Hi I'm new to this group and also new to the recording studio from the
production side of things. I have a Boss 1200 CD digital recording set up at
home and do a fair job of mixing. I'm a semi-pro entertainer and know what I
like to hear. The problem I have is when it comes to the 'final' mix down
it's not good enough for radio play. I've been on the other side of the
recording studio window for many sessions but never at the console. A few
questions I would like answering are :-
1/ Is it correct to record tracks 'with' compression / expansion or
'without'.
2/ Are computer programs like Cool Edit Pro likely to generate the 'final'
mix down quality required by radio stations.
3/ If anyone is using a Boss 1180 or 1200 can they inform me of the best
recording techniques to get a radio station mix down, as the both machines
have pre-set mix down buttons that I've used but to no avail as regard to
"radio quality".
Thanks for your time in advance
G :-)

Thanx for that Julian. Volume levels seem to be the problem with 'air play'
quality. A few radio station 'heads' have listen to my music and are
impressed but they say the quality isn't compressed enough. How the **** do
I get that so called 'sound' they are after. The machine I use has a CD
burner attachment and I check the finished track on a regular CD player with
no EQ of any kind and they all sound fine to me with all tracks listenable.
I try putting my track up against a 'pro' track of say country artist Garth
Brookes and there is no noticeable volume difference although the drum /
bass tracks are a bit cleaner. Any help on that ?
Thanks again
G :-)
"Julian" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 4 Jun 2005 17:46:41 +1000, "Garry James"
wrote:

Hi I'm new to this group and also new to the recording studio from the
production side of things. I have a Boss 1200 CD digital recording set up
at
home and do a fair job of mixing. I'm a semi-pro entertainer and know
what I
like to hear. The problem I have is when it comes to the 'final' mix down
it's not good enough for radio play. I've been on the other side of the
recording studio window for many sessions but never at the console. A few
questions I would like answering are :-

It takes time and experience to learn how to mix. If your ear is well
developed, if you know when and how to use compression and your
control room monitoring is accurate, there is no difference between a
good mix as you describe and a mix good enough for airplay as you also
describe, IMO. Why don't you take a class or two? Or hire an
engineer you respect from being on the other side of the glass to work
with you for a day or so and help you improve the air play suitability
of your mixes?

1/ Is it correct to record tracks 'with' compression / expansion or
'without'.

Generally it is best to record with little or no compression unless
you are very sure of yourself. If you really know what you want as
the end result it is OK to record with as much compression as you
think you need in the end result. That was more common in the analog
days when you wanted to get every dB of signal to noise you could out
of teh analog tape. Since digital is so quiet, there is little to
gain by compressing up front when recording tracks, unless it is
easier to you for some reason and you are sure how much compression
you want to end up with on a given track.

2/ Are computer programs like Cool Edit Pro likely to generate the
'final'
mix down quality required by radio stations.

Cool Edit is perfectly adequate to generate a CD quality mix. I love
Cool Edit. It's more a question of what software / hardware you want
to mix with. IMO, Cool Edit is great for simple radio announce spots
etc., but not great for mixing music. There are a lot of better
programs out there for that which can be recommended by many readers
of this forum.

3/ If anyone is using a Boss 1180 or 1200 can they inform me of the best
recording techniques to get a radio station mix down, as the both
machines
have pre-set mix down buttons that I've used but to no avail as regard to
"radio quality".

I have no experience with that equipment.

Julian

I shall go off line right now and try the settings you've described. I'll
get back to you with the results.
Thanks again Julian
G :-)
"Julian" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 4 Jun 2005 21:54:19 +1000, "Garry James"
wrote:

I use an old version of Sound Forge 4.5 to do a final "mastering"
compression on my mixes. I set a very slow attach (100 - 500 ms) and
an even slower release (1 - 2 seconds) with a ratio of maybe, 6:1 or
10:1. Then I visually examine the waveform display and decide how
much of the peaks I can squish before I start getting into the "meat"
of the sound. I'll set the threshold slightly above this point and
make sure "auto gain compensate" is on. This very gently brings up
the overall loudness of the mix without disturbing transients due to
the extremely slow attack and release times. The auto gain compensate
then normalizes the entire mix after compression.

I'll bet of you did this the radio guys would find it an improvement
in your mixes. You can do the same thing with Cool Edit, but I'm used
to using Sound Forge for this. I like the graphic dynamics GUI.
There are thousands of other compressor plug ins with other programs
too that can be set to do this sort of compression. E-mail me off
list if you need any help on this.

Julian

On Sat, 4 Jun 2005 17:46:41 +1000, "Garry James"
wrote:

Hi I'm new to this group and also new to the recording studio from the
production side of things. I have a Boss 1200 CD digital recording set up at
home and do a fair job of mixing. I'm a semi-pro entertainer and know what I
like to hear. The problem I have is when it comes to the 'final' mix down
it's not good enough for radio play. I've been on the other side of the
recording studio window for many sessions but never at the console. A few
questions I would like answering are :-

It takes time and experience to learn how to mix. If your ear is well
developed, if you know when and how to use compression and your
control room monitoring is accurate, there is no difference between a
good mix as you describe and a mix good enough for airplay as you also
describe, IMO. Why don't you take a class or two? Or hire an
engineer you respect from being on the other side of the glass to work
with you for a day or so and help you improve the air play suitability
of your mixes?

1/ Is it correct to record tracks 'with' compression / expansion or
'without'.

Generally it is best to record with little or no compression unless
you are very sure of yourself. If you really know what you want as
the end result it is OK to record with as much compression as you
think you need in the end result. That was more common in the analog
days when you wanted to get every dB of signal to noise you could out
of teh analog tape. Since digital is so quiet, there is little to
gain by compressing up front when recording tracks, unless it is
easier to you for some reason and you are sure how much compression
you want to end up with on a given track.

2/ Are computer programs like Cool Edit Pro likely to generate the 'final'
mix down quality required by radio stations.

Cool Edit is perfectly adequate to generate a CD quality mix. I love
Cool Edit. It's more a question of what software / hardware you want
to mix with. IMO, Cool Edit is great for simple radio announce spots
etc., but not great for mixing music. There are a lot of better
programs out there for that which can be recommended by many readers
of this forum.

3/ If anyone is using a Boss 1180 or 1200 can they inform me of the best
recording techniques to get a radio station mix down, as the both machines
have pre-set mix down buttons that I've used but to no avail as regard to
"radio quality".

I have no experience with that equipment.

Julian

On Sat, 4 Jun 2005 21:54:19 +1000, "Garry James"
wrote:

I use an old version of Sound Forge 4.5 to do a final "mastering"
compression on my mixes. I set a very slow attach (100 - 500 ms) and
an even slower release (1 - 2 seconds) with a ratio of maybe, 6:1 or
10:1. Then I visually examine the waveform display and decide how
much of the peaks I can squish before I start getting into the "meat"
of the sound. I'll set the threshold slightly above this point and
make sure "auto gain compensate" is on. This very gently brings up
the overall loudness of the mix without disturbing transients due to
the extremely slow attack and release times. The auto gain compensate
then normalizes the entire mix after compression.

I'll bet of you did this the radio guys would find it an improvement
in your mixes. You can do the same thing with Cool Edit, but I'm used
to using Sound Forge for this. I like the graphic dynamics GUI.
There are thousands of other compressor plug ins with other programs
too that can be set to do this sort of compression. E-mail me off
list if you need any help on this.

Julian

On Sun, 5 Jun 2005 09:22:40 +1000, "Garry James"
wrote:

I shall go off line right now and try the settings you've described. I'll
get back to you with the results.
Thanks again Julian
G :-)

AND...?