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#1
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What Makes a Good Broadcast mix?
Hi Guys,
I have become involved in Community Radio as a Technical Operator. The training is a bit sparse (very sparse). There'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? What could I learn (heaps) and where can I get some guidelines to what other use as goals for program quality etc to AIR. I already know - 1 Avoid Dead Air 2 Plan Ahead 3 Adequate levels - and avoid clipping. 3. Pre cue everything and always have something as backup to go to air. 4. Monitor, monitor, monitor. But I am more on what I can do as far as mixing, background music, intro's and Outro handling to make it sound as though I know what I am doing. (BTW I do have a background in audio systems from an Air traffic control environment; but lack insight into professional and broadcast techniques and equipment). Any thoughts appreciated. Murray |
#2
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What Makes a Good Broadcast mix?
On Aug 7, 10:41*pm, Murray wrote:
Hi Guys, I have become involved in Community Radio as a Technical Operator. The training is a bit sparse (very sparse). *There'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? What could I learn (heaps) and where can I get some guidelines to what other use as goals for program quality etc to AIR. I already know - 1 Avoid Dead Air 2 Plan Ahead 3 Adequate levels - and avoid clipping. You should NEVER have to worry about avoidance of clipping. There will be (or should be) plenty of AGC, gain riding, leveling, peak limiting and similar types of processing in the air chain so that a clipped audio signal is vitually impossible. Same goes for the production room. 3. Pre cue everything and always have something as backup to go to air. 4. Monitor, monitor, monitor. But I am more on what I can do as far as mixing, background music, intro's and Outro handling to make it sound as though I know what I am doing. (BTW I do have a background in audio systems from an Air traffic control environment; but lack insight into professional and broadcast techniques and equipment). Listen to your competition. Don't ever let them be better than you, strive to be every bit as good as and better than they. No competition in your genre ? Treat every other place on the dial as your competitor. Treat your listeners as intelligent humans, don't 'talk down' to them. Offer a feedback avenue (such as a listener line) that's answered or recorded and pay attention to it, with appropriate grains of salt. There's consulting services that do nothing but answer the types of questions you have, and make good money doing so. You shouldn't need such a service in your case. Just take yourself seriously and your listeners will too. It's easy to sound boring and monotonous when reading copy. The best trait of a good announcer is to sound animated and exciting, like a good TV actor, except more so since there's no picture to help the listener "get it". The techniques of broacasting books I have are probably out of print, but there has got to be stuff out there. Good luck rd |
#3
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What Makes a Good Broadcast mix?
"RD Jones" wrote ...
You should NEVER have to worry about avoidance of clipping. There will be (or should be) plenty of AGC, gain riding, leveling, peak limiting and similar types of processing in the air chain so that a clipped audio signal is vitually impossible. Same goes for the production room. ESPECIALLY in a facility like that where engineering crew are sometimes blind themselves. (Speaking from experience with a similar operation in my region.) Is this a new operation? Don't they have proper audio processing equipment in the air chain? (Substitute the politically-correct word of your choice for "blind".) |
#4
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What Makes a Good Broadcast mix?
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#5
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What Makes a Good Broadcast mix?
I have become involved in Community Radio as a Technical Operator.
What makes a good mix? What could I learn (heaps) I've been doing local radio when i was really young, and i've learned that it's not at all about your technical skills, but about being able to deal with people with big ego's in a way so that they'll still get along with you. About being political and not too upfront most of the time. And about dealing with cheap, old and broken equipment connected in unlogical manners - and how to deal with that by just sneaking in one weekend and fix it, and then organize a training yourself. |
#6
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What Makes a Good Broadcast mix?
On Mon, 11 Aug 2008 09:29:44 +0200, "Badmuts"
wrote: And about dealing with cheap, old and broken equipment connected in unlogical manners - and how to deal with that by just sneaking in one weekend and fix it, and then organize a training yourself. And then finding that "unlogical" setup actually enabled functions that YOU didn't need but someone else did :-( |
#7
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What Makes a Good Broadcast mix?
On Aug 7, 10:41*pm, Murray wrote:
Hi Guys, I have become involved in Community Radio as a Technical Operator. The training is a bit sparse (very sparse). *There'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. 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. 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. I'll cheat a commercial or a Billboard Cart, track it a bit before the Director calls it, because even if a Director calls it late you'll take heat if you blow a commercial. Good luck. Will Miho NY TV/Audio Post/Music/Live Sound Guy "The large prinnt giveth and the small print taketh away..." Tom Waits What could I learn (heaps) and where can I get some guidelines to what other use as goals for program quality etc to AIR. I already know - 1 Avoid Dead Air 2 Plan Ahead 3 Adequate levels - and avoid clipping. 3. Pre cue everything and always have something as backup to go to air. 4. Monitor, monitor, monitor. But I am more on what I can do as far as mixing, background music, intro's and Outro handling to make it sound as though I know what I am doing. (BTW I do have a background in audio systems from an Air traffic control environment; but lack insight into professional and broadcast techniques and equipment). Any thoughts appreciated. Murray |
#8
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What Makes a Good Broadcast mix?
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#9
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What Makes a Good Broadcast mix?
On Aug 12, 10:13*am, wrote:
On 2008-08-11 said: * * I have become involved in Community Radio as a Technical Operator. * *The *training is a bit sparse (very sparse). ˙There'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? Hi Guys, Thanks for the input. I was more interested in what I COULD DO as I am not the vocal talent; I am the guy driving the panel and putting the programme to air. But based on some of "the talent" whose program I am putting to air, I may put my hand up to to do an audition. I have listened a lot over the last few days - hearing the problems of others off-air, the mis-cues, coughing and not using the cough button, cueing up programs going to air, faders down etc. Hopefully, this won't be happening on next Monday's shift. Regards to all, Murray PS feel free to contact me off-site if you wish. M |
#10
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What Makes a Good Broadcast mix?
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