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From: stern@inmet.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.audio
Subject: Re: FM Compression - (nf)
Message-ID: <1711@inmet.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 7-Oct-84 00:55:50 EDT
Article-I.D.: inmet.1711
Posted: Sun Oct  7 00:55:50 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 8-Oct-84 04:50:38 EDT
Lines: 31

#R:brl-tgr:-505400:inmet:2600107:000:1578
inmet!stern    Oct  5 09:40:00 1984


Putting a compressor/limiter in your personal stereo unit is a good
idea, unfortunately, I don't think many FM radio stations -- especially
your HOT ROCKERS, are going to go along with it.  Most radio stations
that turn their compressors up to the 75-80% marks do so because they
want to sound "loud".  This helps when the station is on an adjacent
frequency to a competitive station: a top 40 station at 103.5 FM, and
an album station at 103.3 FM, for example.  The top 40 station most likely
will crank up its compressor to make "dial-spinners" stop when they hear
the compressed Def Leppard screaming out at them.  Classical music is
another story, as is jazz: A little compression is necessary to keep
the DJ voices from sounding like they are emanating from a tin can,
too much compression ruins the dynamics of the music.  

I worked at my college radio station, WPRB-FM in Princeton, NJ, for
several years -- our format was classical in the early morning, jazz
until lunchtime, and progressive rock until the wee hours.  For everyone's
benefit, we kept the compressor turned to 20% or so.  The problem with
this is that we were adjacent to a *big* top 40 station, and when turning
the dial down through the 103's, you could skip right over us because the
top 40 station sounded so "loud."  

This shouldn't be taken as a blast against top 40 stations -- some of them
are pretty good, and have a reasonablly clean sound.  Some others sound
so much like AM radio that I have to laugh.  Oh well.

--Hal Stern
  Intermetrics, Inc.		uucp: {esquire, harpo, ihnp4}!inmet!stern