Mastering / Airplay tips.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Steenamaroo
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Steenamaroo

Steenamaroo

...
Hey all,
I'm producing a one off charity christmas single for a friend.

I'm pretty happy with how it sounds, but I'm scared that radio broadcast compression/limiting might kill it.

I did have a record on radio a few years ago that sounded great on CD, but was squashed beyond belief on radio.

We had a more recent record mastered professionally and it came across well on radio.

Basically, for this one off track, I want to be sure that it wont come take broadcast compression badly, but there's no budget.


Is there any standard, or anything I can set up myself to emulate a radio broadcast environment?

Even if anyone worked in radio and could play the track off air some time to test it out, that'd be amazing.

Many thanks in advance.
 
The only thing I could suggest off the top is to ram it into a limiter and see how it reacts.

FTR, I do this when mixing all the time for several reasons including this one...
 
Ok, thanks Massive.

At least I have the previous record for reference.
This Christmas song is pretty much a rip off of one of the old tracks anyway. :p

For reference, here's what I have at the minute.

I suppose it's pretty loud, not that I care, but they do.
 
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Well, I hit it with a limiter beside Hollywood Lights, a previously mastered (and radio tried and tested) track.

My new one took the limiter better. <scratches head>

Maybe I'm worrying about nothing?
 
I think mor radio in any major market pretty much destroys just about anything these days.

A good test is to wait till the chorus comes and turn up the radio a bit, almost every time the kick and snare drum get pushed very far to the back,..even on the less limited 80's and early 90's stuff.

I don't think there is much you can do to prepare for the over processing of radio in the mastering stage.
 
Thanks, Tom.
Your masters took pretty well to the air and I guess I'm just scared of taking a step backwards.

I doubt you were, but incase you were wondering we would have come back to you if this hadn't been a zero budget charity effort.
It's certainly no reflection on your work before. ;)
 
Thanks. …and with all fairness radio probably sounds better in the UK market compared to the US market. I didn't take that into account. Just try to keep the beat out front a bit without taking over and best of luck with the project.
 
In my experience, the thing you have to worry about most is spectral balance. If you have too much low end, the radio limited will exaggerate that. The same thing will happen with any frequency range that sticks out too much.

Other than that or some element being much louder than everything else, that's all you can do. It will sound worse on the radio and there is nothing you can do about it.
 
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