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WCBS FM Audio Processing Finally Fixed?

U

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I happened to turn on WCBS FM for the first time in a while and was blown away by what came out of my speakers. After sounding like muddy, lifeless garbage for years, the station actually has some punch to its processing. Tight bass, clean highs and a nice consistent sound across different eras of music.

Kudos to whoever finally made this happen. Whoever you are, it sounds superb and easily went from worst to among the best in NYC audio processing. Finally!
 
Damn! They fixed it just after I left town? It had been ever so slowly slightly improving over time, but even recently when I last checked 101.1 vs. the other NYC stations over-the-air (about 3-4 weeks ago), it still sounded "muddy" compared to the other "big" stations.

Even its dial neighbor 100.7 WHUD Peekskill (which I received well in my now former location) sounded better...and there was lots of crossover in terms of the two station's playlists, so you could make a decent "A/B" comparison.

Streamwise: I'm checking it now vs. CBS Radio's similarly formatted stations in other markets (Philly, Dallas, Phoenix, Chicago, L.A.):
while CBS-FM's stream sounds a bit better than when I last checked over the weekend, it still pales in comparison to the streams elsewhere which are generally crisper. KRTH L.A. in particular comes booming through the headphones.

The two WCBS-FM higher quality streams to check against each other are the AAC stream (64 kbps AAC) vs. the mobile stream (128 kbps, MP3).
The mobile stream maybe sounds a bit cleaner/punchier than the AAC, but I'll leave it to discerning ears to decide.

64K AAC Stream via player: http://player.streamtheworld.com/liveplayer.php?callsign=WCBSFMAAC
128K Mobile Stream via player: http://player.streamtheworld.com/liveplayer.php?callsign=WCBSFMMOBILE

64K AAC Stream via direct streaming URL: http://provisioning.streamtheworld.com/pls/WCBSFMAAC.pls
128K Mobile Stream via direct streaming URL: http://provisioning.streamtheworld.com/pls/WCBSFMMOBILE.pls
 
While KRTH's stream sounds much better, the over the air sound of CBS FM is better than it was 4 weeks ago. It's even brighter than Fresh and Now and is competitively louder. Anyone else hear this?
 
I will agree that even a few weeks ago WCBS-FM OTA was definitely louder and more foreground than they had been previously.
It was still..you know, not quite "there", at least compared to its FM siblings (92.3 + 102.7) which have always sounded good.

Now if there's been a sudden change over the last few days, hey, more power to 'em.

Also, wanted to amend my original post above about the streaming options and quality:
although theoretically the air and online audio is coming from the same source, we all know that the final processing of the air and online chains can be drastically different by the time it's sent out for listener consumption.
 
I find CBS-FM to be louder in recent days, but it is still a far cry from where it was when I first listened to it four years ago. It still is my #1 preset, but I find myself turning it off because too many songs still sound "off"...

Mike Erickson really had CBS-FM sounding magical, to the point I would sit through songs I didn't even like because the audio just sounded so much better. Now I don't even listen long to songs I enjoy on 101.1.

While we're at it, I find the morning show microphones to be a HUGE DISASTER. The other day it sounded like everyone was talking through three pairs of mittens, Mr. G's levels were way low and sounded like a low-bitrate connection, and there was lots of strange hiss (no - it wasn't static).
 
Mmm, still sounds to bassy and lot's low end. Not that crisp, loud sound when Mike E. was around. Someone knows what happens? Other processor?
 
It is much better than it had been. However, I do notice some weird stuff happening on the high end. While you can hear a lot of detail, it almost sounds like certain parts of the high end just drop out or suddenly appear at times...like it is on a cliff. It's hard to describe other than to say that it sometimes sounds like a square wave other than rounded.
 
Tubby bass, shrill highs and a lack of midrange definition is what it sounds like to me.

Most of what we hear is in the midrange, yet so many people love to put that "smiley curve" on the processing and ignore the frequencies where all the lyrics are. Baffles me.

It's louder, but doesn't sound good. An example of lots of bass, clean midrange and perfect for the format is WBLS.
 
WNTIRadio said:
It's louder, but doesn't sound good. An example of lots of bass, clean midrange and perfect for the format is WBLS.
Click to expand...

No question about it. WBLS sounds awesome...the best sounding station in the city, IMHO. Their HD signal sounds particularly superb to me...takes all of that bass and midrange and adds some high end sparkle, but it's not shrill.
 
With in mind that BLS is using a different processor than CBS is using. BLS the Omnia.6 and CBS FM the 8500 or 8600.
 
CBS-FM has way too much bass now. They've cranked it up so much that there is no definition to the bass notes anymore... it's just a constant low rumble.
 
luperm said:
No question about it. WBLS sounds awesome...the best sounding station in the city, IMHO. Their HD signal sounds particularly superb to me...takes all of that bass and midrange and adds some high end sparkle, but it's not shrill.
Click to expand...

I hear lots of people that think WBLS is the best, but many times I hear it with lots of high end compression artifacts (i.e. "swooshing" on cymbals) and some faint distortion buzz in the low end.

If I had to pick the best overall in NYC, I'd have to put my vote in for Fresh 102.7. Occasionally I'm very impressed with 'KTU and its articulate low end. Every other signal has something about it I don't like, but most of them I'll tolerate.
 
collegeDJ86 said:
I hear lots of people that think WBLS is the best, but many times I hear it with lots of high end compression artifacts (i.e. "swooshing" on cymbals) and some faint distortion buzz in the low end.
Click to expand...

I've heard some of that on the high end as well. I just chalked it up to the source material since it did not seem consistently present, but it could be something in the processing as well. I'm going to give Fresh a listen on the way home.
 
Swooshing would be the source material. Probably hear it during Earthquake, which is syndicated. Anything off the bird will have a codec on it.
 
Well, whatever they did, they quickly reversed. WCBS is back to being soft, muddy, and just a poor listen. It was nice while it lasted.
 
Unfortunately it sounds like a muddy mess again and sounds like it did before the tweaks. Sad. What will it take to get this station sounding consistently decent? Not even good at this point. Decent would do.
 
Unregistered said:
Unfortunately it sounds like a muddy mess again and sounds like it did before the tweaks. Sad. What will it take to get this station sounding consistently decent? Not even good at this point. Decent would do.
Click to expand...

I suppose with all processing, reviews are always subjective (and subject to how many employees or friends of each processor company gets on the board to automatically condemn the deployment of their competitor!), but to these ears as of Saturday morning, November 16 at 10:00 AM, CBS-FM sounds the best they have sounded in a long time.
 
Guess they have been tweaking 101.1 again - sounds raspy, the mics sound overdone, and it went from midrange and mud to screechy and clippy
 
bigtom101 said:
Guess they have been tweaking 101.1 again - sounds raspy, the mics sound overdone, and it went from midrange and mud to screechy and clippy
Click to expand...

Gotta agree with prior two posters who said it sounds a lot better in the last few days.
 
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