Radio playlist opportunity dashed due to production issue

[Super 8]

Hi! I wonder if anyone here can help as I appear to have a bit of a problem this end (probably user error!)  I had the opportunity of getting one of my (BOSS BR1600 recorded) songs playlisted on the radio recently but this prospect has unfortunately fallen through and it appears it's all down to the quality (or lack of!) of my recording!

When enquiring as to why said song was pulled I got an email from the station's tech guy saying something along the lines of there being too much energy in the low end which was causing the station's limiter to go into overdrive! As you can understand, this is very disappointing because: a) I was actually quite looking forward to hearing my song on the radio and, more worrying long term, b) in light of this info it appears I'm seemingly doing something fundamentally WRONG in the way I'm recording/producing the music I make with my BOSS recorder!  

Would anybody care to shed more light on this and perhaps help me understand where I might be going wrong here?? [FYI: I tend to record with very little tweaking mainly using just the stock chain presets that are built into the recorder.]

In order to give a better explain of what I'm talking about, I have included links to two audio clips below. Like I say, the original song of mine didn't make it onto the radio however I did have one of my covers played recently ('Rocket Man' - Elton John) and, if you listen to the playback (17 mins and 56 secs in), you can clearly hear the problem! It's all warbly, phase-y & pump-ing sounding and it gets heavily clamped down on the parts where there should be the dynamic lifts in the song. The original source audio I submitted certainly doesn't playback anything like this radio broadcast example on my system(s!) so it's seemingly just a 'when broadcast' issue!

Any help/advice on this sonic issue would be greatly appreciated as it's really disappointing to put all this effort into recording/producing (as I do!) only to discover that my productions aren't seemingly 'good enough' to broadcast!  Here's the listen again link to the radio show playback for my Elton John cover [17 mins & 56 secs in]:

https://www.mixcloud.com/traceyedges/tracey-edges-sunday-girl-no198-24917/

... and here's the non-radio broadcast direct link to the exact same mix currently up on my Bandcamp page:

https://trip8.bandcamp.com/track/rocket-man

You'll no doubt hear where I'm coming from here! I'm very much left scratching my head this end of late over this! Thanks in advance for any thoughts/help/advice. CHEERS!     

[Super 8]

I notice a 'LOW CUT' option when using the 'MULTITRACK' input. As I record solo and build stuff up, I tend to use the round the back XLR 'INPUT 2' for recording my 'on mic' stuff and the Hi-Z 1/4" jack 'INPUT 1' on the front of the unit for any e.guitar/bass DI'd stuff. Sticking with say, VOX, if I use the 'P001: VOCAL COMP' preset for example, does anyone know where (or even if you can?) add the 'LOW CUT' option into the FX chain? What I'm trying to do with my recordings from here on in is to prevent too much of this excess energy build up (?) per track (as mentioned as 'the problem' in my above post). THANKS!    

[Flash Harry]

Radio stations push all of their output through a compressor/limiter process for two reasons:

People tend to listen on little transistor radios with tiny speakers and these don't handle dynamic range too well and the transmission gear is costly and over loading it will generally destroy it.

If you have a lot of bottom end, this tends to be high level simply because bass needs a lot of driving, so amps and speakers are usually pushed hard by bass.

Audio Compressors work on the signal energy, they look for levels on the input and reduce the levels on the output progressively. They take time to respond, this is known as the attack time, and they take time to release - the release time. The effect is that the dynamic range is reduced. Limiters are a special case of compressor in that the compression is infinite beyond a certain level.

MP3s use a different type of compression, data compression, which chops out some of the attributes of the music. A WAV can be 40+ Mb where an MP3 can be less than 4Mb. It's done in such a way that the effects of the data loss in the compression is 'inaudible'. Except it isn't. Modern audio compressors are digital which means that there is re-sampling of digital information which can introduce undesirable effects and audio compression then exaggerates these because it brings the low-level audio up to meet the higher level audio.

There is also a 'pumping' effect that can be caused by audio compressors particularly with high energy low frequency, this is sometimes used 'musically' for example by Eric Prydz to duck the backing track in time with the bass drum, but can be an unwanted effect of a badly set-up compressor.

So how do you fix it?

Eq your tracks well. Apply compression well to the bass and drum tracks and get the transients under control. Most tracks destined for radio have a radio mix (not the Radio mix of the marketing sharks which mask the bad language) but one where the dynamics of the track have already been pretty much ironed out. They sound flat and dull.




 

[Super 8]

Thanks for your detailed & very informative technical reply Flash! I get where you're coming (I think!) but sadly, no doubt due to my technical incomptence it seems, I don't feel like I'm any further forward as to to what I can practically do about this. As I say, I tend mostly to use the stock chain presets built into my Boss recorder. Once I have my tracks down I can spend ages mixing my music so it sounds good to my ears on the playback systems I have available to me (namely: expensive headphones; Roland studio monitors; a pretty decent NAD home Hi-Fi set up; my fairly crappy home computer monitors; my phone plus my car stereo). The really annoying thing is, along with a lot of other stuff I have recorded this year, I actually thought my cover of 'Rocket Man' was sounding pretty good production-wise on all of the above listening systems until ... I heard it on the radio that is and it sounded pretty bad!!! I'm now left scratching my head and doubting my final production call judgement on my mixes (and my hearing per se!) For my productions to sound 'good' on the radio are you saying that I'm to mix my songs so they sound 'flat & dull' this end (but conversely 'good' on the radio)? Confused.com!     

[Flash Harry]

Yup pretty much.

[Super 8]

Hmm ... disappointing that everything else on the show sounded okay though. I'll get my coat (and might take up hang gliding instead or something!)

[Flash Harry]

It took me ages and a load of heartache trying to get stuff to sound right. I gave up with mastering on the BR and moved to a DAW.

I have much more control and far better tooling available. I'm still not great but I have learned a lot through recording, tweaking and listening. It's a frustrating journey.

have you looked at subtractive EQ?

Hang gliding is great, but I'm not great at that either. 

[alfstone]

It took me ages and a load of heartache trying to get stuff to sound right. I gave up with mastering on the BR and moved to a DAW.

I have much more control and far better tooling available.

That's the way. That's the way. I agree 100%

Alfredo

[Super 8]

Hmm (again!) I went back to using a standalone and sold my DAW because I can't hack making music with computers - I see enough of computer screens at work all day. OK, I'll just have to (somehow) find a way of making my stuff more 'broadcastable' working with what I've got (namely: a BOSS BR1600). Thanks anyway for your insights.
PS: The really annoying thing is that, after going back to recording with a standalone recorder, I actually like the way my recordings sound .... on my home studio monitors and home HiFi speakers. I was actually really surprised as to how bad one of my productions sounded on the airwaves (so bad in fact that they won't play any more of them!) It's really dented my confidence in this area in fact and has taken the wind from my sails as I was starting to feel like I was on a roll and had made the right decision to go back to making music with a portstudio (so much so that I sold ALL my DAW gear .... and I had invested quite a bit (time-wise & financially!) in that side of things). Never mind :-(

[Flash Harry]

Reaper - Free to try and free to use if you ignore the nag screen. Loads of VST plug-ins with it, and it runs any you may have. Runs on Mac and Windaz

You don't need a fancy sound card, but it helps.