Processing AM 1520

I'm told I have severe high end hearing loss so I tend to boost the high end too much.

Listening to the air check sounds great!  But that tells me the high end is probably, as Carl said, a bit hot.

That being the case I rely on visual metering when I setup my EQ.  So, I ran your air check through an audio spectrum display and find the high end is out to around 15 kHz.  Great for FM.  If your adjacent channels are vacant you may be OK but then again most radios won't pass much more than 6 or 8 kHz.

Otherwise, very clean sounding.  What radio was this recorded from?

Here's a link to a quick EQ edit.  I rolled off the highs starting around 4 kHz:   Sampler Wave Edit

Wow AM man that did sound GREAT for AM. I would have listened to a station that sounded like that. Its what an Album Rock station should sound like.

Something isn't right here.
And i think i know what it is, my pc did not separate sound from the the line input and the program audio going out over the air.
Which means what you heard in that sample was raw audio from the pc to audacity.

It was my thinking that the sound card would separate/isolate the two so i guess what you all heard was actually the sound from the processor before it went out to the airwaves. What I did was connect a Sony walkman to the line in on the same computer that handles the automation of BBR.

DOH!  No wonder it sounds like FM! I apologize for the mix up, but since I have run out of audio cables i did the next best thing.
I took my wife's digital camera out to the Jeep and recorded live audio from the car stereo, this whole mixup on my part helps me understand what I am dealing with and where i can make some improvements.

VIDEO HERE

By the way, our format has changed. I will be airing Bluegrass, Irish/Celtic Music and if all goes well, music from bands in Kentucky.
So far the shout out for music submissions in my state over social media has not been great which is rather disappointing.


Barry of Blue Bucket Radio 1520 AM

EDIT: MRAM1500 I have tinnitus, i may have the same problem with high frequencies too. One too many hours spent at race tracks,live music venues and heavy metal cranked on the car stereo.

Which song did you like Carl?

Was it whiskey in the jar? I have heard so many rendition's of that song but i really enjoy the traditional version.
Many bands like The Dubliners, Thin Lizzy and Metallica recorded this ballad and there were many different variations over the years.
I think The Dubliners did it quite well , but one year at a friends house to hear it live and a bit drunk was a great experience.

They used a mandolin and  2 acoustic guitars, it sounded great.

As for the processing, another thing affecting how we perceive sound is of course the acoustics, in a car depending on the interior and quality of the speakers, their placement, same with rooms or open area's, like outdoors or auditoriums. When I recorded the video from the car, it was pretty late at night and i was not able to turn the radio up too loud without disturbing the neighbor closest to the carport. When I setup processing, i use a radio and headphones. Not those earbuds you cram into your ears, but over the ear headphones which usual have better frequency response than earbuds.

Earbuds kill my ear canals, i can't use them and I don't like the way they sound.

Thanks for feedback.




Are my Irish roots showing?

That song was : Brobdingnagian Bards - The Scotsman Unbound (Dance Remix) 

Here is the link to a free download of that song

Glad I could help Carl.

I was reading over this thread and thought it would be interesting to some you to explain the placement of speakers and interior of my 2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee.

My wife and I love our Jeep. In this area we live in you really need 4WD and some amount of driving skills but that has nothing to do with audio does it?
While the radio makes driving a bit more pleasant, the placement of speakers in a confined space makes all the difference in how we enjoy our listening experience.

In the Jeep we have a six speaker system which is factory original, I have not added or replaced any speakers. Although we need to replace the front passengers side speaker or pull the door panel off and check for a bad connection. Sometimes it works, sometimes not and it has been that way since we bought the Jeep used.

Speaker placement is as follows: Front dash just below the bottom of the windshield there is one tweeter on each side.
On the front and back doors (4 door w/tailgate) there are 5 x7 speakers and in the rear cargo area next to the tailgate are two empty speaker ports.

Jeep/Chrysler  like so many other car and trucks brands allow customers to build there car/truck/suv with special options.
This one was built standard meaning no one designed it from a website or a show room catalog, it had the option of two more speakers placed in the empty ports next to the tailgate. That would bring the total of speakers to 8 speakers, but in our case just 6 speakers.

Now the Sony stereo I recently installed has the option for adding external amps and i guess if i wanted to i could add speakers to those empty ports and drive them with a separate amplifier. But who would those speakers benefit? I could add sub woofers and boost the bass but i really don't feel the need to subject my ears to more hearing damage. I suppose though, if we had a tailgate party those extra speakers would be handy.

Now this system sounds pretty nice, even the factory stereo sounded great but we needed more options.
Here is something that isn't really a bad thing but can affect how I listen to the radio or cd's, my left leg tends to block the speaker in the door on the drivers side door which means i just hear the bass frequencies and none of the high and mid ranges (remember those door speakers are full range speakers) the easy solution is to move my leg a bit and all is well. 

You can hear the high's from the tweeters mostly from the front seats, i guess if you are sitting in the back seat you probably could hear the tweeters back there as well since the windshield bounces the sound out away from the glass.  Now the back doors, the passengers in the back can enjoy full range stereo thanks to the door speakers back there. In the front seats you can actually hear the rear speakers if the front to back fader on the radio is set to balance those out.

The speakers in the doors have a plastic plate behind them that have two functions, one is to act as a baffle which helps produce full bass frequencies using the door as speaker cabinet and they act as a guard against water. It's a Jeep thing, some "people" drive them through water, deep water. It's called water fording.

lol but you better be sure your door seals are good, ours need replaced, most Jeeps can play in the water and if a snorkel is added to the breather , they can go pretty deep. I have seen extreme water fording where the Jeep was completely submerged. Not  for me lol It's my only ride and I'd rather not get it stuck deep in a pond with no hope of retrieving it. lol

Something else that affects our hearing in any environment is the various materials used to manufacture furniture, houses etc.
In a car, the fabric and plastic actually either hamper sound, bounce sound or absorbs the sound.

The seats in the jeep are cloth, while the floor is carpet and the rest of the interior is plastic, some car seats are vinyl, ouch! Hot sun and Vinyl!
Placement of the speakers is just high enough to clear the seats, the center console and still offer full stereo. The back speakers are the same way, but the back seats do not have a plastic center console to bounce sound around the cab, it is a three passenger bench seat. And I don't think this affects the sound much, but the ceiling of our jeep and most vehicles is a thin board of pressed wood covered with a thin insulating material and a head liner.

Most cars/trucks have some type of insulation in the doors, dash and the interior walls, I am not sure how that would affect sound other than reduce road noise and offering a way to control the temperature inside the car.

 
Front passenger speaker.