Mixing Down for Radio

[Ironclad]

I have heard that radio stations require a special mix down for songs to sound good over radio. Apparently it has something to do with the songs being compressed before being played over radio.

Does anyone know anything more about this? How do I mix down for radio if I don't know how it is going to sound? Is there anything in PTFree that makes this easy?

Cheers,

Michael [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Stone Knife]

Aim for a bright, punchy sound without any bottom below 60 Hz or top above 15KHz, as those aren't broadcast anyhow, and will cause the Optimod multi-band compressors to clamp-down on all of the rest of your audio.
Just keep the frequency spectrum even in your mix and you'll probably sound good in broadcast.

I can't remember what plugs come w/PTF; use the equalizers and a limiter on your master track before you bounce to disk...

Try to not compress everything too much, because the radio station will squeeze it like an orange under a steamroller anyway. [img]images/icons/cool.gif[/img]

Keeping a log of the mastering settings you used and tracking/evaluating the on-air results will lead you to tweaking the sound that works best.
Every engineer sets their broadcast chain a little differently so it's about impossible to be more specific!

[Rock_Artist]

Some EQing as written to keep it in the freq. can be aired.

Compressing usually to "Squash" compression (A LOT of compression)

[Stone Knife]

Try it both ways! But I tend to agree more with Arno Peeters:

one important thing's missing here: you're forgetting the processing that takes place during broadcast. It used to be just some final limting, but nowadays, most commercial stations will use some Magic Box with stereo enhancement and multibandcompression, followed by a maximizer/limiter.
So if you're delivering a 0 db fullscale slammed product, the broadcast processing will take care of it, handeling it as too loud and thus leaving you wondering why it sounds so low and thin !!!

or from Scott Greiner:

Stay away from too much L1/Maxim/Finalizer/squash the crap out of the dynamic range type mastering. That's what the network's compressors do (Optimod). When that type of processing gets applied twice, it sounds terrible.

The problem is that you can only tell how a certain technique will sound on that particular station. If you send a squashed version to KXYZ and a more dynamic one to KWET, comparing those two will yield inconclusive results because it completely depends on how the broadcsat chain is set for those stations and how your mix interacts with that specific gear.

De-essing is a good thing, too. A little goes a long way in that area, as well...

co2 adds:

peaks can induce SEVERE limiting in most broadcast compression schemes.
A touch of peak compression is fine. Probably no more than 2 or 3 to 1 in the digital world.

If you reduce only the peaks, and make sure you watch your levels, you should be pleased with the results of your mix when it is broadcast.

as they say, YMMV!!!