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AM-10HD / Aug 2008
F E A T U R E S A N D P R E S E T S
How Do I Make It Louder?
The AM‑10HD is capable of holding its own in virtually any competitive situa‑
tion. In general terms, in order to just be louder (we’ll cover that first – it’s actually
a bit easier) you should:
‑ Increase the density in the five band AGC by operating it with faster attack and
release times
‑ Increase the Drive to the 10‑band limiters
‑ Carefully use some equalization in the parametric section to gently boost fre‑
quencies that the ear is most sensitive to (1kHz to 4kHz)
‑ Drive the final clipper section harder to further increase the amount of RMS
energy being generated by the processing
‑ Operate the 10‑band section with faster attack and release times, in fact sloping
them slower for the lows, faster for the highs (see Proportional Drag in the tuto‑
rial section for the GUI, page 3‑16); this can create additional perceived density
and therefore loudness
The 10‑band limiters can be very deceptive. Because they operate with com‑
paratively fast attack and release times and in very narrow frequency bands they can
generate some mighty impressive loudness without the pumping, dynamic artifacts,
or distortion typically generated by “broadband” control schemes. The architecture
of the AM‑10HD sets you free to be as loud as your market conditions demand.
As far as the 10‑band limiter is concerned pushing the limiting depth beyond a
certain point adds very little extra loudness and carries with it the risk of driving
away your long‑term listeners because the audio is just too dense. Be careful!What
Is Your Long Term Goal?
What Is Your Long Term Goal?
If the long term goal isn’t to be the loudest AM radio station on the planet you
can still be competitively loud and also sound better, cleaner, brighter, and punchier
than other stations in the market.
When loudness isn’t the first priority your options open up quickly! Being “cleaner”
than the other stations can increase time spent listening. But be aware that being sig‑
nificantly cleaner carries with it a perception of not being as loud. Why?
The easiest way to demonstrate this is to refer to how a boom box sounds with
the volume cranked up all the way – it sounds loud, doesn’t it? In electrical terms it
probably isn’t, but the distortion created by being overdriven creates an association
in the brain that says “it must be loud because it’s distorted.”
That said, the opposite is true too – if your station has no perceptible distortion at
all when compared to “the other guy” across town – then it might carry the percep‑
tion that your station can’t possibly be as loud. We’re not saying don’t be clean – just
don’t be fooled by this psychoacoustic anomaly!
Being cleaner usually means you’re not leaning into the processing as hard, which
also means that you can use tools like equalization more freely than the really loud
station across town can in order to craft the on air sound you want. This is because
equalization (EQ) eats up headroom, and if you’re trying to be really loud like they
are, you need all the headroom you can get and therefore less EQ can be used.
