Re: Lilly Post

[matt.adams@wmcmail.wmc.ac.uk]

     On Fri, 8 Nov 96 16:49:16 EST
     gearnoise@VNET.IBM.COM (Neal Mulvenna)
     
     Wrote:
     
     "1. Lily
     The other night while driving through North and South Carolina, I 
     stopped at a phone to call my favorite radio station and ask that they 
     play Lily from TRS.  Must have been desparate for callers, 'cause I 
     had barely got back in the car when it started playing. But, when it 
     started, I could clearly hear Lily's talk part at the beginning, so I 
     thought, oh-oh, when Kate starts singing my speakers are going to blow 
     up!  But surprise, surprise, when the music started it was at the same 
     decibel level as the talking.  So this week, I played Lily from the 
     TRS cassette, from the CD, and from the TLTCTC video.  On the cassette 
     and CD Lily's talking is barely audible compared to the music, whereas 
     the video was much closer to what I heard on the radio.
     So would someone please enlighten me?  Are there two versions of the 
     TRS album out there, perhaps one for radio studio use?  Or is radio 
     station equipment so sophisticated that it can automatically adjust 
     output volume on something like that?  The DJ said he was playing from 
     the album, not from the video."
     
     
     Hi Neal,
     
     Most Radio stations use a compressor on their audio output to give a 
     bit of extra "punch" to their sonic signal.  The popular version of 
     this is "Optimod".  That's how volume levels are controlled to even 
     them up for transmission.
     
     It's similar in operation to the automatic level control that you get 
     on cheap tape recorders, although it's a great deal more 
     sophisticated.
     
     Matt