Commodore Remix

I just tuned into Slay radio and I can't help noticing the loudness of the speaker. Have you considered turning it a bit down? I'd like the music to be the max level so I don't have to turn up and down between music and "speakings". Maybe it's just a bit annoying on my setup. No offence people.

exoskeleton wrote:I just tuned into Slay radio and I can't help noticing the loudness of the speaker. Have you considered turning it a bit down? I'd like the music to be the max level so I don't have to turn up and down between music and "speakings". Maybe it's just a bit annoying on my setup. No offence people.

Does anyone else have the same problem? Maybe it's my setup or something, because I've never been bothered with this.

It is, after all, live shows we are talking about. We listen to these mostly because of the talk and malarky, rather than just the music.

I have adjusted all my MP3's using the MP3Gain tool to a Target "Normal" Volume of 92.5 dB, which kind of behaves neutral when switching my stereo at home between MP3, radio, tape and phono. Also in the car when switching between MP3-CD and FM radio, both have about the same level.

Slay radio is definitely way above this volume level. Also, it seems to have much more trebles than any of the other media mentioned above.

For a non-regular listener like me, this is not a big problem. But I can imagine that for regular listeners it can be a little annoying to turn the volume down when listening to Slay Radio and turn it back up when listening to other media on the same device.

omoroca wrote:For a non-regular listener like me, this is not a big problem. But I can imagine that for regular listeners it can be a little annoying to turn the volume down when listening to Slay Radio and turn it back up when listening to other media on the same device.

I think he's talking about the volume level difference between music and talk on the live shows.

That's right Slay, that's what I'm talking about, I'm not discussing other aspects. I fully agree the talk is a major part of it, otherwise it'd just be a playlist, but so is the music, and having to turn up and down isn't very comfortable. It's like when commercials turn up the loudness between regular programming. In general, I'd advocate for neutral settings (not too much compression on the voice either) and a speaker loudness level slightly below or at average music level. But that's just my idea of fun. Obviously your mileage may vary.

omoroca wrote:I have adjusted all my MP3's using the MP3Gain tool to a Target "Normal" Volume of 92.5 dB

Excuse me, omaroca, for korinthenkacking and getting OT (but you know one of my main professions besides music making is contradicting you ) but 92.5 dB actually says nothing except something is 92.5 dB louder than something else you didn't mention. Do you mean dB(SPL), dBu, dbV or what else? dB is not a physcal unit but only a ratio to a specific reference level which is given with a suffix after the dB. But I admit even famous audio engineering magazines constantly get this wrong.
And now back to business...

Romeo Knight wrote: Excuse me, omaroca, for korinthenkacking and getting OT (but you know one of my main professions besides music making is contradicting you ) but 92.5 dB actually says nothing except something is 92.5 dB louder than something else you didn't mention. Do you mean dB(SPL), dBu, dbV or what else? dB is not a physcal unit but only a ratio to a specific reference level which is given with a suffix after the dB. But I admit even famous audio engineering magazines constantly get this wrong.
And now back to business...

Ummm....errr......aa......ummm......aaa.....errrr..... Yeah whatever that knob thing does when you turn it up and the level meter hits the red light after the yellow which is before the orange.....

I used to adjust my volumes to 0dB on my Mixer but found things sounded too low in volume. so I say 7+dB Everyone!!!!

But in all seriousness... I used to do an 80's radio show a few moons ago and I would normalize my set to a set level and than I would adjust my Mic levels not to go above the level which the music was normalized with. I than used Winamp with Shoutcast to broadcast a server.

I wonder if there is a winamp plugin that could normalize everything Live!!

Romeo Knight wrote:Excuse me, omaroca, for korinthenkacking and getting OT (but you know one of my main professions besides music making is contradicting you )

So at least in one of your two professions you are really good.

Romeo Knight wrote:but 92.5 dB actually says nothing except something is 92.5 dB louder than something else you didn't mention. Do you mean dB(SPL), dBu, dbV or what else? dB is not a physcal unit but only a ratio to a specific reference level which is given with a suffix after the dB. But I admit even famous audio engineering magazines constantly get this wrong.

I know that dB is always a relative expression, so you always have to ask... 92.5 dB - compared to what? I shouldn't have mentioned the dB value at all bc it wasn't important for what I was trying to say. But what I was trying to say wasn't important for this thread anyway, so...

omoroca wrote:

Romeo Knight wrote:but you know one of my main professions besides music making is contradicting you )

So at least in one of your two professions you are really good.

Yes, you are definitely right with this.

Romeo Knight wrote:

omoroca wrote:

Romeo Knight wrote:but you know one of my main professions besides music making is contradicting you )

So at least in one of your two professions you are really good.

Yes, you are definitely right with this.

By agreeing to what I wrote, you indirectly stated that contradicting me is not the profession you're good at, which means it must be the music.

Very clever!

Now, now, children...

This is a notoriously difficult subject, Exoskeleton. I'll try to explain it a bit.

The dB's, as mentioned, is relative. Indeed we're talking about the loudness of the music compared to the voices. To make it even more complicated, dB's only tell something about volume, which is only a third of the story.

dB's, RMS power and frequency all contribute to the "perceived loudness".

SLAY Radio used to have sound processing which compressed the signal to death. (Meaning it was very heavy). This is pretty normal for radio stations as it has 2 benefits:
* You can put UR stereo on a low setting, and still be able to hear/understand everything.
* Perceived loudness of both the music and the voice will automatically be "crushed" to about the same level, so no need to keep tweaking your volume knob.

This year, SLAY Radio got some new soundprocessing. And it is not set to compress the audio signal to death. The up-side is that it sounds much more hi-fi. Down side is that the DJ's setting on volumes becomes much more critical.

Now, the DJ's have to listen to what they broadcast thru headphones. And accurately determining ones own voice volume thru headphones is undoable. To make it even worse, the DJ's don't hear the signal AFTER SLAY processing. So after making some changes to their setup, it is always a bit of a surprise what the end-result will be. Lastly, DJ's try to do their best with whatever equipment they have at home, and it is very difficult to keep relative perceived loudness in check without a battery of pro equipment.

I hope this explains a bit. I'll try to keep it in mind on the next show.

Greetz!

What Tron says!

That's a great explanation, Tron.