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The typical eq of 80s stations (AM & FM)

You could switch to the standalone version of edcast that does have a volume control.
 
Sorry to come in late on this but Cgould hit it right on the head in his first post.

FYI I go back to the begining of FM ( late 50's early 60') at that time everybody ran their FM feed raw, that's right! trying to keep the levels down so you don't pin your mod meter by manually grabbing the pot.

Finally, Somebody figured out to pull the preemphasis out of their exciter and put it between the output of the board and the input of a simple limiter. That gained alot of modulation without over mod and cut back on the highs somewhat. Optomod followed with the 8100 laying the modulation right up against 100% but not beond. We still didn't have the heavy bass until engineers started to place compressors before the 8100.

The important thing to be aware of was at that point many stations were still running tube consoles,tube line amps etc before feeding the 8100 and tube equipment creates that nice warm sound we nolonger hear because they produced even harmonics that solid state doesn't

The sound you may be going for is a combination of the tube sound and heavy compression. 60's and 70's rockers like WABC ran about 10 to 12 db compression and around seven db limiting. Another big deal was the compression attack and recovery. Ofcourse the limiter always attacked and relaxed relatively quick. If you want to emulate the old rockers like WABC, WLS, WXYZ KHJ etc I would pickup some of those old tube processors, the Gates limiter SA7, Gates compressors: Stay Level, Level Devil etc and play with the recovery rate. RCA made some great old compressors too I remember at my first job I hooked one RCA compressor into an AMPEX and got one of our deep voiced announcers to voice some stuff WOW what a sound you don't hear anymore.

If you can't find any tube stuff try for at least one tube amp to put in the chain to create that 60's 70's sound. The other night I was at a club where the entertainment was singing to a laptop playing backgrounds. On the screen was a spectrum display of each song playing. The sound system was excellent so I watched the trace to see if I could identify by sight when the mix sounded great. Invarably, the best sound was when the high's did not exceed the lows at any time. When they did the song sounded tinny. Around 1kc the level was down by three or more DB so the idea of setting the eq like a smile is right on. Also, much above 10kc is shisshy with little energy up there so I would start a slow rolloff of anything above 10KC Good luck
 
NightAire said:
Sorry to resurrect this old thread, but I'm moderately happy with the processing now, & would be curious to know if any have listened & if so, what you think? Have I captured the spirit, if not the letter, of 80s audio processing?

http://loudcity.com/stations/blacklight-radio/tune_in

If it asks you "high or low bandwidth," answer whatever you want; we only have one, 96 kbps feed. There's no login required to listen, no fees, etc.

If you DON'T like the sound of the station, I'd like to hear why... maybe you can help me improve it! I'd love to hear your impressions in general; does it sound like any particular processing chain to you? Any particular station, or any particular market?
Click to expand...

I like the sound as I'm listening right now, but it sounds to me like you're pitching the music up considerably. (3% or more?)
 
Recording studios have rediscovered the Gates Sta-Level and these tube units are now in high demand due to the authentic "vintage" processed sound they produce. Prices on Sta-Levels are increasing fast - if you can find one, even a "restorable" inop unit.

The Gates Sta-Level is even being manufactured again - complete with original tube design:

www.retroinstruments.com (I shied away from asking the price for one of these "new" Sta-Levels)

Tip: a device from General Electric broadcast products, the "Uni-Level," is identical in design to the Gates Sta-Level - even to having the same tube lineup. If you can dig one up on the surplus market - they're physically larger but sound the same.

Happy hunting!
 
The old tube audimax has the same GR tube that the Sta-Level, Fairchild has, and it is gated!
Properly set up and with the right resistors in the attack circuit, The old audimax rocks!
 
Speaking of resurrecting this thread... ;D

Not sure how to get that tube sound in without a second computer; right now audio files, audio processing, & encoder all sit on the same computer. At no time does the signal leave the digital domain (although that could certainly be part of why I'm not 100% happy with my sound!).

Danny, you're the second person to catch it! Actually, I'm pitching everything up 2.2%, the rate the local "The Music You See On MTV / All Killer, No Filler" station used between '83 & '85.

If you grew up with 80s radio, I think the pitching up gives the music that "jump" or "lift" many of us remember from 80s radio (& earlier). If you DIDN'T grow up with it, it apparently sounds pretty silly (so I've heard). :D

I've seen some plug-ins that claim to create that tube "sound;" I assume they create those harmonics you mentioned, but I don't know if they do it faithfully or if they're just "distortion generators."

SEVEN DB of limiting!!! Holy crud! Talk about stomped on! I guess that's how they got the signal to "jump off the dial," though... wow... I bet I'm doing two or three db max, & it's all multiband limiting (except for a final dual-band clipper that is rarely hit, & only for a db or so).

Thanks for the kind words on the sound, too... I'm pretty happy with it now. I suppose like any engineer, there are days it sounds over compressed to me & days it sounds undercompressed, days of too much broadband gain riding, days of not enough broadband gain... knowing the limitations of my software, I'm pretty pleased. It's not an Optimod with an XT-2, but it celebrates its spirit, I think.
 
Can I recommend some great reference material posted on the Breakaway forum, regarding optimum quality for MP3 (and other) streaming? It's here: http://claessonedwards.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=247
And detailed are the best MP3 encoder to use, the best edcast settings, and of course, processing. The info at this thread is invaluable for any webstreamer, regardless of processing they use.

Hope it can help!
 
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