Compression

[mcbarnicle]

This is a totally fascinating converation, I remember the shocking difference between playing even a crappy vinyl pressing of Smells Like Teen Spirit vs my C-90 Cassette recording of Peel on the Beeb on the longwave..... or eventually FM in Ireland.

Loving the memories! Thanks again

--- In peel@yahoogroups.com, "Stuart" <stuartb@...> wrote:
>
> Very interesting! I was also aware of the Peel Show being less compressed
> than other shows - Smells Like Teen Spirit used to sound ridiculous on
> daytime shows - the guitar intro would play at the volume of the shouty DJ
> then when the rest of the band started it sounded like someone had pushed
> them away from the mikes and off the back of the stage!
> 
> Having got used to the 90s FM sound it was astounding to play back some of
> my old off-air Peel mixtapes from the early 80s and hear just what FM is
> capable of.
> 
> Incidentally not all stations in the 80s were as good, I remember Radio
> Scotland had a strangely limited top end until the mid 80s, with the same
> tracks sounding less sparkly than on R1, and WestSound was even worse..
> 
> These days many internet radio stations sound far better than FM and DAB as
> they are broadcast, probably as they don't see the need for compression.
> 
>  
> 
> Stuart
> 
>  
> 
>   _____  
> 
> From: peel@yahoogroups.com [mailto:peel@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of
> dgmccarthy
> Sent: 12 April 2011 08:19
> To: peel@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [peel] Compression
> 
>  
> 
>   
> 
> At the time I was there, the R1 guys (I remember Chris Lycett in particular
> for some reason) were trying out new boxes to create an "audio signature"
> which would make Radio One louder than everyone else, probably in
> preparation for the flurry of new national FM broadcasters that were waiting
> in the wings. These boxes by the likes of Optimod and Orban did some clever
> things but were easy to misuse.
> 
> In the studios, while on air, we had monitoring that would allow us to
> switch between studio output and an off-air feed and the difference was
> often quite startling. I recall once hearing "Hotel California" (not on
> Peel!) and wondering where the snare had gone.
> 
> However, there was also a brace of compressor/limiters across the desk
> channels and the technique at the time was to crank up the input on an
> upcoming disk channel, let it crash into the comp/lim on the group fader and
> then pull back to a sensible compression level once it had started. Can't
> have any quiet bits!!
> 
> The result was as Stuart recalls - level up for the quiet intro and a
> nastily squashed loud section until the operator pulled down the input
> level. The additional limiting as outlined above added to that.
> 
> My session tapes would have all been dubbed independently, not at broadcast,
> so would have avoided all that. Can't say the same for my program
> recordings, although they wouldn't have the additional processing. I do like
> to think I had a little more "finesse" but most prime-time shows were
> crunched to the max with the likes of dear old Steve Wright giving me an
> earful if everything wasn't louder than everything else!
> 
> Memories....
> 
> David
>