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Web site created by Donna. donna@donnascams.com Dorky aesthetics inserted at the insistence of JR. Visit Donna's Online Cameras!!!Q: Since we’ve chatted last, what’s been happening?
A: Well, we’re still plugging away on WRMI, and I’m very pleased with what we’re doing, although the show is building its audience a bit slower than I figured it would.
Q: Why?
A: For one thing, WRMI had a bit of trouble with interference this fall, and we got away from the format around the New Year. If folks were listening then, they were probably a bit turned off. So we’re not messing around as much as we did before, and just spinning the hits (laughs).
Q: All Led Zep, right?
A: God, no! I’d stop doing the show if it became some classic rock thing or I had to play nothing but oldies fodder. There’s enough of that on the air, now.
Q: So what’s going to be a ‘typical’ show?
A: What I’ve been doing the last two shows: tasty cuts by artists people know, and singles and cuts they might have heard years ago but have forgotten. And a few oddball things nobody has heard that are good. Not the same old junk everyone else plays.
Q: You wanted to discuss some of the logistics of doing the show for the tech heads, didn’t you?
A: Yeah. Especially the audio end of things. It’s amazing how variable the audio is on the cuts I play. I source material from vinyl and CDs and every record producer has a different opinion how stuff should sound. And every record label.
Q: Plus you’re bouncing all this audio off the ionosphere…
A: Yeah. So what I try to do is lift the soft portions above the inherent noise level of the medium without messing up the musical qualities. When I transfer stuff to the digital environment, I look at the waveform for soft passages that will be inaudible and tweak them upward. For example, when I played "Talk Talk" by the Music Machine, there was this solo high-hat sting on the record that would’ve been swallowed up by noise, but I bumped up the level on it.
Q: Wouldn’t the compressor do that for you?
A: Not in the same way. Sometimes I reshape the waveform or even EQ it so people can hear it.
Q: Aren’t you destroying what the producer intended?
A: Sometimes I should! George Martin is a GREAT record producer, but his CD reissues of some of the Beatles stuff are very bass heavy. I heard an interview where he mentioned that during the Beatles psychedelic era he thought Paul’s bass playing was extraordinary, so he placed it very high in the mix. If I hadn’t brought it back down, that’s all we would’ve heard from "Baby, You’re a Rich Man". It was incredibly loud. It swamped all the other instruments and even the vocals. All the energy in the audio resides in the bass notes, and the limiter just folds up when they bash into it. So I fixed it.
Q: What do you think of some of the CD reissues you use?
A: Some of them I think so little of, I DON’T use them. It’s not uncommon for me to use a good vinyl copy of a song I have on CD because the vinyl actually sounds cleaner. The first generation of CD issues was very haphazard; lots of them were thrown together from tapes several generations down from the masters, or even from vinyl. I’ve even had to ‘restore’ CD issues, removing pops and clicks that were left in when the transfers were done.
Q: How do you do that?
A: I use Diamond Cut Productions ‘DC Art’ software. Most pops or clicks on singles or LPs are only one thousandth of a second, believe it or not. You zoom in on the the waveform and find the spike of a click, and do what’s called a paste interpolate. The software looks at either side of the click, and interpolates the missing information for you. Works great, but can be tedious if there’s a lot of damage to the record.
Q: Shortwave is a monophonic, low-fidelity medium. How do you deal with that?
A: Fortunately, most of the records I play were mixed with AM radio in mind, so they sound really good on shortwave. A lot of them are already compressed and EQ’ed. What I try to do is squeeze a little more fidelity out of the medium by boosting the highs a bit without overdoing it, if they are somewhat lacking.
Q: What about mono reproduction?
A: It’s really the best way to go, at least with many of the recordings of that era. It’s amazing how many of the stereo recordings aren’t even mono compatible. They have phase errors that cancel some of the frequencies or instruments, and I actually have to ‘remix’ them to mono from the stereo. It seems to be a problem with a lot of CDs, believe it or not. Also, the mono mixes are what were played on AM radio, anyhow. The more ‘progressive’ records were intended for stereo reproduction on FM, but really only the ones they recorded in eight or sixteen tracks. When they start goofing around with stereo effects like ping-ponging a guitar from one channel to the other, I have to be careful with it, too. I always deliver a mono tape to WRMI that I know is mono compatible, or at least as good as I can make it.
Q: How did you learn all this stuff?
A: I’m a very careful, critical listener, and I’ve been an audiophile for years. I have decent equipment that has reasonably flat frequency response. I’ve been in rock bands and done some recording, too. I never miss a chance to talk with engineers about audio, or read about it. When I listen to my show on the air – and I listen every week – I’m constantly evaluating the sound to see if I can get it better, and to see what propagation does to it.
Q: What kind of receiver do you use?
A: I have a Drake R8A which I feed to a pair of Altec Lansing ACS 43 computer speakers. They’re a bit bass heavy, but otherwise pretty good, considering they’re so cheap. The Drake has excellent audio, especially with a good pair of speakers or headphones. When the reception is good, I slew the bandpass filter a bit to the plus side to add more highs. I also check the audio and reception on my Radio Shack DX-375 to see how it sounds on modest portables. That’s really my benchmark; if the reception and audio are good on a radio like that, I know I’m reaching the maximum number of people possible.
Q: What’s reception like?
A: Where I am, in California, it can be pretty dicey. Propagation can really chew up the sound, and the signal can be variable at best. Occasionally I get a good clean signal that gives me an idea of what the show sounds like where we’re bombing in, like the south and midwest. Overall, I’m pretty pleased.
Q: What’s on your technical ‘wish list’?
A: More studio equipment! I always want more and better stuff to produce the show. Right now, the final edit of the show is transferred to cassette. I’d like to make that last step a CD transfer. I’m also looking for a better signal at a better time slot to the eastern seaboard, especially to New England. A better signal to the west coast would be good, too. And a regular European relay…(laughs).
Q: All of that costs money.
A: Yeah. I’m very grateful for the decent rate I’m getting from WRMI, and the continued sponsorship of Universal Radio. If Fred Osterman at Universal weren’t buying time on the show, we’d be on once a month at best. I hope folks are getting those catalogs, and letting Universal know where they got the idea to order one. I know I sound like a broken record about it some time, but if the money weren’t coming in, I sure wouldn’t be on a 50,000 Watt shortwave station.