Hot 107.9 Audio Processing

[swalterm]

Has anyone noticed how bad the audio processing has been on Hot 107.9 for the last week or so. And not the usual level of bad. The digital hash at higher audio frequencies is prominent. Is this a side-effect of IBOC digital transmission?

 

[gettinby]

Nah... I just hear bad... the same thing I have been hearing for YEARS. Hot's processing is downright AWFUL... Remember in Hot's earlier years when I believe Ed Lacomb had that thing crankin'. Or, in more recent years, Jason Kidd had it sounding pretty good with the SAME BOX as they've got now.. (except he had them put a reverb unit on it,, boy I loved when Dakota sounded like he was broadcasting from my toilet bowl).. As far as processing is concerned, 'JPZ sounds MUCH better...has now for quite a while.

Also, while we are on the subject, 93Q.... we are in 2006, your processing should be too!!!! My car and home radios have tweeters, give them something to do!

Also, you shouldnt notice any "digital hash" on FM directly from the IBOC. Now, what they have doing the delay (analog), who knows, or how they have it fed or their exciter rigged.... Those all can cause noticeable audio artifacts if not done well / correctly...
> Has anyone noticed how bad the audio processing has been on
> Hot 107.9 for the last week or so. And not the usual level
> of bad. The digital hash at higher audio frequencies is
> prominent. Is this a side-effect of IBOC digital
> transmission?
>

 

[SirRoxalot]

The "HOT" Sound

When the (over)processing is pumping out a virtual square wave, it ain't gonna sound good in either digital or analog.

One problem is that a lot of the artists want their product to "sound like it does on the radio" when it comes off the CD. So, engineers pump up the compression to please the artist. When it gets recorded from the CD onto the computer, many stations "normalize" the levels, which in fact adds even more compression. Put that through the "make it LOUD" settings on the average CHR compression chain, and you've got the "HOT" sound.

There's a lot of bad audio in Syracuse. K-Rock has similar problems. 95X sounds OK on one cut, and terrible on another.

It should embarass some people when the audio in Utica is better than the audio in Syracuse. And the people I'm talking about ain't the engineers. They do as they're told.

 

[VoiceOfReason]

Re: The "HOT" Sound

Ditto on the source material.

Rip something - almost anything - in from CD and look at it on a digital editor.

Instead of peaks and valleys, it looks like a big, perfectly rectangular, brick of white noise.

Theres nothing that engineers can do to reverse that before it runs through the DigiCrush 7700 audio processor with HyperClip (tm).

The problems Hot is having now sounds like a malfunction - the probably just need to reboot their processor or IBOC exciter...

Myself and another great engineer were responsible for Hot in the early days that were mentioned. About the time that Jason Kidd took over, I bought a good digital box, had it sounding pretty good (to my ears and others). Then Jason took it over, added reverb, double the bass, double the compression, double the clipping, and it hasn't been the same since.

The engineer over there now is pretty good, but has way too much on his plate to spend much time on it. Besides, he's probably restricted to what the PD or brand manager wants to hear.

Utica audio - good? Class - I covered that in a post last summer. There are two or three stations that have spent time getting competitve audio and staying relatively clean at the same time. The rest are apparently being tuned up by Marlee Matlin...