radio station sound processing

[Etac 10+ year member]

how do radiostations tune/process their sound if anyone knows... ?

even tho my alpines FM reception ***** lol and it isnt as clear.. radiostations music almost always sounds more lively and laid back compared to my cds..

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[ryan8551226 10+ year member]

that is odd because its always the expected opposite problem for me- radiostations typically cut out a lot of the lowend so i dont know why it would sound more lively to you.

 

[Etac 10+ year member]

i dont really knwo hwo to werd it..

my cd's just seem more in your face.. while the radio seems kinda further away..in a good way tho... if you know what im saying

 

[JimJ 5,000+ posts]

I don't get what you're saying...lively and laid-back?

Most FM processing involves compressing the signal, so they can maximize modulation into the transmitter and seem as "loud" as the next station, and limiting the peak level so they don't overdrive the transmitter input and introduce distortion. Also, because of the way FM stereo multiplexing works, there's a 19.5KHz carrier signal that your receiver needs to seperate the left/right signals - so FM stations have a very steep low pass filter in order to make sure that they don't have audio going up that high, or you get a "chirping" of the stereo signal.

The end result of all this is that most FM broadcasts are loud, but lack dynamics and the full spectrum of sound...much like a bad quality MP3 that's been boosted or cut to equalize an entire album, to put it in that context.

What kind of references do you have for what's "good sound" to you?