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Audio Processing Best practices for Classic Rock and Alternative rock?

F

Fieldtech1

Just curious.......Whats your philosiphy on these two formats? Balls to the wall loud and grungy or let the natrual music dynamics come through. Or somewhere in between?
 
Make sure some of the dynamics are still evident. ( In between )
But there's a wide spectrum between full smash and unprocessed.
The trick is to make the processing filll in weak audio and yet fool the ear into thinking it's NOT processed.
This becomes a very fine line.
 
As a listener, it has been my experience that "full smash loud" can become, relatively quickly, fatiguing to listen to. Thus I have shut stations off earlier then I otherwise would have. The worst case of over processing I've ever heard was in 1988 on WZAK-FM in Cleveland, Ohio. For some reason, I have a distinct memory of hearing Suave's remake of "My Girl" played on the station. During soft passages, and as it faded out at the end, you could hear this grinding sound brought on by the processing as it turned the sound up. It sounded like the needle grinding in the groove of the record that was dubbed to a cart or reel-to-reel automation system. Records in good shape do not sound bad. All the over-use of processing did was highlight the physical-touch of needle on disc, something that you would not hear otherwise.
 
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I'm learning about processing now. It was always left up to someone else where I worked so I never got trained.

John, isn't this where you use a gate to cut anything below a certain volume before boosting the lower passages?
 
Easy on gate overuse...you'll get an interaction between compression and gating that causes "pumping"...a common aural feature of rock stations that don't have "real" engineers. Besides sounding like someone is riding the pot...it causes quick listener fatigue. I used to hang out with an old NPR guy that trained all his people by making them play smooth jazz, adding compression to just level to tops and gating to take out any intertrack noise. Granted, it was all done by feel, but his line was "Adjust it to make Larry Carlton sound just like the studio recording, then add 1 notch of gate and 2 of compression for the Doobie Brothers."

Not exactly scientific, but he had some terrific audio at his stations.
 
People like classic rock because you can actually hear the drums, and there is quite a lot of dynamic range ("Bohemian Rhapsody" being one of the best examples of that). So don't squash it into a pancake on the air. John Lennon's "Imagine" is a good test. If you hear the bass grunging up the vocals, back off on the clipping until it cleans up.
 
Two completely different animals production and mastering-wise. Kevin has a great point.

Although, if you are playing "Remastered" versions of Classic Rock songs, that's a little different. Depends on your library source. Processing, overall, handles original mastered versions much better...and if you are playing a "mix" of remastered and original versions, that is even more tricky...

No matter what, we've moved to an age where declipping and intelligent dynamic range sensing is becoming important... in Alternative there's been a recent move afoot to put some range back in the music...and god bless!

...even NIN released a version of their latest that wasn't mastered too hot. Daft Punk, if you want to call it "Alternative" went for wide dynamic range...and it sounds awesome.
 
I'm one for leaving in some dynamics, but using a generous amount of gain-riding compression. With classic rock, that works well. Excessive clipping is huge turn-off for this format IMHO. Smashed or clipped is a great way to ruin TSL. Competitively loud enough is important. Being the loudest pos on the band isn't. Frankly, your classic audience, for the most part, are listening on good factory car radios. They were the cool kids with their high-fi and turntables in their youth. If it has balls and rocks, yet is clean your station will have a great shot at being a TSL monster. I worked for a classic rocker that was the #1 in-format nationwide in overall audience percent of the market and consistently in the top 3 year after year. Most of that had to be programming-related but the processing certainly had to contribute to that. Our PD who spent a month tweeting the 8200 we had at the time had great ears....
 
For music with many dynamics, I have always found it nice to process a little lighter and use some composite clipping. Music with a large dynamic range lends itself well to composite clipping. In my ears, it sounds less smashed when you process it a couple of db lower and make it up on a good clipper (if you can call any clipper good... I used CP-803's).
 
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