• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Well, I guess I'm a podcaster now

T

Tom Wells

Star Participant
In an effort to demonstrate that AM analog sounds wonderful, but many people now have never heard AM music,
or know how AM sounded on a radio. So I started just to demonstrate the audio response, but now I am posting CD length airchecks.
I have enjoyed many online stations, but am always put off by low bitrates.
Streaming at 128 only would probably be more than I can afford, so I am posting podcasts of my home automation stream.
I broadcast all music at home on an AM part 15, in operation now since 1992. In the last three months, I have begun loading
faves from my own collected records and some online sources to a computer running Zara automation.
I am covering MY selections from 1925 to present. It's 60s heavy and leans obscure, B-side, and instrumental.
I am heavy on faster and louder music, except what I pick for mellow, and always all over the map with
things that don't fit in any format. Can't figure out what to call this if anything.
Needs way more spots or sweepers. I am happy with most segues. But many older items have long "tails".

I figure I'm at 5% playlist now, from my own stuff.

I would appreciate comments

http://thomasjwells.podOmatic.com

hope this opens to the main page....

These are from an actual radio, not simulated AM reception.

They sound like a real AM radio on a hot steamy summer night a long time ago listening to WLS to me.
The audio, anyway.
 
Newest edition, #9, has some whine from the dang computer sound card intermodulating with the RF..
Oh well, it's always something.

http://thomasjwells.podOmatic.com/entry/2007-11-06T20_01_13-08_00

I remember listening to the Chuck Wagon Gang (Carter Family) on WLAC 1510 on the Mall Singing Convention.
"Angel rock me to Sleep" was often featured.
 
I’m enjoying these podcasts. So far #9 is my favorite. If you take 'requests', how about a late 50’s/early 60’s era show. Maybe some Latin/Cuban type stuff in the mix?

It’s great when somebody comes by my desk and asks what station I'm listening to…
 
I have some great Argentine tango/jazz by the Portena ( wheres the tilda?) Jazz Band I hope to get on soon.
It's on cassette, somewhere. I also have a signed Desi Arnaz 78 of "Babalu" that I have to dub, and lots more.
The newest, No 11, has some fun old spots, WLS and WCFL jingles, and finally has the reverb up where I want it.

Oh, and it has Ted Lemen singing "Too many kinks down in Kankakee", and "Mike the headless Rooster" from WLS' animal stories.

I will be adding an ART Pro VLA compressor on Christmas, and I have to wonder if I'll be happy or disappointed.


#11- http://thomasjwells.podOmatic.com/entry/2007-12-15T12_31_50-08_00

As ever, there is something not quite perfect. This one has some digital click-glitches that were not there in the original analog.
I don't know where in the dub they came from, sounds kinda like pops on an LP, but they aren't.

Dash, I very much enjoyed the "non-format" format station you recommended. My wife and I were shocked in the first hour
to hear 3 or 4 songs in my playlist. The Live 365 delivery leaves a lot to be desired.
My laptop has a cellular access card, but the music server has only wifi connecting to the nearby university, which sometimes
cops an attitude with audio streams. I will try again with the laptop as audio source, but even then, I think Live 365
has a habit of dropping and waiting for you to restart it, a major annoyance.

I have no moral problem with using the university's wifi, they did a land grab on the city park across the street from me for their
astroturf regulation soccer field. I have to listen to their team practicing, shouting and cursing at the top of their lungs at midnight.
They owe me wifi for the rest of my life there, I figure.
 
raydofan said:
Tom Wells said:
#11- http://thomasjwells.podOmatic.com/entry/2007-12-15T12_31_50-08_00
Click to expand...


Nice...iTunes seems to grab only the 16 minutes of this one, ditto the stand-alone player (ends with 'She has Eyes')

If you could play 'Jack the Ripper' by Link Wray or the Raybeats, I would be grateful.

Are you the one who sent the email about WFMU?
Click to expand...

I figured out where the glitching came from. My first dub to CD was from line-out, not from the radio detector.
So I played the line out CD on the drive in the same server Zara runs on, but apparently the CD audio output is not seamless.
The glitch/jitter is insufficient data bufferahead or throughput.
And also why the file starts over again at the end. The CD started playing again.
I guess I won't re-run the dub, but keep in mind that the CD drive in the computer needs a direct line to the audio card, NOT played
through the backplane and processor. Don't even know if the drive or card in this computer has provision for direct.

Yes, I wrote to thank everyone involved with WFMU, one of the finest radio stations I've ever heard, back in the early 80's and still great.
I don't have either version on the server yet, but have both Link Wray and Raybeats. The weekend is coming up.
These will be located. I'm also hunting for my copy of "Marlboro Country" an LP with about 12 different themes modifying the marlboro cig music.


I wonder why the last 16 minutes only? Maybe the loop-around of the file? That makes no sense.....
What song or event does the clip open with?
 
Tom Wells said:
I wonder why the last 16 minutes only? Maybe the loop-around of the file? That makes no sense.....
What song or event does the clip open with?
Click to expand...

Correction: Both the long clip and the short start off with 'She's got Eyes'; The shorter one ends with the drag race commercial.

Odd that the download is intact, and the cast/ embed isn't. Maybe just a delete/re-up is in order. What is the bitrate of #11?
 
Any files that didn't need software edits are 192k, those that needed editing end up as 128k.

I also had numerous crashes/freezes on upload, and it finally worked the 7th time.

I believe the cloudy day, and downward firing radar on two parallel aircraft runway approaches over my house led to mulitple
dropping or freezing up of the file. Maybe the one in the cast/embedded player somehow got one of the incomplete uploads somehow.
 
I did a delete and re-up. Only took three attempts to actually get the newer version up there this time.

The correct file's length is 1:19:22 not 1:19:58. Much better without the glitching.

Maybe a bit too bright on this one, but I turned the power down to about 10mw in order to have a certain level of 10 khz whistle.

I have added filters to remove it in many of my radios, but then find myself enjoying it in radios that have it.

So I think these podcasts should have sometimes more, sometimes less of this real-world AM radio effect.

The next, No 12 will be after I add some more new material, and wire up the CD recorder to the
1961-ish tube/transistor Mopar (Chrylser Corp radios built by Bendix) with 12v heaters, 12v on the plates, and
the widest-band audio I've ever heard from a car radio. This is my preferred air monitor.
The only modification made to this radio was to remove hay, dirt, and cobwebs.
I will open soon and add a line out at the detector.
The amazing thing here is how it sounds on REALLY heavy modulation.
Whereas overload and splatting results in most semiconductor detectors, where a non-linear region of operation happens due to
insufficient AVC design, the tube circuit here (don't know if the actual detector is hollow or solid state) or its AVC action doesn't
seem to get run into non-linear operation. Which means it doesn't go crunch on punchy material.

I'm taking the day off, and would like to make all this happen today.


I think uploading gives a whole new link, etc, if ya delete and re-post.
Same podcast as before without digi-glitching.

http://thomasjwells.podOmatic.com/entry/2007-12-21T07_00_43-08_00
 
Tom Wells said:
I did a delete and re-up. Only took three attempts to actually get the newer version up there this time.

The correct file's length is 1:19:22 not 1:19:58. Much better without the glitching.

<snip>

The next, No 12 will be after I add some more new material, and wire up the CD recorder to the
1961-ish tube/transistor Mopar (Chrylser Corp radios built by Bendix) with 12v heaters, 12v on the plates, and
the widest-band audio I've ever heard from a car radio. This is my preferred air monitor.
The only modification made to this radio was to remove hay, dirt, and cobwebs.
I will open soon and add a line out at the detector.
The amazing thing here is how it sounds on REALLY heavy modulation.
Whereas overload and splatting results in most semiconductor detectors, where a non-linear region of operation happens due to
insufficient AVC design, the tube circuit here (don't know if the actual detector is hollow or solid state) or its AVC action doesn't
seem to get run into non-linear operation. Which means it doesn't go crunch on punchy material.
Click to expand...

I wounder how your transmitter would sound in Stereo...I have an old K-car radio that I harvested before I dumped mom's old car. No reason, really, to listen to anything in AM stereo-or FM stereo for that matter.
 
raydofan said:
I wounder how your transmitter would sound in Stereo...I have an old K-car radio that I harvested before I dumped mom's old car. No reason, really, to listen to anything in AM stereo-or FM stereo for that matter.
Click to expand...

I mentally toyed with the idea of an outboard stereo independent sideband modulator, but never built one.
 
Tom Wells said:
raydofan said:
I wounder how your transmitter would sound in Stereo...I have an old K-car radio that I harvested before I dumped mom's old car. No reason, really, to listen to anything in AM stereo-or FM stereo for that matter.
Click to expand...

I mentally toyed with the idea of an outboard stereo independent sideband modulator, but never built one.
Click to expand...

I think that would sound brilliant.
 
#12 is up, with Jack the Ripper (man is that song hard to keep under control, it's loud and harsh).

More 45's cleaned and scrubbed, some just to see if I can make 'em sound like WLS did.

I am very happy with the deep bass of the theme music from Journey to center of the Earth, for not distorting higher frequencies.

I did not yet change the detector radio over to the 1962 Bendix tube type.
It's still the 1981 Sony AM/FM table radio.

An outboard stereo modulator would have to use a lower frequency to modulate, where sideband(s)control is easier, then multiply back up
to the desired output, and it's just more than I have time for. But I've always been happy with really good mono.

I wish I knew what become of the "allright..........man" girl. She was was an aircheck from 1981 or so..

Really happy with Huntington Flats by the Murmaids Band. Always a joy to find a great B side.

Took 7 tries to upload without dumping the connnection.

http://thomasjwells.podOmatic.com/entry/2007-12-22T21_37_49-08_00
 
Are you using any processing for your input signal (I guess simple compression if any at all)?
 
Processing includes washing the record, playing it wet, filtering clicks-and-pops in real time, then using an MXR 15 band eq and expander plus DNR going to audio CDs.
The CDs are then ripped in Nero, again processed for clicks, clipped to half-second heads and tails, and stored at 128k or 192k mp3 if unedited.
Until today I have been using just the AGC built into the Zara automation, combined with the built-in "weakness" of
a Van der Bijl modulator of having a hard time achieving 100% modulation. I could tell I still needed some actual intentional
compression.

Santa brought a $300 compressor which sounds wonderful. It has filled up the empty and knocks the sizzle back into
a controlable range. A first light pass with fast attack, slow release and a high ratio, then a second pass at 3:1 with slow attack/release
sounds really nice. Not hearing any pumping, I've turned off AGC in Zara to let the ART compressor work by itself.
A short walk in the park with a radio showed a big improvement in density while still having dynamics.

There no room for reverb to be heard if the audio is completely pumped and 100% modulated. This is a touchy balance.
I will play for a while, then post another aircheck using the compressor.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.
Back
Top Bottom