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General Vintage Technology Discussions For general discussions about vintage radio and other vintage electronics etc. |
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9th Apr 2018, 6:22 pm | #41 | |
Dekatron
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Greater Manchester, UK.
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Re: Audio Compression on Classic FM.
Quote:
It is sometimes said the reason is that the subjectively "louder" station will attract the listener, but I'm sceptical whether that was ever true, particularly these days where increasingly, radios are not tuned across the band in the conventional sense.
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9th Apr 2018, 6:36 pm | #42 |
Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Oxford, UK
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Re: Audio Compression on Classic FM.
A lot of processing is about establishing a distinctive sound and brand identity, as with the CFM presentation style. Unfortunately when everybody does it in more or less the same way then any distinctiveness is lost, but nobody wants to back down as with the bonkers CD loudness wars.
Some people in broadcasting genuinely believe that most listeners prefer a LOUD, punchy, highly processed sound. Maybe they do. I actually find the level of processing on CFM less objectionable than on many other stations, not because I can't hear it but because it's done for a specific reason - to make classical music listenable in environments with high ambient noise levels. |
9th Apr 2018, 6:52 pm | #43 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Wiltshire, UK.
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Re: Audio Compression on Classic FM.
As to 'loudness', a friend of mine who has a Doctorate in Music from one of the UK's finer universities says "It's all about context" and "delivering presence that delights the audience". He's had his compositions played at the Royal Albert Hall as well as some much-more-lucrative commercial engagements so I think he has a point to make.
He says you wouldn't want Orff's Carmina Burana played quietly or with 'restraint'. Equally, he reckons that if Wagner were alive today he'd be the #1 go-to composer for the soundtrack to the Lord of the Rings movies and Game of Thrones. Sometimes for dramatic effect you _need_ the VU-meter to spend most of its time in the red, whether by virtue of sheer orchestral power or the broadcaster using some behind-the-scenes audio processing to get those extra Decibels. The one thing broadcasters like CFM are afraid of is significant amounts of 'dead air'. Either use some extra gain to bring the background-level up, or fill the troubling silence with a 30-second ad. |
9th Apr 2018, 10:38 pm | #44 |
Dekatron
Join Date: May 2010
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Re: Audio Compression on Classic FM.
Even that most poignant silence between the fourth quarter, and the first bong of Big Ben chiming midnight on New Year, has been filled with a Radio 4 station ident in recent years. Sacrilege.
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10th Apr 2018, 7:26 am | #45 |
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Re: Audio Compression on Classic FM.
Don't some distribution systems cut automatically to a service announcement or alternate programme feed if the main feed goes quiet longer than a set time?
Once upon a time, you were marked out as very posh if you could afford a minstrel or two to twang a lute and thump a drum. Nowadays, silence has become precious. David
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10th Apr 2018, 7:30 am | #46 |
Nonode
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Resolven, Wales; and Bristol, England
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Re: Audio Compression on Classic FM.
Silence is no longer golden
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10th Apr 2018, 8:24 am | #47 | |
Dekatron
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Invercargill, New Zealand
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Re: Audio Compression on Classic FM.
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There are plenty of similar units that are just the tuner/network part, but thought it was worth sharing this unit, and that it wasn't difficult for a (granted, resonably tech-savvy) 80 year old to figure out. |
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10th Apr 2018, 10:37 pm | #48 |
Hexode
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Royal Berkshire, UK.
Posts: 471
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Re: Audio Compression on Classic FM.
One thing I find with Classic FM on the various HiFi's in the house & 'escape room', the hum in the background, on FM & DAB! I haven't measured it, can only hear the hum on quiet passages, reckon it's about 40Hz ...
I know it's not my equipment, since you can hear it in the car, parked in a quiet location, in a different part of the country, you can hear it around my parents house (different side of town) on my fathers HiFi & on the separates setup at work, different county. The equipment spans many decades in these differing locations, from the 60's right up to 2008, so no trends there. My Roberts R707 plays Classic FM quite cheerfully (it's a pretty forgiving set), my Troughline II not quite so, I only listen to Classic FM on it when sorting paperwork etc, or until the adverts begin to bug me. Radio 3 on the Troughline II with its external stereo decoder does sound very nice. Having recently resurrected a monster of a power amplifier (500 watts RMS per channel), well, monster for me, since I'm usually resurrecting vintage radios, DAB & most of what's left on FM, you just cannot 'drive' it, as the sound quality at high levels, just isn't quality. A very capable amplifier given the right analogue source, some music sounds 'right' through it, even at low listening levels, possibly owing to the masses of headroom ... The amplifier lives in my escape room, where no one can hear you scream! She's a bit big for my workshop really, capable of making the needle on the record player dance to the beat, especially when listening at hooligan levels ... not that I do ... of course ... The hum on Classic FM through this beast is intolerable ... Mark |
11th Apr 2018, 9:23 am | #49 |
Octode
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Carmel, Llannerchymedd, Anglesey, UK.
Posts: 1,507
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Re: Audio Compression on Classic FM.
You need to be a bit careful there. I recall an incident around the 70's where I was detecting (and measuring) a hum on Radio 3 from Rowridge. On the same tuner there was no such hum from Radio 2 or 4. The BBC engineers could not find anything wrong and in the end we had to put it down to some mysterious intermodulation effect. I have never detected any hum on CFM here in Wales, either from the Tx. or the internet.
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11th Apr 2018, 9:57 am | #50 |
Octode
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Co. Durham, UK.
Posts: 1,117
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Re: Audio Compression on Classic FM.
I've not heard a 40-cycle hum since the late '60s, when ICI Billingham finally changed to 50!
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12th Apr 2018, 2:27 pm | #51 |
Dekatron
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Location: Rugeley, Staffordshire, UK.
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Re: Audio Compression on Classic FM.
I agree, I think that most people are swayed by content, then locality (local radio etc) when it comes to their choice of stations.
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