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New Rock 101.9: stereo/mono? Sound quality

mikerock said:
XCountry285 said:
Do you think they're going to keep this format or not? I wonder if they will add jocks that are local & make the playlist local. I hope they are because they brought back those letters and stuff.
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I am not 100% convinced due to the horrible audio quality situation and same song repetition.

It reminds me way too much of when RXP first switched to the temporary 80s format before the switch to news last year. That format was also repetitive and had horrible audio quality. Kind of like they threw something together to be played in a loop for a month until they got their act together for the news format. No one caring about the audio or presentation since it was just temporary.

I really do not understand why they would not fix the audio problems if they want this new launch to be successful.
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I'm surprised that no one has complained about the audio quality on their Facebook. At around 6:30, the volume was going up and down during "All the Small Things." First I thought it was going under Route 18 that did it but it happened again when I was exiting Route 1. I do see complaints about them overplaying certain bands however. For me they overplay Alex Clare (shame because Too Close is otherwise an awesome song).
 
XCountry285 said:
The station sounds excellent. No complaints
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Formatically, I agree, and it seems that they are continuing to tweak the playlist and add some songs. It is miles beyond what WRXP version 1.0 ever was.

As far as the processing, it still sounds absolutely awful and muddy! The original processing they were using at 'RXP back in the Emmis days had a cleaner, open sound that didn't crunch the music.

Not so now. Still sounds like it could use a major overhaul from an experienced set of ears.
 
It sounds like pre-processing, the volume levels of the songs are all over the place. When I was down this weekend, the Beastie Boys' "Intergalactic" was pummeled by the audio processing--perhaps way too loud pre-processing--but other songs seemed okay. Overall, they could stand to be a bit less compressed, but it isn't bad. Also, it sounded like whoever they had on this weekend, whether it was live or voice tracked, was sometimes talking over the other pre-recorded voiceovers. Otherwise the jocks sounded pretty good. Musically, they seem to be on point, but perhaps once they get better established, can veer in a slightly more indie direction. The songs that are in heavy rotation (Alex Clare, Fun., Of Monsters and Men, etc.) are all on top of the alternative chart. I'd give them a few months to being a station that can potentially "break new music." Have they played the new Mumford & Sons yet?

Jacko
 
XCountry285 said:
The station sounds excellent. No complaints
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My problem is not with the format, which I like. I was talking audio quality which the last time I checked a couple days ago was still horrible. You can clearly tell the difference switching to any station on the dial. RXP sounds like AM. Although the format is right up my alley I cannot tolerate the audio.
 
Earlier today I thought they had fixed it. In the last hour it sounds like I am listening to really bad web stream.

I wonder if certain times of day the automation is switched to a remote feed that is using a badly compressed stream.
 
mikerock said:
Earlier today I thought they had fixed it. In the last hour it sounds like I am listening to really bad web stream.

I wonder if certain times of day the automation is switched to a remote feed that is using a badly compressed stream.
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Totally agree. This afternoon switching from 104.3 to 101.9 was like going from FM to AM. Can it be this difficult?
 
Over the air sound is AM Stereo or something at the moment. All bass and treble are gone and it sounding like music over a telephone line. Horrible!

Stream sounding in comparison with the over the air signal 'better'. But I guess everything sounding better even CBS FM at the moment, with also audio problems.
 
Agreed. It sounds atrocious right now. What the #$@#?! Even casual listeners are going to notice this.

I would hate to see a half-decently-programmed commercial rock station (something not heard in NYC since at least 1993 or maybe earlier, IMHO) undone by something as absurd as poor sound quality. I'm more of a WFMU and Alternate Side kind of guy anyway, so it's not really my thing, but I just want it to disprove the ridiculous idea that "New York is not a rock town." But they're not going to do it like this! I bet if they played music on WINS, it would sound better!
 
It's a new processing scheme to maximize the effectiveness of the PPM encoding. It doesn't matter if the sound quality sucks, just as long as the PPM data is received by the folks with the devices. ;D
 
One of the big things they need to do is slow down the wideband AGC release time, and also the 5 band AGC. This is assuming they're using the Omnia 6 that was left there by Emmis.

Better yet, shut off the WB AGC and put an Ariane Sequel in the chain. ALL of the pumping from the WB AGC will go away, and the 5 band can be slowed down.
 
Their sound quality is much better. Hope that they actually start to become a real radio station. Keep the music and open the phone lines move everything out of Chicago.
 
XCountry285 said:
Their sound quality is much better. Hope that they actually start to become a real radio station. Keep the music and open the phone lines move everything out of Chicago.
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Still a bit smashed to my ears, but better than CBS-FM (absolutely awful and like they're playing music underwater!), Lite and PLJ. I feel like New Rock could be a bit more "open" with their sound.

However, musically it sounds great! Very focused. The tweaking they're doing means they are listening and trying to get a feel for what works. Fortunately, it is subtle enough that most people would not notice or be bothered by it. I'm curious how the weeklies are looking and look forward to seeing the PPM results for their first full month. Hopefully they will get the word out for this station better than they did for FM News! I'm happy the alternative fans have an outlet back.
 
The engineers for 'RXP and CBS-FM need to clean the crap out of their ears. This isn't good sounding radio at all. Not even close.

Then again, FM radio hasn't sounded "right" to me for at least 15 years. Once the Optimod came into existence, FM has become a wall of slammed sound with no transients allowed.
 
It's not just Optimod's fault, it also has to do with the way music mastering has changed in the past 15 years. Rip any current CD into an audio editor and look at the waveform, it's a total brickwall with no transients in the first place. Now encode that into whatever lossy format most stations use to store their music and feed it into ANY compressor, obviosly it's going to sound like s***.
 
An audio processor is just like a canvas and a set of paintbrushes. It's all in how they are used and who is using them.

I can show you stations with the latest and greatest processors that sound like total crap. I can show you others with an older model that sound open but still retain a level of loudness.

Source material plays a big role in on-air sound, as does the STL, console, data compression, transmitter tuning (AM noise) etc. It's all a system, and should be treated as such by looking at the audio as it goes from end to end, counting every D/A A/D conversion, amplifier, RF stages and of course, processors.

I don't know what is going on at CBS-FM. It was almost good a week ago, and then the highs all but went away. It changes every couple of days.

101.9 just needs to back down on the AGC release times (less compression) and drive the limiters a little less to start.
 
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