OUR TOOLS:
People have asked us…"How do you guys get that sound ?"
Thanks for noticing! It never surprises broadcasters when the request line rings and someone on the phone wants to hear a song off of a particular CD and then they go on to say something like "It’s track number three". So why are they calling to hear a song they already have at home? It’s because music always sounds better on the radio. Provided you have good FM reception, playing a CD at home can never have the fidelity and "larger than life" sound as it does when you hear it on your favorite local radio station, unless you have a rack full of very expensive audio processing equipment.
DC Rock uses the same kind of digital multi-band signal processing, automatic gain control and stereo expanding technology for our streaming broadcasts as you will hear on major market radio stations. It takes weeks of careful listening and fine adjustments to properly calibrate and obtain that sound. It’s not something you will hear on most internet streams, and among the webcasters that use this technology, we like to think ours sounds the best. And just like your favorite broadcast station, our exact audio processing settings are a closely guarded secret.
YOUR TOOLS:
A great sounding stream is only as great as what it is being listened to with on the other end. As broadcasters, our favorite way of listening to music has always been on a pair of giant JBL studio monitors at maximum volume. We realize that may not be an option for many of our listeners, especially the ones who work in an office. There are, however, several ways you can still hear your favorite Forgotten Classics the way they were meant to be heard without spending a fortune.
Our second favorite way of listening to our shows is with a good quality pair of headphones. Granted, a lot of people like using small light-weight headphones in this age of portable music devices. If you are convinced that those are just fine, then rock on. However, we feel that those types of headphones don’t do justice to the high fidelity sound that DC Rock has taken such care in providing to our loyal stream listeners. For years, DJ’s worldwide have relied on quality headphones such as the Sony MDR-V700 for accuracy and extremely wide frequency response, especially on the low end (5Hz - 30,000Hz). They do cost a little more but if taken care of, will last for years of enjoyment. If we can’t break them with daily use in the studio, chances are yours will be just fine.
If headphones are not an option, or you just want to share your excellent taste in music with your co-workers or customers, you might want to think about replacing those old speakers with some of our favorite broadcast standard brand names like the new JBL Spot™ 2.1 powered speaker and subwoofer system. If you always dreamed about owning your own JBL's...here's your chance (without having to mount huge speakers on your wall). They come with black covers and also white covers depending on your mood, but what's really cool is that you can buy even more "skins" to change the look. Skins range from solid colors to urban scrawls. Most importantly, these speakers sound amazing. There are also several other JBL desktop and laptop speaker systems worth checking out. Whichever style suits your taste, JBL speakers are sure to give you the rich bass, crystal-clear midrange and silky-smooth highs you've been searching for. More
When you set up your speakers, it’s always best to try and achieve at least a little stereo separation. Speakers that are simply placed side by side or stacked on top of each other will never sound their best. If possible put one on each side of your monitor. Subwoofers should always go on the floor or as low as possible. If you currently don't have a subwoofer, you are missing half the music.
On a final note, like anything else, consider the source. The source being your computer’s sound card. Without naming names, quite a few otherwise nice PC’s come with not so nice sound cards. Certain factory sound cards are known for their very short life span. That’s not to say they always just stop working, but if you are hearing distortion, pops and clicks, or scratchy sounds, it may very well be your sound card. It is not the end of the world and is probably one of the cheaper things you can invest in, provided you replace it with a reliable sound card. Again, there are more expensive models, but you should at the very least start with something like the Sound Blaster Live 24-bit sound card. You can usually find them at places like Wal-Mart for around $29 and some change. |
