What do they do at the radio stations?...

[EnSkorSang]

I once submitted a track to a radio station and they replied saying that they liked it, but couldnt play it and gave some blurb about it being roomy and due to the compression they use on radio it would sound all funny....
What is it they do to the tracks to prepare them for radio play?, How do you know your track is the required standard (technically, not musically)...I mean is there something we can test the track with to see if it would sound ok for radio...some kind of criteria?
Anyone else had a similar kind of thing happen?

[String7th]

Radio stations use squash compression where it removes any and all dynamics. Perfect example is Tool. Listen to The Pot on cd, then see if your local station plays it on the radio. You will pretty much hear a different song, new things that were supposed to be quiet and in the background are now as loud as the drums. It's like someone knows the song perfectly and is moving the volume fader up and down throughout the entire song so everything is always loud.

Your song may have too much reverb or boom that will make the radio compressor not play the song right. Try re-mixing or invest in mastering it from a bigger studio.

[EnSkorSang]

Originally Posted by String7th

Radio stations use squash compression.

Difference between squash compression and normal compression? Are there any plugins available which will do this?

[String7th]

It's just a term, it's compression that the threshold is so low, everything stays at the same volume.
You don't squash your mix, dynamics and volume ranges are good for most music. When you are listening to your mix, compare it to a pro-cd of the same style and see what's missing, or what's too much. Maybe that guy said "roomy" because it had too much reverb or needed to be mixed differently.

[brandondrury]

I've never heard of a specific term called "squash compression" but I know what String7th is saying. Basically they are crushing it with compression. The compression is multiband so that can dramatically effect the way that reverbs and such sound.

If they weren't happy with the mix for the radio I would suggest you posting a mix in Recording Reviews and maybe we can help you with it.

Brandon

[EnSkorSang]

Originally Posted by brandondrury

If they weren't happy with the mix for the radio I would suggest you posting a mix in Recording Reviews and maybe we can help you with it.

The song is already there:

Overly ambitious song

[brandondrury]

There is nothing non-radio friendly about this mix in terms of audio alone. It's not "roomy" (by my definition of the word). Young radio people may not be too excited by your panning choices. This bothered me, but the sound is good enough for the radio for sure in a natural 70s production kind of way. If the radio is refusing, it's not because of audio engineering issues.

Brandon

[mikromort]

I was a broadcast engineer at a radio station, however only for a year, so I'm by no means a radio expert and that was 8 years ago. We had a processor there, we hardly touched it, it had presets and that's what we used cause we were fixing the stuff mostly and weren't audio engineers. I don't remember it being multiband though, it had eq and limiter, but it's been so long I might be wrong. My advice would be to try playing this song through a limiter with a slow response time, like 50ms attack and 300ms release and see if you aren't getting some wierd pumping going on. Take this all with a grain of salt though as I said it's been a long time, I work with boilers now, not transmitters.

On another note if your into audio and power and get a chance go see a radio transmitter sometime. 100,000 watts of power through a tube made of metal the size of your fist!

[TonyB]

Originally Posted by brandondrury

I've never heard of a specific term called "squash compression" but I know what String7th is saying. Basically they are crushing it with compression. The compression is multiband so that can dramatically effect the way that reverbs and such sound.

If they weren't happy with the mix for the radio I would suggest you posting a mix in Recording Reviews and maybe we can help you with it.

Brandon

There are some plugins that use the term "squash" as a preset. If I recall the Vintage compressor that comes with Sonar Producer 7 comes with a preset called "squash" or something similar to that term. I'd have to look, but I have a few different "mastering plugins" that squash the heck out of the song. Some go for the direct approach: "Normal" "Loud" "Max Loud"

Caution -- Turn down your monitors before activating these "squash" plugins.

[mikromort]

The main thing to remember is to have the "suck" knob turned to 0 and the "rock" knob turned up to 11