Mastering For Radio Play (Am and FM)........Help

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tuskiso

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I have several CD projects that I have completed for myself and other Independent Recording Artists. Although, the completed CD's play well on home, car, PC and standard CD players, local AM & FM radio stations seem to have problems getting them to play. When they are actually played over the air, the songs seem to sound very compressed and have no stereo quality. It seems that all of the musical dynamics are not present (very flat...no stereo quality at all). However, when play in a standard CD player or MP3, all the sound quality is present. I would appreciate any constructive feedback and help. If you would like to hear samples, please click on the Amazon link below:
http://http://www.amazon.com/Cecil-Torbert/e/B001LH2NLK/digital/ref=ntt_mp3_rdr?_encoding=UTF8&sn=d

You can also go to my website: Page Title (enter the site, click the E-Store linl at the top left, then select either of the 2007-2008 projects. Thanks for your help and feedback in advance.
 
In comparison to what? I haven't heard a radio station (aside from public radio) in many years that didn't compress and limit the crap out of their signal. Could be you're just hearing what radio stations sound like nowadays. Radio sounds horrid.

It's difficult to tell what the mix really sounds like from those compressed, low bitrate Amazon samples.

Would you be able to post a short, full quality sample?
 
If you are compressing hard...you may be working against the radio stations, since they usually compress everything to one standard. You are better off giving them less compressed final mixes than more compressed.

The Bob Katz mastering book has a whole section about that....
 
What I'm hearing from those samples is too much compression and very little stereo separation. It almost sounds like it's in mono.

Again it's very hard to make any judgements on your mix with a 64kbps mp3.
 
miroslav said:
If you are compressing hard...you may be working against the radio stations, since they usually compress everything to one standard. You are better off giving them less compressed final mixes than more compressed.
Click to expand...
^^^^^^^^^^
This

Your mixes are being doubly-squashed to bits, once by you, and once by the radio station. It's like making Angie Jolie wear both a sports bra and an ace bandage at the same time ;) Don't smash your masters so much..at least not the ones you send to the station.

G.
 
There are still AM stations? Around here, we just have FM now.
 
Tried to upload full 1411 kbps but 15 seconds is approx 2.4Mb, too large for upload.......
Suggestions.....?
 
Here is a copy of the waveform, does this provide any meanignful info to assist......?

Something For My Good Waveform.webp
 
Your mixes are being doubly-squashed to bits, once by you, and once by the radio station. Don't smash your masters so much...at least not the ones you send to the station.

G.
 
I'm somewhat unclear.....When yo say 'squashing' do you mean compressing, if so, I used no compression (outboard hardware nor software inserts) in this recording. Can you provide some specifics steps that would 'unsquash' the mix.........
One more question, when you veiw the waveform, are the volume levels to high maybe.......?
I tend to 'normalize' then 'increase' the volume before burning..........Could this be the problem....?
 
tuskiso said:
I'm somewhat unclear.....When yo say 'squashing' do you mean compressing, if so, I used no compression (outboard hardware nor software inserts) in this recording. Can you provide some specifics steps that would 'unsquash' the mix.........
One more question, when you veiw the waveform, are the volume levels to high maybe.......?
I tend to 'normalize' then 'increase' the volume before burning..........Could this be the problem....?
Click to expand...
Yeah. You may not actually be using a compressor or limiter, but your manual process is basically doing much the same thing. You're clipping/limiting like there's no tomorrow and your RMS (average) volume appears cranked up. Which makes sense if you're peak normalizing and then boosting the volume even more from there.

The end effect is not much different than if you threw your mix up against a brick wall limiter like you were throwing a major league fastball. What may make your situation even worse than that is peak normalization followed by an increase in gain equals clipping. At least with compression/limiting, sharp clipping is often mostly avoided.

Then the radio stations have their own compressors on their transmitters, squashing you stuff even more.

Skip the normalization altogether - you don't need it - and don't go pushing all your peaks so far into the red like that. Your mix and your radio will thank you for it.

G.
 
G'day
1st time poster. Enjoying this forum a great deal. I have lived this experience and my solution was to take my final master and post eq the whole mix flat. There is a pro studio near my house where the owner has invested more in Compressors and eq's than I have in my house. He can "radio mix" a song in minutes and charges accordingly, Usually around $30. The result was pretty dramatic and in my case worth the few $$ to sound equally terrible to the other songs broadcast through FM Compression.
 
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