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The Social Zone! => Who's Casting? => Topic started by: renovicini on February 27, 2018, 10:34:08 PM

Title: Cricket Radio Bay Area
Post by: renovicini on February 27, 2018, 10:34:08 PM
Your favorite current hits and 50 years of oldies, we are Cricket Radio. Your variety station!

https://tunein.com/radio/Cricket-Radio-Bay-Area-s268862/

Now with BreakawayOne (using the reference setting)
and streaming at 128 aac

if you listen, let me know how it sounds on your end.

Title: Re: Cricket Radio Bay Area
Post by: milky on February 28, 2018, 03:47:07 AM
I listened to Foreigner and then John Mellancamp and the the sound was very clear and punchy through my laptop speakers, which are not big on bass. I'll have a listen later through my main system which will tell me how nice you've got the bass dialled in.

Milky (from Australia).
Title: Re: Cricket Radio Bay Area
Post by: Ed on February 28, 2018, 03:44:44 PM
The Sultans of Swing came in loud and clear
Title: Re: Cricket Radio Bay Area
Post by: Jigger on February 28, 2018, 04:19:39 PM
Strange I get this station is not available at my Location. UK
Title: Re: Cricket Radio Bay Area
Post by: Ed on February 28, 2018, 05:15:27 PM
Quote from: Jigger on February 28, 2018, 04:19:39 PM
Strange I get this station is not available at my Location. UK

Guess it's his streaming setup and limited to just certain countries
Title: Re: Cricket Radio Bay Area
Post by: renovicini on February 28, 2018, 06:09:44 PM
Thanks for the sound checks and feedback.
I'm using the Breakaway Trial and will do so for a few weeks.
Just want to make sure it doesn't crash before making the purchase.
As far as the stream not being available? I have no idea why.
I have listeners all over. So this must have something to do with TuneIn. I'll follow up with them.
Title: Re: Cricket Radio Bay Area
Post by: renovicini on May 01, 2018, 10:01:19 PM
We went from Reference to Plutonium.
So if I may get some sound checks?
Also Jigger, can you see if the stream now works for you?
Thanks all!
Title: Re: Cricket Radio Bay Area
Post by: Jammin' Adam on May 02, 2018, 12:04:50 AM
Sounding pretty good on my Klipsch KMC-1 bluetooth speaker, smooth bass, nice midrange and highs here in the states. I wonder what the difference is between Plutonium and Reference settings.
Title: Re: Cricket Radio Bay Area
Post by: Jigger on May 02, 2018, 04:31:11 AM
No I still get the same message Not Available at my Location. As you know I am in the UK.
Title: Re: Cricket Radio Bay Area
Post by: milky on May 02, 2018, 08:12:44 AM
I'm not a fan of Plutonium in small speakers, a lot of car stereos or through a mono source like a clock radio. It's great through my studio monitors, but you have to bear in mind that your listening audience may not have access to a really great hifi setup. It's certainly loud, but, to me it loses the subtle dynamics. Not something I would like to wake up to through my little clock radio.

I rather like French Kiss, or Twente.
Title: Re: Cricket Radio Bay Area
Post by: Ed on May 03, 2018, 04:51:27 PM
Quote from: milky on May 02, 2018, 08:12:44 AM
I rather like French Kiss

Really? This is a family site....my my
Title: Re: Cricket Radio Bay Area
Post by: milky on May 04, 2018, 02:19:53 AM
I had another listen today. "The Verve Pipe - Never Let You Down" was playing.

This time, it was through my laptop speakers, and it was just loud, loud, loud. That's great in a terrestrial station, where you need to outshout your competitors, but, to me, every instrument was at exactly the same level, which is simply not the case with that recording.

Go back to the Reference Setting, play the same track through it, then Plutonium again, and do some serious comparisons - preferably through a range of speakers, big to small to mono to earbuds.
Title: Re: Cricket Radio Bay Area
Post by: renovicini on May 04, 2018, 04:53:45 AM
I'm on vacation in Hawaii (what a beautiful place ).
Maybe I'll log in remotely from the iPad later this evening to change it back to reference.
I do aim to have a setting to please all platforms.
So Milky, you think French kiss or twente would do that?

Title: Re: Cricket Radio Bay Area
Post by: Ed on May 07, 2018, 02:04:12 PM
I have tested and experimented with all the setting and find Reference to be best.
Title: Re: Cricket Radio Bay Area
Post by: milky on May 07, 2018, 09:16:59 PM
Quote from: renovicini on May 04, 2018, 04:53:45 AM
I do aim to have a setting to please all platforms.
So Milky, you think French kiss or twente would do that?

I have found these two suit my mainly Country Music terrestrial station, especially through smaller and mono speakers. My station is in the country, where a lot of the listening audience are in farming equipment or trucks, so I have to be more sympathetic to them than the guys in their home theatre setups.

You just have to be patient, and try each preset over a range of genres, and possibly even tweak the best one to produce your own custom preset. The Reference Setting will always sound closest to the original, because it only adjusts the AGC (similar to Ots), so there it should only be used a starting point (reference). I assume that you have Ots DSP turned off through these tests? You don't want to process everything twice.
Title: Re: Cricket Radio Bay Area
Post by: Ed on May 08, 2018, 01:58:15 PM
Quote from: milky on May 07, 2018, 09:16:59 PM
The Reference Setting will always sound closest to the original, because it only adjusts the AGC (similar to Ots), so there it should only be used a starting point (reference).

"it should only be used a starting point" is a personal opinion. I use the reference setting like so many others do, power 50 speed 50 range 50 bass normal bass shape 0 and it sounds great. I find the "French Kiss" way too wet....but to each his own
Title: Re: Cricket Radio Bay Area
Post by: renovicini on May 08, 2018, 10:27:41 PM
I guess I should have left well enough alone.
Back to reference setting for the time being.
Thanks for the input.

Btw, Yes, Ots DSP is turned off.
Title: Re: Cricket Radio Bay Area
Post by: milky on May 09, 2018, 10:18:31 PM
Quote from: Ed on May 08, 2018, 01:58:15 PM
"it should only be used a starting point" is a personal opinion. I use the reference setting like so many others do, power 50 speed 50 range 50 bass normal bass shape 0 and it sounds great. I find the "French Kiss" way too wet....but to each his own

Anything I write here is only a personal opinion (which we were asked to express).

I assume that you are listening in the comfort of your lounge room, and I agree that many of the presets over-process in that environment. However, BA1 is primarily designed for broadcast processing, where the name of the game is to sound louder than the opposition stations. This is a fine line to tread, because radio receivers take many forms, and the preset which sounds good in a good quality car or home audio system may sound awful in other radio configurations. As I said, my AM station is in rural Australia, where most listeners tune in on everything from mono tractor radios, old mantle systems and bedside clock radios, so "wet" is actually a good choice.

Obviously, any of the "stereo enhancement" presets are useless for AM, but our sister FM station and streaming service has settled on "Twente".
Title: Re: Cricket Radio Bay Area
Post by: milky on May 09, 2018, 10:39:50 PM
Quote from: renovicini on May 08, 2018, 10:27:41 PM
I guess I should have left well enough alone.
Back to reference setting for the time being.

Don't give up hope. It is a time-consuming process, and there may never be a completely "right" option - especially if you are mixing genres in different sound hours. Most of the recently produced "pop" songs already have a lot of electronics going on. The preset which makes them jump out of the radio would probably not work with "Easy Listening" or earlier recordings.

The developer of BreakAway (Leif Claesson) has also developed the software for the Omnia 9 hardware which many stations use. It has so many options and controls, that a good sound engineer will take many hours tweaking to get just the right sound, and will revisit the settings from time to time to confirm that they are still at the leading edge.

"Hasten slowly".
Title: Re: Cricket Radio Bay Area
Post by: Ed on May 10, 2018, 01:44:00 PM
The hardware/software products milk is referring to are very price hefty and are not needed, if you've got that kind of money to spend then great,  but most of us do not. The basic breakaway reference setting is much better than what comes with ots and find it a very good choice.
Title: Re: Cricket Radio Bay Area
Post by: renovicini on May 16, 2018, 06:00:26 PM
I do appreciate all the feedback. But milky, you are right that I won't find that one preset being that we play all genres.
So I did do a couple changes.
It's at reference setting.
First, I up'd the bitrate to 256 aac from 128 (which may or may not make that much of a difference)
And I ticked on the stereo enhancer (its at 48).
I may change it to reference hot because I do want that little extra but we'll see.
Title: Re: Cricket Radio Bay Area
Post by: milky on May 16, 2018, 09:04:43 PM
Increasing the bitrate will make a difference to listeners with high-end equipment, but do little for the average punters. It will, of course, dramatically increase your bandwidth and data usage, which may restrict the number of listeners who can login.

I am liking the new "Nebula" preset available with the latest release. Still got some comparisons to do in different environments, but it sounds clean and open with modern CM, and doesn't make old recordings sound "tinny".
Title: Re: Cricket Radio Bay Area
Post by: Tim Gainer on July 07, 2018, 10:27:10 AM
Checking you out from Chicago...AC/DC into Migos is a bit of sonic whiplash for me personally! But overall, sounding really good; punchy and clear.
Title: Re: Cricket Radio Bay Area
Post by: renovicini on July 08, 2018, 11:58:35 PM
Thanks for tuning in.
With the exception of 4 songs during an hour, the template generates complete random.
Title: Re: Cricket Radio Bay Area
Post by: renovicini on August 30, 2018, 06:10:13 PM
i'm not able to modify my original posts to update.

we are no longer in trial mode with breakaway.
and now streaming 256 aac

still considering going 320 mp3.
hoping for some more feedback on that.
Title: Re: Cricket Radio Bay Area
Post by: Ed on August 30, 2018, 11:25:17 PM
Quote from: renovicini on August 30, 2018, 06:10:13 PM
i'm not able to modify my original posts to update.

we are no longer in trial mode with breakaway.
and now streaming 256 aac

still considering going 320 mp3.
hoping for some more feedback on that.


I dare say anyone will be able to hear the difference from 256 aac to 320 mp3...
Title: Re: Cricket Radio Bay Area
Post by: milky on August 31, 2018, 10:40:48 AM
AAC (really a wrapped version of MP4) is a much better lossy encoder than MP3, and BA1 is geared around optimising AAC, because that's what all the "big boys" use and it is built into the Optimod series (along with lossless PCM), which many, many stations use. Whereas MP3 loses audible frequencies, AAC compresses "disguised" audio, but augments the undisguised audio.

For instance, consider the Tchaikovsky 1812 Overture. The orchestra is still playing many instruments when the canons go off, but they are disguised or hidden from our ears by the louder passages, so AAC drops these disguised or inaudible instruments out to save space. Of course, with lossy codecs, you cannot re-constitute the dropped content (although Leif has a very nifty algorithm which very accurately guesses at the missing content).

You also need to consider your listener base. If you are doing "drive time" (6am to 10am or 4pm to 7pm - depending on traffic density), you can assume that your listeners are in vehicles with commercial (read "boring") audio devices, so you don't want to over-process the audio, because it will be lost through crappy receivers and crappy speakers. Similarly, if you are doing breakfast or even earlier in the morning, they are hearing you through clock or mantel radios whilst they listen in bed or prepare breakfast. Only the purists will sit and listen to streamed radio through good audio equipment and/or headphones. How much of your listener base is that? Personally, I can't listen to it for long, because of the fatigue brought on by mentally compensating for the "missing bits".

One more thing to throw into the mix is your ISP bandwidth. In the perfect world, you could stream PCM without any dropouts. However, the very delicate net cannot allow anyone to "hog" the system like that. You will have a maximum usage AND bandwidth agreement with your ISP (look in the fine print). If you find that AAC will fit inside your bandwidth allocation, you will probably find that MP3/320 will not.

BTW, what preset in BA1 are you using now?
Title: Re: Cricket Radio Bay Area
Post by: renovicini on August 31, 2018, 02:38:21 PM
Thanks milky. And Ed.
I'll stick with the aac. I was using French kiss for a bit. But changed it back to reference yesterday when I updated ba1 and took it out of trial mode.
I have the bandwidth needed to go up to 320. But if aac is the way to go, what about 320 aac?
Title: Re: Cricket Radio Bay Area
Post by: milky on September 01, 2018, 10:12:15 AM
Quote from: renovicini on August 31, 2018, 02:38:21 PM
But if aac is the way to go, what about 320 aac?

Read the above. If you (and your audience) are listening to your stream via a pocket transistor or bedside (mono) radio, you will not hear the difference, but the penalty will be a whole lot more data usage. If your listener base are lounge listeners, with theatre audio systems, maybe 20% with the best audio equipment MIGHT pick the difference.
Title: Re: Cricket Radio Bay Area
Post by: Ed on September 01, 2018, 09:43:12 PM
What milky is saying in a lot less words is it's simply "overkill"

I can see however your point renovicini on maybe wanting your station to have the lastest and greatest technology going for it and that comes down to what makes you happy.