30:00 the "pumping" you hear in modern dance music is actually created by utilizing sidechain compression, usually having a 4x4 kick drum or other source to activate the compressor to squash audio. The effect has been exaggerated in the last 10 - 15 years to really make the effect noticeable, but essentially in music production it's a good way to make room in the low end so that it's not all muddy down there and gives some seperation for the differences with a kick drum and the actual bass.
Zööj: The definite, and increased usage of these effects in live sound chains, along with compressors and/or limiters, is one of the biggest reasons why I no longer attend live performances, even outdoors. They're just too loud, in a constant manner. It's to the point where I heard more dynamics, loudness variation, on an early Rage Against The Machine album than I did at a live performance by them! Concerts have gotten so loud that I can barely tolerate them for 20 minutes, even in the back rows or 'cheap seats', before I have to take a bathroom break, just to shut the door and let my poor ears relax. My expectations of a concert are of real instruments, pure vocals, amplified, but with as little 'enhancement' (for loudness, for whatever) as possible. Concert sound does not need the equivalent of a broadcast (radio/ tv) air chain! Even if the goal is to drown out the crowd (noise floor). I'm all for pop-filtering at the microphones, EQ to ring out an indoor space, and compression tastefully applied to allow vocals, for instance, to cut through the melody effectively. But when processing is overused, for the sake of just making the sound loud all the time, that's when I leave early!
Hello from Denmark, Scandinavia. What an amazing piece of equipment. I love the fact that AM is very much still alive and well on the North American continent and I have never before looked into the AM-Stereo variant, though I've known of its existence for many years. But I gotta tell you from watching and hearing it for the first time in my life: It does sound absolutely excellent to my 51 year old ears. Thanks for showing this CRL Amigo AM. It was memorable.
Yes. I totally agree! Sony was one company that would almost always label everything on their audio component circuit boards, for greater ease of servicing. I always appreciated that about them. A few other companies did that too, but Sony was usually the most consistent with the labeling of everything.
In the 1980's, I worked at a couple of 1000 watt daytime am stations. One used the Orban. The other, had no limiting equipment. Just a single vintage one channel compressor. It was still using the late 1950's original transmitter.
I love to see some tech from a time when manufacturers actually CARED about shielding everything from Electromagnetic Interference. Something you greatly appreciate when you open up an original Sega Mega Drive.
I was hoping that after you made all the adjustments, you'd use the "Proof" switch at 33:20 to toggle back and forth with all the processing off and on again.
Interesting- just wish I understood more of the details of exactly what was happening there! Still, I learned a lot. It’s fascinating just listening to you talking about it! Thanks- great video...
Dear men, I want to tell you that there are videos on UA-cam that I feel 'physically' enjoyable when I watch their content. This is one of those videos. I enjoy the processing process, and my dad enjoys watching the VU meters. Thank you very much!!
About 22:32: The idea of a patent is to reveal the technology to be used by all after expiration. After a patent is issued you can't keep the patented technology secret anymore (just in the phase the patent is being issued i.e. "patent pending"). If there is a patent using the patent number the patent is ready for public consultation. Some companies make details of the patent wrong, impossible to read or vague on purpose. But most of the patent is available. So they don't need to publish it, is already published. Patents can only apply to specific devices or class of devices, you can not patent a general idea or principle (in most of the world at least, USA has a convoluted patent law that diverges from the rest of the world so take it with a grain of salt), so in possession of the patent number you can find de circuit. If they didn't patented it (as some companies do) because of secrecy or cost) so you won't find it.
An excellent tour. I was especially impressed by how repairable and accessible the design is. Everything socketed, and that hinged daughterboard was really cool; I don't think I've seen that before.
Additional audio processing in the studio such as compression and equalization is also sometimes used. This is called the airchain. It is used to further optimize the sound Many top 40 radio stations do this to make their music sound better.
This can be a good strategy for making stations sound better to the average listener, which I once was. However, after learning more about how the stations are modifying the signal and listening to the differences, I don’t really like the sound of those stations now. The more I have listened, I noticed that everything plays at the same volume, including the quiet parts of the songs. This might sound more polished and professional to some people, but it sounds boring to my ears. I think stations also have been boosting the treble way too much lately as well, which makes them sound harsh. I can’t ever turn the volume up on those stations, it hurts my ears! There is a public FM station in my city that sounds like it plays the music straight from the turntable or software, and it sounds like a live concert in comparison. I can turn the volume up more than twice as high without hurting my ears. I can’t believe I used to hate that station, and now it’s my favorite.
It's absolutely amazing what is possible on plain old AM band. Unfortunately, here in Germany between 2012 and 2015 all of the remaining AM transmitters have been decommissioned to save money, to be invested in the wider spread of DAB digital radio. Germany had always been a primarily FM country, because after WW2 when frequencies were given out, they were last to choose and had to take what was left, mainly being frequencies in the FM band which weren't too popular back then due to their short reach. Today AM bands in mainland Europe are pretty much dead. Many countries have even planned to switch off FM radio and fully replace it with DAB. DAB receivers are only slowly gaining popularity here in Germany, and the deadline for killing FM radio has postponed several times, last time even without a fixed date. Switching from DAB to DAB+ broadcast didn't help adoption either, making old DAB receivers obsolete. I'm pretty sure, FM radio will still be around for quite a while, only to be replaced by web radio streams someday, when cell phone reception is good enough and costs come down enough to be able to stream on your web-enabled car stereo. DAB definitively won't be the final solution. OK. Enough ranting :) Love our videos ;)
kpanic23 Yeah it’s interesting, you mention FM switch off, we’re I am in the UK they keep threatening to turn off AM radio, however when they try they always get loads of complaints from BBC Radio 4 and RTÉ one listeners who don’t have FM or DAB reception in there area. It also sounds like the adoption of DAB is just as slow in Germany as it is in the UK.
Thanks for the historical explanation. When I watched videos here talking about AM radio I always wondered why it more prevalent in the US compared to here in Europe. By the way, when I got my first stereo in the mid 90s it came with a AM loop antenna. I did try it once but there wasn't really anything of interest there. Because all the stations I wanted to listen to were on FM anyway I disconnected the antenna, shoved it somewhere in a drawer and never used it again. That was about all contact I ever had with AM radio.
@@iviedbymightymt In the early 2000s there was a station called Megaradio, which gathered a lot of AM frequencies to start the first German private-owned AM music radio station. I could listen to it in the nighttime on 1525kHz, but with about 8kHz of bandwidth it wasn't that great of an experience. Their plan was to later use these frequencies with DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale), which never happened. In 2003 they filed for bankruptcy. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megaradio
DAB is just not the way to go. See, this is where I stand on all of this but changing over to new tech is never for the consumer's benefit and if you look they obsolete tech about every 20-30 years keeping consumers constantly having to upgrade their equipment. Leave FM, and AM, alone as it is tried and true and even (here in the USA) has an HD digital stream though that never caught on but they do make radios for it. To kill anything in the name of progress is the most regressive thing that can be done.
I believe the pumping effect in electronic music you're referring to is sidechain compression, where a compressor is connected to (most often) a bass drum so when every time the bass drum hits, the rest of the mix is ducked down, which gives the bass drum far more emphasis and causes an interesting "pumping" effect
The funny thing is, it's even printed in the owner's manual that way. So the typo was clearly CRL's fault, not whoever made the circuit board silkscreening for them.
My heart broke after days of mixing a track, then at the end sticking on an exciter/compressor just to check it out...instant night and day improvement, especially for playback on crappy speakers/phones. Far as I can tell it's a similar thing, slightly overdriven harmonics are mixed over
I wonder what they were using back in the 70's. My first memories of audio compression was when I was a kid listing to end-of-song fade outs on the radio. You could hear mix change, and the reverb change. You could hear the chorus a couple more times compared to the record because the record faded too low to hear. Elton's Rocket man was a good one.
Some stations still use the CBS labs stuff in front of an 8100 Optimod. I can't tell you how many of these units I have recapped over the years. I have the Audimax 4450a here, the stereo version that I have modded a bit like they did in the 70's to give it that "pumping" sound. Records that were mixed for radio sound awesome going through this thing. It sounds like you are living in the 1970's again.
This processor has a good sound! I also heard the FM version which also sounds excellent. My only question is: Why does it produce so many overshoots? It seems to constantly let peaks slip through. At 37:37, there was a giant overshoot when that "most music variety" sweeper started.
you explanation of NRSC resolves why, typically an old, cheap "All american five" radio from the 1940's can have so much better sound quality on AM than a modern PLL tuner, like is in many new automobiles, and the few HiFi receivers that still have AM. The high-frequency roll-off of the newer radios is due to bandwidth reduction to improve selectivity...odd nowadays, as AM is not really used that much anymore, that modern AM receivers would be so narrow, as there's much less interference than back in the 60's. I thought the issue...and it may still be somewhat...was caused by AM radio receivers being an afterthought
I didn't know stereo AM even existed and that AM radio could sound so good. When AM was still active where I live (we have only have FM now), it sounded dreadful.
Did you purchase the RCA to screw terminal adapter cables, or did you make them yourself? As you mentioned, the midrange presence is very subtle. I wonder if white noise or pink noise would make the adjustment more obvious. I used to assume that the limited frequency response of AM radio was inherent to the format until an engineer at the TV station where I worked informed me otherwise. Now I want to seek out an AMAX tuner. Very interesting piece of radio gear, and highly instructional as far as how AM stereo works.
I made the cable adapters myself. The midrange presence control boosts +1.8 dB at 3 kHz at its center position, which isn't much. It just adds a little bit of extra openness to the sound.
When you replaced the out put chip NE 5532 It looks like the resistor got pretty hot next to it at (R-82). This sound board is beautiful & it Sounds amazing!
Lately on FM radio stations, I can always hear the stations that compress the signal, however, I’m not sure if I prefer them. In fact, I can’t turn most commercial radio stations up without hurting my ears. The treble always sounds boosted, but somewhat grainy or harsh, and the overall volume is too loud on sections of the tracks that are supposed to be quiet. Not to mention, the bass might be boosted, but it is completely masked up by the treble, and the kick has no impact to my ears. This makes those stations sound boring to me. However, there’s a public radio station in my city that plays a variety of music, (Rock, blues, jazz, soul, hip hop, reggae, dance) and seems to sound perfectly natural. It might seem dull and quiet at first, but I can turn the volume up about twice as far without hurting my ears, and the bass actually has impact. Not to mention, the parts of a song that are supposed to be quiet, actually are, which does a lot for the emotion and dimension of the music for me. It sounds, very much, live. They sometimes play vinyl records, and the signal sounds much like my turntable: unmodified and raw to my ears. I know I am in the minority, but I wish every station sounded like that!
When I was transmitter engineer for 1540 WPGR Philadelphia we had CRL processor on the Harris MW 50 transmitter. WPGR was a 50 Kw daytimer with 3 tower array now gone dark. The transmitter building and towers where bulldozed and housing development was built on the lot. On our FM 104.5 WSNI we had Orban processing.
@@vwestlife I had read that AZTEC CAPITAL was going to modify the transmitter site but I did not see any more about it. 1Kw at 1540 is only going a few miles if that. The original transmitter site is now a housing development. I worked for the station back in the late 80s. With the landscape of AM as it is and wiit the number of AM stations going dark you have to wonder what they think they will do with 1Kw of power.
I do not believe FCC Proofing is still required, however, a lot of operational managers and station owners like to proof their air chains once in a while, to make sure that their audio path allows the full bandwidth. I sure can tell you that many engineers hate doing it though.
Oh, i never seen any AM stereo until now. Here, in Czech Republic (and before iron wall fall Czechoslovakia) we had many LW and SW AM stations which was all in mono. Then they added some FM stations later, but they doesnt hurry with that, as we were poor, thanks to decades of central planned economy. First FM stereo radio was in czech republic in 1970, but i think that most homes doesnt had radio capable of stereo decoding (also, many receivers had only one speaker). Sad fact is, that AM broadcast is almost dead in czechia (i dont like that name), as with beginning of this year, Czech Radio shut down the last two AM trasmitters, one in LW and second in MW bands, both with tube ends (but the LW one was replaced few years ago with 50kW transistor amp and original tube was dismounted). Both transmitters are gone now, antenas were destroyed and whole transmitter dismounted. Another sad fact, both transmitters were made in Czech republic with components made here, only new broadcast equipment, like compressors and so were used from "foreign" countries. Actual LS/MW situation looks so, that there is three 10kW radio transmitters, one broadcast czech folk music for seniors, another country music and last one transmits the most annoying commercial radio station in whole country. These transmit powers are so low, that you have problems to catch anything today, thanks to modern LED lights and switched supplies without filters. The background mess is many times stronger that usefull signal from transmitter. ... and yep, as another "EU" mate wrote, government here also talked about plan to shutdown whole analogue radio transmit, but i think that this is so far from realization. I dont know anybody with DAB receiver, only one person talked about it, that have DAB receiver and like it (because not all Czech Radio station are in the air, some are only on internet or DAB multiplex). But what i found were comments from people in villages, that have problems to receive DAB transmit inside buildings, whereas "old" analogue ones is still fine. Thats future, you cant stop progress :)
Do you, or does anyone here else recall the amount of compression that WPLJ used in the 70's when they used to be an album rock station? It was LOUD, I mean loud. But it stood out among all others on the radio dial. When they played Van Halen's "Dance the night away" , the opening sounded unbelievably loud like cymbals were cranked up to the max at some concert hall with thousands of watts behind it. Their compression (while criticized by some), made 95.5 WPLJ one hell of an album rock station back in the day. Would you or anyone know what kind of equipment they used to achieve that sound? 40 years later, I still recall it and haven't heard any station ever use it again.
The Amigo HF was the MBL-100. I don't know if CRL actually made any with the Amigo HF name on it -- that's just what they called it in their marketing. Likewise with the Amigo TV, which was the same thing as the BAP-2000.
also the same music at about 7:00. the link you have is no good now, and a search for the music brings up nothing! Please let me know where I can get this!
You can get cheap little fans on amazon for like $10 and you get 2 of them combined, so you can easily add some active cooling onto it just by setting them on top of it I remember you saying that your Amigo FM gets warm under use, I use USB fans on my modem and router because they get warm under use, and I'd feel a lot better having some form of active cooling on my internet because they have to deal with multiple HD and up to 4k streams.
Thank you for going over all of the details in this. I am a little bit of an audio buff, and recently I have been a little more serious about getting on AM ham radio which can have high quality audio. This is helping me decide what I want to do, but I am going to start simple with a 528e and go from there. The on air demonstration sounded better than a couple of iheart FM stations near me, they have AM quality audio... yes, on FM. I can't imagine anyone in their right mind doing this. @vwestlife, at 31:34, what is song with the words Computers are in the way when I try to lie on the couch Computers are watching sf turns and radar weather maps? I think this song would be a hoot in the jukebox for the FRC kids I help mentor. Thanks!
I actually liked the piece of music that had a lot of dynamic range a lot better in its original form than when processed so as to be more or less compressed with little amplitude changes.
There are a handful of low-power stations in the UK and Ireland using it. People along the southern coast of the UK could also receive France Bleu in AM Stereo on 864 kHz from Paris until they shut down a few years ago.
I loved this video. I’ve been bingeing your channel today, just chilling out with my iPad. This video made me grab my Beyerdynamic headphones and start again. Just a quick point that I’d love to hear your observations on, from whe the loudness war went crazy in the 90’s/00’s. Reading “Perfecting Sound Forever”, I gather a lot of producers shot themselves in the foot, because they tried to emulate what these processors were doing, to make the music sound louder than the song that went before. The result was a CD that sounded as if it was played on the radio. (Normally a CD should sound better than the radio, you’d have thought, all things being equal in the rest of the home system.) Also, the producers who tried to second-guess the radio algorithms ended up sounding quieter, because for some reason, studio algorithm plus radio algorithm cancel one another out. I know here I’m talking about loudness, and the focus of the video was stereo, but the effect of all that processing did make it sound “louder”. Obviously for small radios or car systems or headphones on the London Underground this treatment was quite appropriate, and the samples you played, particularly at the end, sounded great. It’s the abuse of it by the record producers that infuriated me - it made loads of albums of otherwise great music quite unlistenable. But again a superb video, and I’ve loved your channel for ages. Keep well!
WARNING. The appliance shown in the video does not actually produce an AM radio signal; nor does the appliance in 0:10 produce an FM radio signal. They're only preprocessors that finetune the signal before it goes into the modulator. They're just taylor-made to be used in conjunction with an AM modulator or an FM modulator respectively, that's why it says AM and FM on them, but they don't do AM or FM. The AM modulator can be seen in 37:38 - end, in the middle below the radio above the Amigo. It can be seen with explanation in ua-cam.com/video/-6r9QdLh94A/v-deo.html. This warning should've been in the video or in the description box. Without the comment of TheAndy1268 I wouldn't have known.
The separate and distinct purpose of an audio processor, exciter, and transmitter is common knowledge among those familiar with the equipment used by radio stations. I'm sorry that you were unaware of this.
@@vwestlife When you started to explain the first function, I thought: "Couldn't this be in a separate device." It didn't dawn on me, the video was about that separate device. One reason for it was that at that point I was more interested in the exciter. not knowing the word, rather than in the audio processor. Another reason, you mentioned the FM variant right away at the beginning of the video, but you didn't mention the exciter.
Hi - I enjoy your videos very much. Did you know the FCC is considering taking the AM band from us? It is so cool that radios almost a hundred years old can receive AM signals. Even nice that our beloved 70s/80s equipment cab receive AM. If they take it, our vintage equipment is that much closer to obsolescence. And is FM next?? Please spread the word. Is there anything we can do?
That is not correct. Analog AM radio is not going away. The FCC is simply considering digital-only signals to be transmitted. But probably only a handful of stations would be interested in doing such a thing, since it would make their signal incompatible with 99% of the AM radios in use.
@@vwestlife thank you for the reply. I knew the FCC wanted to go digital, but didn't say that. My concern, however, is the same - making all of our existing AM tuners obsolete.
@@RadOo DAB and DAB+ are a joke, especially in Australia where most stations are only broadcasting between 40-80kbps. The harshness of it is instantly noticeable!
Love the Cooledit Pro software unfortunely Adobe destoyed it and put it in a cloud to subscibe to only,..Very interesting gadgets you show, love your naratation and deep testing, Love cheers😃💚
A few CRL processors left the factory without the black box modules potted, like this TVS-3001: ua-cam.com/video/8wv7rCdOMGk/v-deo.html Maybe somebody can find an Amigo with an unpotted module and document what's inside.
And how this thing perform in real life ? The goal of a radio processor had never been to sound good, it's to be loud and really normalized. What happen when the morning crew starts laughing out loud and it peaks at +18 db ? It's not fair to evaluate a radio processor with mps3 music
Thanx! Actually, this is the only and best explaining video describing and demonstrating radio processors. Well. Might not be, but given my knowlege to terms to search, this was just super!
I'm confused what the asymmetric modulation would do except distort the signal and make it a bit louder. Why it would reduce interference having a +125%/-100% signal versus a +-112.5% signal? There is no "zero" when you're talking about things like radio, and the peak to peak or RMS magnitude of the carrier wave doesn't seem like it would be different between the two.
With Amplitude Modulation, negative modulation can never exceed -100%, because that would be pinching off the carrier. That not only causes a lot of splatter on the band, it can even damage the transmitter or trip its protection circuitry and cause it to go off the air. But there is no theoretical limit to positive modulation. It is only restricted by your transmitter's modulation circuitry. Some radio stations would put a 1000 watt modulator on a 500 watt transmitter and get +200% modulation. So in the early 1970s, the FCC enacted a rule limiting positive modulation to +125%. But many other countries don't allow positive modulation to exceed +100%.
@@vwestlife ah, thanks a lot for the clarification. I was forgetting how AM actually works; of course you can't have a negative amplitude on the carrier.
In the UK we were limited to FM stereo as far as I know, so I am somewhat surprised to hear that anyone bothered with AM stereo. ps I am constantly "transmitting" tinnitus, so I don't get too fussed over audiophile fodder.
Interesting step by step presentation with a thoughtful commentary and most patiently done. I enjoyed the walk through the audio processing chain of this device. Now this may sound like a dumb question but does AM stereo still exist in the United States? I have a Ford and it has an HD radio built into it and occasionally if I am parked under the transmitter, can hear HD broadcasts but they are usually talk stations and I know it is a digital signal being transmitted and the older analogue radios can't decipher it. So, are there any commercial C-QUAM or Kahn Hazeltine transmissions going on anymore? Funny, back in the late 80's I did C-QUAM conversions to my own and friend's stereo receivers and yet I can't answer the above question.
Yes, there are still some AM Stereo stations in the USA. The most currently updated list is on Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:AM_Stereo_radio_stations_in_the_United_States The FCC made C-Quam the single standard for AM Stereo in 1994, but there are some stations using Kahn Power-Side, which is a single-channel variant of the Kahn AM Stereo system. Also some hobbyists transmit Kahn or other AM Stereo systems on low-power Part 15 microbroadcast transmitters.
AM 660 KEYZ in Williston ND is still going strong. The skywave really carries it a ways. Talk and some music in the day time, most of the time music at night.
i did not know that am radio was in stereo i have always heard it in mono. as for the impossible to get part if it is an ic and you can get a schematic equiv for the the ic you can order all the parts and build the ic on perf board that you can hot glue and solder wires. for example you can buy all the transistors, capacitors, resistors and diodes and build a 555 timer. too if you couldnt get the machine at reasonable price you could have bought all the parts and built one from scratch.
I have a mid 80’s GM Delco “Symphony Sound” radio in my car that can receive AM stereo. There is one local channel that broadcasts in stereo but it’s a sports channel:(
A little off topic but have you experimented any with software defined radio or SDR? It's pretty fun, and fairly inexpensive to mess around with. I think you would really enjoy it.
@@vwestlife cool. You probably already know you can hook up any SMA connector style antenna to most. I have been messing around with one from nooelec. I'm still learning it. I'd love to see some good tutorials, and testing with SDR. You can even hook up an indoor or outdoor dipole and use whatever SMA adapter to antenna you need.
Was the comment about "easily being able to hear the difference" between 9.5 Khz and 11 Khz lowpass sarcastic, or am I deaf? I was hearing everything else, even supposedly subtle stuff, but I couldn't pick up on that at ALL... hoping I just missed the joke...
You may need to listen through good-quality headphones to hear the difference. Speakers roll off the high end, especially if you're not listening exactly in the "sweet spot" between them.
So many songs I've heard on the radio back in the day and I still can't get it to sound like I remember e.g. what it's like by everlast. his voice sounded deeper and I could hear background instruments more. Smothered by spineshank I remember the chorus having more emotion, you could here the guitar more
There's a lot of country stations on medium wave including the aforementioned WSM, which is more or less a country/talk radio hybrid. Small towns usually have some sort of country format. The biggest AM that plays country on AM is KKYX in San Antonio.
I know what you mean aside from the two other commenters here. There was excellent producing, engineering, and mastering. Radio sounded amazing long ago. We still have a real professional FM here in my humble opinion. 88.9 WJWJ has excellent engineering and a great classic FM sound.
This unit was not pricey when brand new because, as it's name suggests, it's meant to be your Amigo, and friends don't hurt your pocket / budget.
Amigo loans in UK do hurt everyones. Gonna take your last shirt.
@@XtremeKremaTor Not a true Amigo, that's for sure 🤣
Thankyou Gustavo Fring for this piece of information.
Amiga was more user friendly :)
30:00 the "pumping" you hear in modern dance music is actually created by utilizing sidechain compression, usually having a 4x4 kick drum or other source to activate the compressor to squash audio. The effect has been exaggerated in the last 10 - 15 years to really make the effect noticeable, but essentially in music production it's a good way to make room in the low end so that it's not all muddy down there and gives some seperation for the differences with a kick drum and the actual bass.
sidechain comp can be used really creatively too, ie daft punk and other new-disco type stuff
is it used in live music? say, a live band?
@@zooj9401 it could be accurately re-created with a live band, but no not in the same way
Zööj:
The definite, and increased usage of these effects in live sound chains, along with compressors and/or limiters, is one of the biggest reasons why I no longer attend live performances, even outdoors.
They're just too loud, in a constant manner. It's to the point where I heard more dynamics, loudness variation, on an early Rage Against The Machine album than I did at a live performance by them!
Concerts have gotten so loud that I can barely tolerate them for 20 minutes, even in the back rows or 'cheap seats', before I have to take a bathroom break, just to shut the door and let my poor ears relax.
My expectations of a concert are of real instruments, pure vocals, amplified, but with as little 'enhancement' (for loudness, for whatever) as possible. Concert sound does not need the equivalent of a broadcast (radio/ tv) air chain! Even if the goal is to drown out the crowd (noise floor).
I'm all for pop-filtering at the microphones, EQ to ring out an indoor space, and compression tastefully applied to allow vocals, for instance, to cut through the melody effectively.
But when processing is overused, for the sake of just making the sound loud all the time, that's when I leave early!
If the effect is audible/noticeable, you're doing it wrong.
Hello from Denmark, Scandinavia. What an amazing piece of equipment.
I love the fact that AM is very much still alive and well on the North American continent and I have never before looked into the AM-Stereo variant, though I've known of its existence for many years.
But I gotta tell you from watching and hearing it for the first time in my life: It does sound absolutely excellent to my 51 year old ears.
Thanks for showing this CRL Amigo AM. It was memorable.
Those PCBs looked lovely. Everything clearly layed out and labeled. I wish more products were build like that.
Yes. I totally agree! Sony was one company that would almost always label everything on their audio component circuit boards, for greater ease of servicing. I always appreciated that about them. A few other companies did that too, but Sony was usually the most consistent with the labeling of everything.
In the 1980's, I worked at a couple of 1000 watt daytime am stations. One used the Orban. The other, had no limiting equipment. Just a single vintage one channel compressor. It was still using the late 1950's original transmitter.
I love to see some tech from a time when manufacturers actually CARED about shielding everything from Electromagnetic Interference. Something you greatly appreciate when you open up an original Sega Mega Drive.
I was hoping that after you made all the adjustments, you'd use the "Proof" switch at 33:20 to toggle back and forth with all the processing off and on again.
After stating that it is all through hole Dave would say, "none of that surface mount rubbish".
bobs your uncle
Interesting- just wish I understood more of the details of exactly what was happening there! Still, I learned a lot. It’s fascinating just listening to you talking about it! Thanks- great video...
Dear men,
I want to tell you that there are videos on UA-cam that I feel 'physically' enjoyable when I watch their content.
This is one of those videos.
I enjoy the processing process, and my dad enjoys watching the VU meters.
Thank you very much!!
About 22:32: The idea of a patent is to reveal the technology to be used by all after expiration. After a patent is issued you can't keep the patented technology secret anymore (just in the phase the patent is being issued i.e. "patent pending"). If there is a patent using the patent number the patent is ready for public consultation. Some companies make details of the patent wrong, impossible to read or vague on purpose. But most of the patent is available. So they don't need to publish it, is already published. Patents can only apply to specific devices or class of devices, you can not patent a general idea or principle (in most of the world at least, USA has a convoluted patent law that diverges from the rest of the world so take it with a grain of salt), so in possession of the patent number you can find de circuit. If they didn't patented it (as some companies do) because of secrecy or cost) so you won't find it.
An excellent tour. I was especially impressed by how repairable and accessible the design is. Everything socketed, and that hinged daughterboard was really cool; I don't think I've seen that before.
Additional audio processing in the studio such as compression and equalization is also sometimes used. This is called the airchain. It is used to further optimize the sound Many top 40 radio stations do this to make their music sound better.
This can be a good strategy for making stations sound better to the average listener, which I once was. However, after learning more about how the stations are modifying the signal and listening to the differences, I don’t really like the sound of those stations now. The more I have listened, I noticed that everything plays at the same volume, including the quiet parts of the songs. This might sound more polished and professional to some people, but it sounds boring to my ears. I think stations also have been boosting the treble way too much lately as well, which makes them sound harsh. I can’t ever turn the volume up on those stations, it hurts my ears! There is a public FM station in my city that sounds like it plays the music straight from the turntable or software, and it sounds like a live concert in comparison. I can turn the volume up more than twice as high without hurting my ears. I can’t believe I used to hate that station, and now it’s my favorite.
It's absolutely amazing what is possible on plain old AM band.
Unfortunately, here in Germany between 2012 and 2015 all of the remaining AM transmitters have been decommissioned to save money, to be invested in the wider spread of DAB digital radio. Germany had always been a primarily FM country, because after WW2 when frequencies were given out, they were last to choose and had to take what was left, mainly being frequencies in the FM band which weren't too popular back then due to their short reach.
Today AM bands in mainland Europe are pretty much dead. Many countries have even planned to switch off FM radio and fully replace it with DAB.
DAB receivers are only slowly gaining popularity here in Germany, and the deadline for killing FM radio has postponed several times, last time even without a fixed date. Switching from DAB to DAB+ broadcast didn't help adoption either, making old DAB receivers obsolete.
I'm pretty sure, FM radio will still be around for quite a while, only to be replaced by web radio streams someday, when cell phone reception is good enough and costs come down enough to be able to stream on your web-enabled car stereo. DAB definitively won't be the final solution.
OK. Enough ranting :)
Love our videos ;)
*your
kpanic23 Yeah it’s interesting, you mention FM switch off, we’re I am in the UK they keep threatening to turn off AM radio, however when they try they always get loads of complaints from BBC Radio 4 and RTÉ one listeners who don’t have FM or DAB reception in there area. It also sounds like the adoption of DAB is just as slow in Germany as it is in the UK.
Thanks for the historical explanation. When I watched videos here talking about AM radio I always wondered why it more prevalent in the US compared to here in Europe.
By the way, when I got my first stereo in the mid 90s it came with a AM loop antenna. I did try it once but there wasn't really anything of interest there. Because all the stations I wanted to listen to were on FM anyway I disconnected the antenna, shoved it somewhere in a drawer and never used it again. That was about all contact I ever had with AM radio.
@@iviedbymightymt In the early 2000s there was a station called Megaradio, which gathered a lot of AM frequencies to start the first German private-owned AM music radio station. I could listen to it in the nighttime on 1525kHz, but with about 8kHz of bandwidth it wasn't that great of an experience. Their plan was to later use these frequencies with DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale), which never happened. In 2003 they filed for bankruptcy.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megaradio
DAB is just not the way to go. See, this is where I stand on all of this but changing over to new tech is never for the consumer's benefit and if you look they obsolete tech about every 20-30 years keeping consumers constantly having to upgrade their equipment. Leave FM, and AM, alone as it is tried and true and even (here in the USA) has an HD digital stream though that never caught on but they do make radios for it. To kill anything in the name of progress is the most regressive thing that can be done.
I believe the pumping effect in electronic music you're referring to is sidechain compression, where a compressor is connected to (most often) a bass drum so when every time the bass drum hits, the rest of the mix is ducked down, which gives the bass drum far more emphasis and causes an interesting "pumping" effect
Antonio Stella Mono Tile Correct!
Ah yes, Antonio Stella Bottom Tile's less successful brother...
The funny thing is, it's even printed in the owner's manual that way. So the typo was clearly CRL's fault, not whoever made the circuit board silkscreening for them.
My heart broke after days of mixing a track, then at the end sticking on an exciter/compressor just to check it out...instant night and day improvement, especially for playback on crappy speakers/phones. Far as I can tell it's a similar thing, slightly overdriven harmonics are mixed over
Bravo 👏 to whoever did the artwork for those boards!
I wonder what they were using back in the 70's. My first memories of audio compression was when I was a kid listing to end-of-song fade outs on the radio. You could hear mix change, and the reverb change. You could hear the chorus a couple more times compared to the record because the record faded too low to hear. Elton's Rocket man was a good one.
Most likely the CBS Audimax / Volumax processors (the "Max Brothers").
Some stations still use the CBS labs stuff in front of an 8100 Optimod. I can't tell you how many of these units I have recapped over the years. I have the Audimax 4450a here, the stereo version that I have modded a bit like they did in the 70's to give it that "pumping" sound. Records that were mixed for radio sound awesome going through this thing. It sounds like you are living in the 1970's again.
This processor has a good sound! I also heard the FM version which also sounds excellent. My only question is: Why does it produce so many overshoots? It seems to constantly let peaks slip through. At 37:37, there was a giant overshoot when that "most music variety" sweeper started.
you explanation of NRSC resolves why, typically an old, cheap "All american five" radio from the 1940's can have so much better sound quality on AM than a modern PLL tuner, like is in many new automobiles, and the few HiFi receivers that still have AM. The high-frequency roll-off of the newer radios is due to bandwidth reduction to improve selectivity...odd nowadays, as AM is not really used that much anymore, that modern AM receivers would be so narrow, as there's much less interference than back in the 60's. I thought the issue...and it may still be somewhat...was caused by AM radio receivers being an afterthought
I didn't know stereo AM even existed and that AM radio could sound so good. When AM was still active where I live (we have only have FM now), it sounded dreadful.
Maximum 5 kHz and some noises
@21:45 you have a burnt resistor to the right of the NE5532 output chip that was shorted and replaced. I guess it's R81 or R82.
It may have gotten a little toasty when the 15 volts was running through it, but it's fine.
Did you purchase the RCA to screw terminal adapter cables, or did you make them yourself? As you mentioned, the midrange presence is very subtle. I wonder if white noise or pink noise would make the adjustment more obvious. I used to assume that the limited frequency response of AM radio was inherent to the format until an engineer at the TV station where I worked informed me otherwise. Now I want to seek out an AMAX tuner. Very interesting piece of radio gear, and highly instructional as far as how AM stereo works.
I made the cable adapters myself. The midrange presence control boosts +1.8 dB at 3 kHz at its center position, which isn't much. It just adds a little bit of extra openness to the sound.
When you replaced the out put chip NE 5532
It looks like the resistor got pretty hot next to it at (R-82).
This sound board is beautiful & it
Sounds amazing!
Lately on FM radio stations, I can always hear the stations that compress the signal, however, I’m not sure if I prefer them. In fact, I can’t turn most commercial radio stations up without hurting my ears. The treble always sounds boosted, but somewhat grainy or harsh, and the overall volume is too loud on sections of the tracks that are supposed to be quiet. Not to mention, the bass might be boosted, but it is completely masked up by the treble, and the kick has no impact to my ears. This makes those stations sound boring to me. However, there’s a public radio station in my city that plays a variety of music, (Rock, blues, jazz, soul, hip hop, reggae, dance) and seems to sound perfectly natural. It might seem dull and quiet at first, but I can turn the volume up about twice as far without hurting my ears, and the bass actually has impact. Not to mention, the parts of a song that are supposed to be quiet, actually are, which does a lot for the emotion and dimension of the music for me. It sounds, very much, live. They sometimes play vinyl records, and the signal sounds much like my turntable: unmodified and raw to my ears. I know I am in the minority, but I wish every station sounded like that!
I thought I was the only one! I can’t stand radio and i found out why besides the tunes they play.
I’d love to have this for my music mastering. Thanks for sharing!
When I was transmitter engineer for 1540 WPGR Philadelphia we had CRL processor on the Harris MW 50 transmitter. WPGR was a 50 Kw daytimer with 3 tower array now gone dark. The transmitter building and towers where bulldozed and housing development was built on the lot. On our FM 104.5 WSNI we had Orban processing.
WPGR is now WNWR and is back on the air at a different transmitter site, but with only 1000 watts daytime and a whopping 7 watts nighttime.
@@vwestlife I had read that AZTEC CAPITAL was going to modify the transmitter site but I did not see any more about it. 1Kw at 1540 is only going a few miles if that. The original transmitter site is now a housing development. I worked for the station back in the late 80s. With the landscape of AM as it is and wiit the number of AM stations going dark you have to wonder what they think they will do with 1Kw of power.
I do not believe FCC Proofing is still required, however, a lot of operational managers and station owners like to proof their air chains once in a while, to make sure that their audio path allows the full bandwidth. I sure can tell you that many engineers hate doing it though.
Oh, i never seen any AM stereo until now. Here, in Czech Republic (and before iron wall fall Czechoslovakia) we had many LW and SW AM stations which was all in mono. Then they added some FM stations later, but they doesnt hurry with that, as we were poor, thanks to decades of central planned economy. First FM stereo radio was in czech republic in 1970, but i think that most homes doesnt had radio capable of stereo decoding (also, many receivers had only one speaker).
Sad fact is, that AM broadcast is almost dead in czechia (i dont like that name), as with beginning of this year, Czech Radio shut down the last two AM trasmitters, one in LW and second in MW bands, both with tube ends (but the LW one was replaced few years ago with 50kW transistor amp and original tube was dismounted). Both transmitters are gone now, antenas were destroyed and whole transmitter dismounted. Another sad fact, both transmitters were made in Czech republic with components made here, only new broadcast equipment, like compressors and so were used from "foreign" countries.
Actual LS/MW situation looks so, that there is three 10kW radio transmitters, one broadcast czech folk music for seniors, another country music and last one transmits the most annoying commercial radio station in whole country. These transmit powers are so low, that you have problems to catch anything today, thanks to modern LED lights and switched supplies without filters. The background mess is many times stronger that usefull signal from transmitter.
... and yep, as another "EU" mate wrote, government here also talked about plan to shutdown whole analogue radio transmit, but i think that this is so far from realization. I dont know anybody with DAB receiver, only one person talked about it, that have DAB receiver and like it (because not all Czech Radio station are in the air, some are only on internet or DAB multiplex). But what i found were comments from people in villages, that have problems to receive DAB transmit inside buildings, whereas "old" analogue ones is still fine.
Thats future, you cant stop progress :)
Very interesting video. Never knew AM was able to sound this good
I have only read that in US there is stereo version of this transmission. Never heard it though until now :-)
Do you, or does anyone here else recall the amount of compression that WPLJ used in the 70's when they used to be an album rock station? It was LOUD, I mean loud. But it stood out among all others on the radio dial. When they played Van Halen's "Dance the night away" , the opening sounded unbelievably loud like cymbals were cranked up to the max at some concert hall with thousands of watts behind it. Their compression (while criticized by some), made 95.5 WPLJ one hell of an album rock station back in the day. Would you or anyone know what kind of equipment they used to achieve that sound? 40 years later, I still recall it and haven't heard any station ever use it again.
Reinforcement of my nerd status: when the hinged circuit-board was shown, I was all-like: oooh! Ahhhhh!
What's the mix you played at 14:20? I have heard it before but I don't remember where.
Not sure what it is but he's used it before in another video which is probably why you recognise it.
You're right. It's ua-cam.com/video/z-rMbI0FW-k/v-deo.htmlm54s
"Radio gets results".... love it.
Something like that should be built into all stereos, it realy improves the sound quality.
I think with all Amigo versions, it's a pity they didn't bring those on-board LEDs out to the front panel.
Using Slugbug for the Stereo Enhancement demonstration was perfect x3
I still have my old GM Delco radio with EQ on it from my 1988 Camaro IROC-Z with AM Stereo in it. I believe it's C-Quam not sure though.
Yes, Motorola was already a major electronics supplier to GM, so the Delco radios only supported the C-Quam system.
21:47. You may need to replace the resistance R82.
certainly looks a bit 'cooked' , but may be ok, those are metal film or metal oxide resistors, and are fairly robust compared to carbon film
This is a nice processor, I have one, as well as the FM one. I'd love to find an HF version, but I think they're VERY rare!
The Amigo HF was the MBL-100. I don't know if CRL actually made any with the Amigo HF name on it -- that's just what they called it in their marketing. Likewise with the Amigo TV, which was the same thing as the BAP-2000.
@@vwestlife They did - I've seen one. But I didn't know it was the same as the MBL-100.
@@andylinton2798 Another rebadge of the MBL-100 was the Amigo Talk, aimed at AM/MW talk stations.
@@vwestlife oh, I wonder what they changed? I must ask Jay!
27:29 I like this song but the link for listen it does´nt work. Anyone have the song or other link to the song?
Here you go: www.amstereo.org/files/80s%20test%20track4.mp3
@@vwestlife thanks!
Absolutely brilliant !!
7:17 track name please
"80s Test Track 4" by Julian Croot: www.amstereo.org/files/80s%20test%20track4.mp3
@@vwestlife thank you so much
38:14: Derek Ryan - I'll Settle For Old Ireland (Great song!)
what is that selection at 10:15 (not Marian but just before that). Then at 27:28
also the same music at about 7:00. the link you have is no good now, and a search for the music brings up nothing!
Please let me know where I can get this!
You can get cheap little fans on amazon for like $10 and you get 2 of them combined, so you can easily add some active cooling onto it just by setting them on top of it
I remember you saying that your Amigo FM gets warm under use, I use USB fans on my modem and router because they get warm under use, and I'd feel a lot better having some form of active cooling on my internet because they have to deal with multiple HD and up to 4k streams.
The Amigo FM stays slightly cooler now because the transmitter has been transferred to a seperate power supply.
Name of the song at 14:40?
Late Night Feeler - The Wine, The Cars, Ah! Montmartre!
My man!
THX for asking so I don't have to myself 🙄🤣
Doesn't using compression on AM make the signal stronger because it stays closer to 100% modulation?
Yes! With AM, the louder the audio is, the stronger the signal is.
You want a very dense signal with 90% negative and 125% positive modulation
Thank you for going over all of the details in this. I am a little bit of an audio buff, and recently I have been a little more serious about getting on AM ham radio which can have high quality audio. This is helping me decide what I want to do, but I am going to start simple with a 528e and go from there.
The on air demonstration sounded better than a couple of iheart FM stations near me, they have AM quality audio... yes, on FM. I can't imagine anyone in their right mind doing this.
@vwestlife, at 31:34, what is song with the words
Computers are in the way when I try to lie on the couch
Computers are watching sf turns and radar weather maps?
I think this song would be a hoot in the jukebox for the FRC kids I help mentor. Thanks!
16:12 Narrated by Cranford native Bernie Wagenblast!
I actually liked the piece of music that had a lot of dynamic range a lot better in its original form than when processed so as to be more or less compressed with little amplitude changes.
One of my favorite videos of yours!
Thank you for the walkthrough and examples.
We didn't have stereo AM in the UK. I don't know why. It sound good to me. Bring back AM radio I say.
There are a handful of low-power stations in the UK and Ireland using it. People along the southern coast of the UK could also receive France Bleu in AM Stereo on 864 kHz from Paris until they shut down a few years ago.
We never had AM Stereo stations only mono, so that is new to me.
I hate DSP tuners, because of the mute when tuning the dial. I'm an analog signal fan!
I loved this video. I’ve been bingeing your channel today, just chilling out with my iPad. This video made me grab my Beyerdynamic headphones and start again. Just a quick point that I’d love to hear your observations on, from whe the loudness war went crazy in the 90’s/00’s. Reading “Perfecting Sound Forever”, I gather a lot of producers shot themselves in the foot, because they tried to emulate what these processors were doing, to make the music sound louder than the song that went before. The result was a CD that sounded as if it was played on the radio. (Normally a CD should sound better than the radio, you’d have thought, all things being equal in the rest of the home system.) Also, the producers who tried to second-guess the radio algorithms ended up sounding quieter, because for some reason, studio algorithm plus radio algorithm cancel one another out. I know here I’m talking about loudness, and the focus of the video was stereo, but the effect of all that processing did make it sound “louder”. Obviously for small radios or car systems or headphones on the London Underground this treatment was quite appropriate, and the samples you played, particularly at the end, sounded great. It’s the abuse of it by the record producers that infuriated me - it made loads of albums of otherwise great music quite unlistenable. But again a superb video, and I’ve loved your channel for ages. Keep well!
Oasis album from the 1990's. Over compressed I believe.
I wonder where you got the AMAX sound test clips from?
WARNING. The appliance shown in the video does not actually produce an AM radio signal; nor does the appliance in 0:10 produce an FM radio signal. They're only preprocessors that finetune the signal before it goes into the modulator. They're just taylor-made to be used in conjunction with an AM modulator or an FM modulator respectively, that's why it says AM and FM on them, but they don't do AM or FM.
The AM modulator can be seen in 37:38 - end, in the middle below the radio above the Amigo. It can be seen with explanation in ua-cam.com/video/-6r9QdLh94A/v-deo.html.
This warning should've been in the video or in the description box. Without the comment of TheAndy1268 I wouldn't have known.
The separate and distinct purpose of an audio processor, exciter, and transmitter is common knowledge among those familiar with the equipment used by radio stations. I'm sorry that you were unaware of this.
@@vwestlife When you started to explain the first function, I thought: "Couldn't this be in a separate device." It didn't dawn on me, the video was about that separate device.
One reason for it was that at that point I was more interested in the exciter. not knowing the word, rather than in the audio processor. Another reason, you mentioned the FM variant right away at the beginning of the video, but you didn't mention the exciter.
Hi - I enjoy your videos very much. Did you know the FCC is considering taking the AM band from us? It is so cool that radios almost a hundred years old can receive AM signals. Even nice that our beloved 70s/80s equipment cab receive AM. If they take it, our vintage equipment is that much closer to obsolescence. And is FM next?? Please spread the word. Is there anything we can do?
That is not correct. Analog AM radio is not going away. The FCC is simply considering digital-only signals to be transmitted. But probably only a handful of stations would be interested in doing such a thing, since it would make their signal incompatible with 99% of the AM radios in use.
@@vwestlife thank you for the reply. I knew the FCC wanted to go digital, but didn't say that. My concern, however, is the same - making all of our existing AM tuners obsolete.
Irish Country sounds incredible on the processor makes it so clean
Been waiting for this video.. :)
AM stereo sounds pretty good!
I think better than mono DAB
@@RadOo DAB and DAB+ are a joke, especially in Australia where most stations are only broadcasting between 40-80kbps. The harshness of it is instantly noticeable!
What was that last song played on the radio at the end?
11:00 wow so it has some kinda multiband compressor thing inside. cool.
21:55 that resistor looks burnt too
Fascinating look at what makes “radio sound”. Some of these really improve voiceovers.
When I mix audio it sounds good but when I broadcast it on FM radio background music is a lot louder than dialogue? Why it might happen?
Learned a lot of AM info I did not know before!
Really amazing piece of equipment for the time in which it was produced.
Love the Cooledit Pro software unfortunely Adobe destoyed it and put it in a cloud to subscibe to only,..Very interesting gadgets you show, love your naratation and deep testing, Love cheers😃💚
If you find a replacement, send that module to electronupdate. If it's all passives he should be able to easily figure out what's inside.
A few CRL processors left the factory without the black box modules potted, like this TVS-3001: ua-cam.com/video/8wv7rCdOMGk/v-deo.html Maybe somebody can find an Amigo with an unpotted module and document what's inside.
And how this thing perform in real life ? The goal of a radio processor had never been to sound good, it's to be loud and really normalized. What happen when the morning crew starts laughing out loud and it peaks at +18 db ? It's not fair to evaluate a radio processor with mps3 music
Thanx! Actually, this is the only and best explaining video describing and demonstrating radio processors. Well. Might not be, but given my knowlege to terms to search, this was just super!
Thank you for the explanations, this was very informative
I'm confused what the asymmetric modulation would do except distort the signal and make it a bit louder. Why it would reduce interference having a +125%/-100% signal versus a +-112.5% signal? There is no "zero" when you're talking about things like radio, and the peak to peak or RMS magnitude of the carrier wave doesn't seem like it would be different between the two.
With Amplitude Modulation, negative modulation can never exceed -100%, because that would be pinching off the carrier. That not only causes a lot of splatter on the band, it can even damage the transmitter or trip its protection circuitry and cause it to go off the air.
But there is no theoretical limit to positive modulation. It is only restricted by your transmitter's modulation circuitry. Some radio stations would put a 1000 watt modulator on a 500 watt transmitter and get +200% modulation. So in the early 1970s, the FCC enacted a rule limiting positive modulation to +125%. But many other countries don't allow positive modulation to exceed +100%.
@@vwestlife ah, thanks a lot for the clarification. I was forgetting how AM actually works; of course you can't have a negative amplitude on the carrier.
This is what I like - full on anoraky goodness!
(For non-Brits who don't get the term "anorak": en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anorak_(slang) )
In the UK we were limited to FM stereo as far as I know, so I am somewhat surprised to hear that anyone bothered with AM stereo. ps I am constantly "transmitting" tinnitus, so I don't get too fussed over audiophile fodder.
Interesting step by step presentation with a thoughtful commentary and most patiently done. I enjoyed the walk through the audio processing chain of this device.
Now this may sound like a dumb question but does AM stereo still exist in the United States? I have a Ford and it has an HD radio built into it and occasionally if I am parked under the transmitter, can hear HD broadcasts but they are usually talk stations and I know it is a digital signal being transmitted and the older analogue radios can't decipher it. So, are there any commercial C-QUAM or Kahn Hazeltine transmissions going on anymore?
Funny, back in the late 80's I did C-QUAM conversions to my own and friend's stereo receivers and yet I can't answer the above question.
Yes, there are still some AM Stereo stations in the USA. The most currently updated list is on Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:AM_Stereo_radio_stations_in_the_United_States
The FCC made C-Quam the single standard for AM Stereo in 1994, but there are some stations using Kahn Power-Side, which is a single-channel variant of the Kahn AM Stereo system. Also some hobbyists transmit Kahn or other AM Stereo systems on low-power Part 15 microbroadcast transmitters.
WJIB (740, Boston) broadcasts stereo, daytime (mono "flea-power" @ night).
AM 660 KEYZ in Williston ND is still going strong. The skywave really carries it a ways.
Talk and some music in the day time, most of the time music at night.
@@vwestlife That Wiki link didn't seem to work...
@@johnnytacokleinschmidt515 It works fine for me.
Ever thinking about reviewing the Casio TA-10?
So can you defeat it all togather then turn it back on?
Very nice. Does these come as a software? I need it for Cubase
Fascinating as always.
i did not know that am radio was in stereo i have always heard it in mono.
as for the impossible to get part if it is an ic and you can get a schematic equiv for the the ic you can order all the parts and build the ic on perf board that you can hot glue and solder wires.
for example you can buy all the transistors, capacitors, resistors and diodes and build a 555 timer.
too if you couldnt get the machine at reasonable price you could have bought all the parts and built one from scratch.
@VWestlife: What does NRSC High Frequency Equalizer do?
I described it in the video. Plus you can read more about it in the owner's manual (link in the description).
I have a mid 80’s GM Delco “Symphony Sound” radio in my car that can receive AM stereo. There is one local channel that broadcasts in stereo but it’s a sports channel:(
I've only seen one in use, but the input is so wacked out, it almost doesn't make sense to have it in operation. Plus, it was wired wrong.
A little off topic but have you experimented any with software defined radio or SDR? It's pretty fun, and fairly inexpensive to mess around with. I think you would really enjoy it.
Yes, I have an RTL-SDR and SDRsharp software. But the little antenna that comes with it has very poor sensitivity.
@@vwestlife cool. You probably already know you can hook up any SMA connector style antenna to most. I have been messing around with one from nooelec. I'm still learning it. I'd love to see some good tutorials, and testing with SDR. You can even hook up an indoor or outdoor dipole and use whatever SMA adapter to antenna you need.
My fav part was the DS2 Gate. ☺️
Was the comment about "easily being able to hear the difference" between 9.5 Khz and 11 Khz lowpass sarcastic, or am I deaf? I was hearing everything else, even supposedly subtle stuff, but I couldn't pick up on that at ALL... hoping I just missed the joke...
You may need to listen through good-quality headphones to hear the difference. Speakers roll off the high end, especially if you're not listening exactly in the "sweet spot" between them.
@@vwestlife I'll give that a shot; thanks!
32:47 Sorry, I can't. I have hearing loss above around 9.5KHz, so they sound mostly the same to me
What's the title of this Slug bug song?
"Computers Again"
And used on Part 15 Stations !!!
So many songs I've heard on the radio back in the day and I still can't get it to sound like I remember
e.g. what it's like by everlast. his voice sounded deeper and I could hear background instruments more. Smothered by spineshank I remember the chorus having more emotion, you could here the guitar more
I love your channel!
Couldn't this all be done by a digital equalizer program on a PC now?
Yes, there are now software-based radio audio processors, such as Stereo Tool and Breakaway Broadcast.
My playlist got hacked. How did this guy get my playlist?
any good country stations left on the AM dial?
Not locally, but I can get 650 WSM via skywave at night.
There's a lot of country stations on medium wave including the aforementioned WSM, which is more or less a country/talk radio hybrid. Small towns usually have some sort of country format. The biggest AM that plays country on AM is KKYX in San Antonio.
There never were any. All me and my sister mama music
Depending on where you are, 660 KEYZ is one, even in Stereo too.
I want the stereo enhancement to listen to all my modern music. 😍 I miss the stereo separation from the 60s and 70s
You mean drums in one ear and vocals in the other? No thanks, that’s just annoying AF to listen to 🙄
then stereotool is your free friend for stereo processing
I know what you mean aside from the two other commenters here. There was excellent producing, engineering, and mastering. Radio sounded amazing long ago. We still have a real professional FM here in my humble opinion. 88.9 WJWJ has excellent engineering and a great classic FM sound.
BRING BACK A.M STEREO!
Thank you for turning me on the Slugbug!
Really enjoy the channel i know alot of work goes into it ! Thanks 😆