/O. A USB cable and AC power supply also come with the unit.
To test the unit, I used a Windows XP (SP2) Pentium 2GHz PC tower and a Mac PowerBook G4 1.2GHz running OS X 10.3. Technically, there's no explicitly stated laptop support within the Lexicon documentation. But the prospect is compelling: With your laptop and the Omega, you could have a fully portable professional recording studio. You should have no trouble as long as the hard drive is 7,200rpm. In general, if you can edit DV, it's fast enough....