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On 2008-08-11 said:
I have become involved in Community Radio as a Technical Operator.
The training is a bit sparse (very sparse). ÿThere's a lot of
live reading of Newspapers etc, interspersed with sponsor promos
etc and it's main purpose is to support print handicapped people.
So my questions a
What makes a good mix?
From the operator's perspective, a mix that is intelligible with
the TV or Radio set at low listening levels, that isn't harsh, ugly
or overly ambient, and that has levels constant enough to not
disappear into the noise floor (in a car or someone's living room)
or to suddenly jump out and startle the listener. How to accomplish
this is another question. Overall, I use the Opening and closing
music as a guide for where everything else in the mix should be,
and match the Billboards and the Talents' mics to that level.
True enough, from his target listeners' point of view, even
if they don't realize it. YOu'll note what he's doing,
quoted above. WHat many of us call "radio reading services"
usually on a subcarrier of an fm station, often public or
community radio station of some type.

Yyou can't get a good mix just moving the faders to zero, you'll
have to listen. In TV we actually have EQ's, and they let us use
compressors. limiters, etc. As I understand it, this is not
universally true in radio. But there are EQ curve settings built
into some microphones like EV RE20's. If you were doing TV, having
audio video timing match would also be an issue.
HE's not doing video so he won't have worries there. IF
he's some compression available he might want to use it,
especially if "talent" pre-records as I suggested earlier in
this thread and doesn't use it when tracking.

Be prepared, quickly monitor sources prefade so you know how loud
they are going to be and that the caller is still there (I prefer
mixers with a pull down prefade listen function), hit your cues
promptly, and most importantly never upcut a commercial. If you
occasionally upcut a studio mic because there is no way you could
have known to open a mic, that they may forgive. But upcut a
commercial and Sales likely has to make good on the whole thing,
and in some markets the advertiser is paying a whole lot more for
one commercial than they are paying an audio Op.
SOme good points too, probably not something he's going to
have to worry about for the most part. THere will be
bumpers though that have to be cued from pre-recorded
sources such as station ids and announcements etc. wHich
will be aired between reading segments.


REgards,




Richard webb,
replace anything before at with elspider