On Mon, 30 May 2011 09:59:54 +0100, "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

In article ,
Brian Gaff wrote:
Did someone call?

Actually if you listen to the commercial stations, and many bbc ones you
might be forgiven for thinking that real engineering of sound is a
thing of the past. its all left up to automatic computer controlled
systems that make a hash of it these days.

Indeed. Although TV - with its much larger operating budget - is a bigger
offender than radio. With HD services being the worst.
There's lots of talk about producing a meter which gives a true indication
of loudness. Since 'they' apparently can't even read a PPM, what
difference will that make? In any case, the best 'meter' to use is ears.

Robert Orban has produced a meter that I find a pretty good estimation
of actual loudness. He has a free beta on his web site here

http://www.orban.com/meter/

I actually find local radio (BBC 94.9) the worst offenders. When a
talk programme inserts a bit of music, it appears to be routed through
the speech compressors - the result is virtually unlistenable and I
generally switch off at that point. Seasickness is the best
approximation I can give to the result.

Strange coincidence maybe, but misuse of Orban's Optimod system is
almost single-handedly responsible for all of the nastiness.

d