My wife Stephanie and I spent part of the day in town, the rest of the evening I have been messing around with the SSTran AMT3000.
I ran a new section of ground wire from a ground rod outside and into the house where the transmitter is. This helped the audio considerably, unfortunetly it is still on the indoor antenna so range is about 100 feet.
But what I really wanted to do was post a better sound check and this one by far has better clarity. I chose to set up the EQ and the on-board processor, which i run very lightly.
Here is a short clip of that sound check. I used Pink Floyd – Welcome to the Machine
To me this sounds great. What do you think?
I tried this file by playing
I tried this file by playing it onto the Talking House 5.0 (iAM transmitter). Though it did add more bottom end it did sound distorted when the first part of the song was heard. I even tried to turn down the volume a bit which only helped some. I listened through headphones and I also heard the over driven parts of the audio. I could make it sound better if it was not so over driven. Album Rockers may not like that much distortion in the low end. Hope this helps.
Really?
I have had others listen to this and they did not have the same reaction.
Here in the studio i am using a 3 piece speaker system which consists of two full range speakers and a subwoofer.
Not top of the line but the specs are good, this sub does not like to be over driven and neither do my headphones. If the bass was over driven the speakers would have tipped me off but I do not hear it. I also played this over Audacity and see very little distortion.
My production computer is a netbook and I do not use the soundcards processing or eq as that would affect the final product. In other words, eq is off and all effects on the sound card are off. And for the record, we don’t normally play copyright or mainstream album rock.
We used to, but with so much debate over the legality of it all, i play music or programs we were given express written permission to use on the air. if it’s Indie rock so be it, irish/celtic, metal or classical. We get permission to use that material.
I used Pink Floyd for the Processing in this clip because of the dynamics present in the recording.
Another Listening Test
I’m over here in the midwaste by the Mississippi and it sounds fine. I do not detect any distortion.
Maybe it has to do with the part of the country it’s heard in.
Have to hold your mouth just right
And wear a tin foil hat if listening in Roswell, New Mexico.
I have had an engineer listen to this file and said they heard no distortion but gave me pointers at the same time. He deals with AM radio stations on a daily basis.
I dunno. Maybe it’s in the water? Fracking? I bet that’s it. Fracking.
If that Pink Floyd track was
If that Pink Floyd track was received over the air and recorded from a tuner, I’d judge it to be good. What that means is I don’t hear real distortion, but I’d need to get to know the tuner and the reference sound it produces.
Listening tests can be tough to judge, since ears get adjust and get used to different speakers, sound systems, room sizes real fast.
So what suggestions did your friend suggest or thoughts he had about the sound, maybe they’d help others here, if you can share them.
Receiver was
The receiver was a Sony AM/FM/WB SRF-M37W Walkman wired directly to the headphone jack on the radio and the other end to the line input of an HP Desktop computer running Ubuntu 15.04, Audacity was used to record the file, all settings in the sound card were set to default, no EQ or Processing used on the HP when recording. Nothing was added through the use of audacity.
My friends thoughts?
Take your time with the processing because with AM it is a tedious job.
Let the program material breath, whether it’s music or speech.
It’s nice to be loud but if it’s all noise and causes listener fatigue the listeners will tune out, this is not the final settings for the SSTran. It will change when I attach the outdoor antenna and all the tweaking starts from the beginning once again.
It was also suggested that I buy a hardware compressor limiter to handle the constantly changing program material. Not every recording is the same and not everyone records a show using the same settings as the other guy.
One thing I have figured out a long time ago when i experienced a sound card with eq and processing built in is that these sound cards don’t really handle processing the same way as a hardware processor.
Hardware processing can be warm, allows music to breath, just processing to be loud causes ear fatigue and headaches. I want to hear the dynamics of the song, not the gnat on the studio window passing gas lol
Another thing and I have this problem here at home quite often, mic gain can be set too high allowing listeners to hear everyone in the room as well as the people on the other side of the house.
I don’t like it myself and remind everyone in the house that we are recording our show or are live on the radio. I ride the controls, adjusting to compensate for changes in the guests voices or noise in the room. Just like CB radio, background noise is annoying as hell and distracts the listeners.
Controlling Sound Quality
During the cassette era we had a busy duplication business right here where KDX stands today, and shaping the sound for the limited capacity of cassettes was just as challenging as doing it for AM radio.
Several equipment suppliers were very generous and let us try new equipment, leading to selection of two Aphex products that work wonderfully.
One was the fabled Audio Exciter, still in catalogs, which restores upper harmonics that get lost during tape transfers. The Aphex Audio Exiter does wonders in brightening up old time radio shows which usually sound dull.
The real deal maker was the Aphex Compellor, a combined compressor/limiter which did a very stealthy job of packing sound in the most natural sounding way to give cassttes a “fully modulated” live sound.
That equipment is still here, doing nothing.
I have the pleasure of
I have had the pleasure of hearing the Aphex Compellor in the audio chain of a tube transmitter on AM into a dummy load.
Very smooth natural sound that seems to jump out at you without assaulting your ears.
The track played was Manheim Steamroller – God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen playing on a restored Philco 49-905.
Needless to say, I was floored.
Barry of Blue Bucket Radio 1520 AM