I'm making a project for the radio, are there any things that should be made differently, sound-wise? Any frequencies that should be specifically avoided etc...?
It's EDM, electro-synth-pop oriented with a vocal, if this helps

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To answer your question, I am going to assume that your "project" is a mix. I've done a few radio shows and the only thing that I have ever been asked to do different is run my final mix through a limiter to make it more level for radio play and to normalize the final mixdown to between -1 and 0 dB.

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I currently work in radio broadcast and really you as a producer should not have to do anything to your sound per say.

By the time it goes out on air it will have been compressed and limited and normalised half a dozen times so don't overdo the compression or mastering effects on you side of the production.

The other thing to remember is that the average radio(small hifi,earplug headphones do not reproduce bass freqencies well so try to make sure the tracks is not too tinny on the hi's and upper mids and not muddy with bass. Mids is mainly what people wil hear so make sure they're nice and clear without dodgy harmonics from other frequncy ranges creeping in.

Listen to your mix on small crap speakers and cheap headphones - it will give you an idea of how your track will sound.

well I know that music that is mixed for radio air play is mixed differently. I'm told that the bass frequencies are boosted a little and some mids too. Dont quote m eon that though...google mixing for radio.

I am assuming that your project is a single track produced by yourself. Just don't squash your track with excessive compression, leave some space in the dynamic range. IF the station that will play your track is an FM radio station, their sound is ran through a broadcast processor such as Orban Optimod or Omnia at the transmitter site. Stations use them to keep their modulation under control, and to increase their perceived loudness without increasing their modulation, and often to compete with other stations in the market in therms of who's the loudest one on the dial. What the processor is, its a combination of 1 - 2 band AGC, 3 - 6 band compressor/limiter and a stereo generator. There are also various bass and stereo enhancement stages built it. Thats why all you need to do, is to keep your track as clean and well balanced as you can, with weaker mastering processing than a track intended for a CD release.

I am no expert when it comes to mixing a track specifically for FM radio, but i had many broadcast radio engineers tell me that they hate todays modern music that is played on the radio, because it is over compressed and sounds like shit on the air. What I can recommend you to do, is to make FM radio version of your radio edit, and then burn that version to a separate CD to be given to FM radio station. The reason i recommend a separate CD, is because majority of Music directors, or Program directors will not know the difference between radio edit and FM radio edit, and may air the wrong version. Unfortunately, majority PD's will prefer squashed lifeless sound if it sounds a little bit louder.

If your project is mixshow, or mixset for FM radio station or internet station that uses processing, then record at -6 db at standard CD resolution of 44.1Khz 16bit. Most likely, it will be around of under 55 minutes in length, so burn the file to an audio CD, uncompressed. I do not recommend giving your mix as an MP3 to a station that will run it though their processing.

If the station does not use any processing, like afterhoursdjs.org or similar, then just normalize your levels to 0. You should still record at -6db and apply normalization as last step. You don't want your mix being too quiet, or neither clipping.

Last edited by antronx on Aug-31-2007 at 00:58

It's a single track, that i've been requested to make for a young talented singer with her vocals.
The radio station is FM, and in comparison with others they are damn loud... So they're doing some heavy limiting on their end it seems...
So the best way would be to get the levels near 0db with as little comp/limit as possible, strong midrange, the kick & bass shouldn't be maxed then?
So should i go for 0db without limiting (i've read somewhere that limiting creates square waves in the waveform, which makes a disaster when optimod gets it) and hope their processors do the right thing, or leave it a bit quieter (but in that case optimod may destroy all dynamics)..
At this stage, the mix peaks at -0.9 with average of about -2, a limiter at my side probably wouldn't do as much damage as the stations i guess?

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quote:

It's a single track, that i've been requested to make for a young talented singer with her vocals. The radio station is FM, and in comparison with others they are damn loud... So they're doing some heavy limiting on their end it seems...

More like heavy compression with limiting.

quote:

So the best way would be to get the levels near 0db with as little comp/limit as possible, strong midrange, the kick & bass shouldn't be maxed then?

Levels, little comp/limit as possible - Yes. The rest - not exactly. I don't think you need to EQ it differently for FM at all. Like i said before, they employ multi band compressors that will effectively re-EQ all your effort in real time. Just mix it same way you would for CD, but do not apply too much compression/limiting at the end. That's All. In other words, leave your track sounding open, airy, breathable... And make sure there is minimum distortion, the processor will make distortion more present. Make the track as clean as you can.

quote:

So should i go for 0db without limiting (i've read somewhere that limiting creates square waves in the waveform, which makes a disaster when optimod gets it)

True, square waves that were sine waves before is not good news.

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and hope their processors do the right thing, or leave it a bit quieter (but in that case optimod may destroy all dynamics)..

I don't understand, what exactly do you mean by "destroy all dynamics"? Multi band processing will reduce your dynamics, but in radio, it is usually done in a certain way, that still creates an illusion of open and uncompressed sound. That is one of the reasons Orban been working on their tricks for last 30 years, and their processors cost around $10,000.

quote:

At this stage, the mix peaks at -0.9 with average of about -2, a limiter at my side probably wouldn't do as much damage as the stations i guess?

If you use your limiter right then no, but in any case it will add to the damage. If you want your question to be answered more in depth, then go to http://www.radio-info.com/smf/index...oard,270.0.html , register a username, and post your question in that forum. Its an engineering forum where many seasoned radio pro's hang out. There are even people who work for Optimod and Omnia, who often answer questions on radio processing. They should be happy to explain this to you in greater detail than me. If you get a good answer, post it here so others can see too. Good Luck! and congrats on getting your track on the radio.

Well, the track had to be done today, so i didn't have the time to register at that board, i tried my best to bring up the volume without limiting, i used no compression on the master at all, i set a L2 though that doesn't do much than fix occasional +0 bumps and approximately 0.5 - 0.3 of volume boost, quite hard work with mixing but it paid off, it sounds very clear, and most importantly, every1 that heard the track loved it (important - non EDM people - yeah, they DO exist lol), hehe
Even the sound engineer in the radio loved it, so i guess it was quite a good shot!

Thanks for all the advice, i'd do it all wrong if i didn't know this stuff!

Oh, and the sound guy also told me that majority of the FM stations deal only with 192kbps and lower MP3's, so that made the effort to make a low-q mp3 sound good even harder

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Last edited by Tarpex on Aug-31-2007 at 22:26

Awesome, glad it worked out good for you. Keep making those bangin tracks!