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CBS-FM Processing GREAT!

R

radiogroupie

For all the dumb-ass engineers who think they know it all and believe that hyper compression/EQ blows off listeners take a listen to CBS-FM. Lots of Compression/Aggressive Limiting Etc and because their engineer is smart he can make it compressed without the artifacts,

Listen and Learn young engineers.
 
I was thinking the same thing for the past week or two while listening. That nice rich low end with the "creamy" midrange and plenty of sparkle on top. They played Electric Avenue, which is a dull recording, and it was brought to life by the processing. Mike has it set up great, I know there's an Ariane Sequel, a "special modified 2 band magic box" and when I was last there a month ago visiting a friend at the station, an 8500, which may or may not have been upgraded to an 8600 since then. Whatever the case, you can throw those boxes together and still make them sound like crap. The real artistry of it is to put it all together, get everything working in harmony, and have it sound great on the other side of all the gozintas and comeouttas.

It's loud and thick, has snap and is exciting to listen to, yet still clean. It's all in that midrange, which pours out of my car radio and home stereo alike as smooth as silk.
 
radiogroupie said:
For all the dumb-ass engineers who think they know it all and believe that hyper compression/EQ blows off listeners take a listen to CBS-FM. Lots of Compression/Aggressive Limiting Etc and because their engineer is smart he can make it compressed without the artifacts,

Listen and Learn young engineers.
Click to expand...

EVERYTHING about CBS-FM is great! 'nuff said!
 
Station needs reverb if only on the mics. Of course I'd love it on everything!
 
WNTIRadio said:
I was thinking the same thing for the past week or two while listening. That nice rich low end with the "creamy" midrange and plenty of sparkle on top. They played Electric Avenue, which is a dull recording, and it was brought to life by the processing. Mike has it set up great, I know there's an Ariane Sequel, a "special modified 2 band magic box" and when I was last there a month ago visiting a friend at the station, an 8500, which may or may not have been upgraded to an 8600 since then. Whatever the case, you can throw those boxes together and still make them sound like crap. The real artistry of it is to put it all together, get everything working in harmony, and have it sound great on the other side of all the gozintas and comeouttas.

It's loud and thick, has snap and is exciting to listen to, yet still clean. It's all in that midrange, which pours out of my car radio and home stereo alike as smooth as silk.
Click to expand...

Mike really knows how to engineer/process a station. WCBS-FM, IMHO has the cleanest and most vibrant sound of any station of its' format, or any format for that matter. It doesn't shrill you to death with a wall of sound. There's plenty of headroom, with more to spare. He's got that audio chain to sound better than any other station in the market. It's loud but it's not overly crunched. It's...... just right. Mike ought to be proud of his accomplishments. We all know that 'CBS-FM is one of the best FM stations in the country (#1 in New York). The music is great. The jocks are primo. And the sound is something I would love to create on my own FM (I wish!). ;) Again, congratulations Mike! You've done well! (And to the big guys at Black Rock....., be good to the man.)
 
I use Energize II for listening to my music on the computer. How can you duplicate the current CBS-FM sound with that plugin?
 
Oldiesmike said:
I use Energize II for listening to my music on the computer. How can you duplicate the current CBS-FM sound with that plugin?
Click to expand...

I try to find that Energize II plugin but websites redirecting to dead pages. Where can I find a working download?
 
erwin33 said:
Maybe someone can write in that .ini file the CBS sound.
Click to expand...
I suggest you try Breakaway instead. Energize is long obsolete (I last used it on a Windows 98 computer!) and in my experimentation, I couldn't find a sweet spot with it -- it either did very little, or way too much.

Anyway, as for the real WCBS-FM, their audio has definitely improved since they brought the format back a few years ago. I agree it would be nice to hear the reverb come back, even if just a subtle amount. As far back as I remember, the "old" CBS-FM only used reverb on the mics, not on the music, but with today's audio processing, the reverb would be hardly noticeable on the music anyway.
 
I don't know what to say but thank you!

I've had an idea of what I wanted the audio to be like on CBS FM since I started playing with processing back on Long Island in the early 1990's. I always loved CBS FM but never liked the audio too much. At first I thought it may be the processing, but now that I've been here it was the method in which the audio was transferred to digital in the mid 1990's. Not so much the method of creating the files, but the fact that alot of the songs were put thru an expander that swallowed up alot of the low passages and made the audio sound flat. I always thought it was the main processor doing that, but it's on the actual files.

With the help of Dermot O'Neil (production) and the jocks, we've been slowly replacing files with better sounding copies. With the day to day routine of everything that goes on, it's hard to get to sometimes, but since I have almost a 2 hour commute by car, I listen and jot down songs that need to be replaced as I hear them (A-Z helped alot last week!)

Over the years I have spent thousands on small cheap compressors trying to find inexpensive fixes when you couldn't afford something like a Compellor or Ariane.

In 1999 I was in Sam Ash in Melville and I saw this sitting in the rack for $75

http://monisound.nl/Front afbeeldingen/front mdx4000.JPG

A two band stereo leveller.. the Behringer MDX-4000. It sounded good stock, but there was only one control for density. So I modified the unit to have a slower attack time and a faster release time.... if I ran the ratio up to 3:1 or 4:1 it gave you some extra bounce without the AGC clamping down on the audio... and the release time could be very fast without the audio chopping like you would get on a standard compressor with fast release.

I changed the crossover... it was a one button control that would select 500Hz or 2k. It's set for 125Hz now.

It was deployed at WXBA in Brentwood in 2001. When I left WXBA in 2004 it came with me and sat on a shelf until August 2008 when it went in the WCBS-FM airchain. It was out just before the move when it was recapped and has been back ever since.

If you pull it out, the audio changes alot, especially with transitions. I call it the "added inch" and I do have a beat on another unit in case this one fails.
 
radiogroupie said:
For all the dumb-ass engineers who think they know it all and believe that hyper compression/EQ blows off listeners take a listen to CBS-FM. Lots of Compression/Aggressive Limiting Etc and because their engineer is smart he can make it compressed without the artifacts,

Listen and Learn young engineers.
Click to expand...

All of the kudo's are well deserved - CBS-FM, both analog & HD, is the best sounding station in NYC. Years ago, a friend of mine who was a tech for CBS Television remarked that the audio on 101.1 was not that great, and sounded somewhat lifeless. The station now sounds full & rich, and breathes life into whatever is on the air. The station is lucky to have someone who is so passionate about what goes out over the air as the engineer - and it shows in the ratings.

Mazel tov Mike - you derseve it!
 
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