Mastering for Radio

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countrylac

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Does anyone know a way of testing how a mix will sound on FM Radio? Also does any one have any tips on how to mix or (amatuer) master a song for radio play.
 
Smash the life out of it. That'll give you an idea of what radio will do to it.

To master for radio - Or anything, for that matter, try NOT smashing the life out of it.

You want it to sound good no matter what. One of the easiest ways to get it to sound "small" on the radio is to make it sound too "big" on everything else.

Of course, different stations use different processing, etc., but for the most part, radio IS the "great equalizer" on the squash side of things.
 
Like MM said, over compressing a track will give you an idea of what radio does to a song.


It's usually the mastering engineers job to handle that part and to decide if is needed. Sometimes, the mastering engineer will create a radio version of a single to avoid as much of the radio compression as possible.

Other times, they will rely on the radio station's compression.
 
countrylac said:
Does anyone know a way of testing how a mix will sound on FM Radio? Also does any one have any tips on how to mix or (amatuer) master a song for radio play.
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I think that there's a general misunderstanding that you need to master or alter your concept of how you should produce your mix based on medium. Someone had a similar thread on mastering for Internet.

The answer is you don't master that way. Essentially just mix and master to make your material sound it's best. PERIOD. Don't hypercompress or under-compress assuming that Radio is going to change this. Watch your phasing, make certain that your EQ translates well across systems, and record great performances. Other than ensuring you are doing the proper processing to get things down to 16 bit 44.1K (i.e. dithering etc.) dont' worry about it. If it sounds great on a CD it will sound great everywhere else.
 
masteringhouse said:
I think that there's a general misunderstanding that you need to master or alter your concept of how you should produce your mix based on medium. Someone had a similar thread on mastering for Internet.

The answer is you don't master that way. Essentially just mix and master to make your material sound it's best. PERIOD. Don't hypercompress or under-compress assuming that Radio is going to change this. Watch your phasing, make certain that your EQ translates well across systems, and record great performances. Other than ensuring you are doing the proper processing to get things down to 16 bit 44.1K (i.e. dithering etc.) dont' worry about it. If it sounds great on a CD it will sound great everywhere else.
Click to expand...

Exactly, there seems to be a "radio ready" misconception. But the station will smash everything to the same volume. I did some mixes that were way quieter than any professional mixed albums of the same genre, and when it got played on the radio it actually sounded better.
 
I've worked in radio since 1983. Every station I've worked at, including my current station, squashes the living daylights out of everything. There are reasons for doing this, but I strongly recommend not mastering music so it sounds like what you hear on the radio. The station will do that for you when they play your song. Make it good, clear, loud as you can without compressing it like radio, full of dynamics and ear candy, and the home listener will enjoy it once they buy your CD or download your tune to their PC (iTunes, mp3tunes, etc.).

Let the radio station make your song sound like it's on the radio. :) Just my $.02.
 
Thanks for the input.

Thanks for the input. Is it better to have a dry mix and turn up the volume or output? I'll try it and see how it goes. Does anyone know if the FM Radio preset on T-Racks gives you a pretty decent idea of what your mix will sound like on FM Radio?
 
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