Need to start a song sounding like old radio, then kick in full-volume..

Butchnap

Butchnap

Member
Hi everyone.. I am NOT an audio-guy, but appreciate the importance enough to work for good audio in my video projects.. However, in my current project I need to take the beginning of a song and make it sound like it's coming through a transistor radio - I need this effect for the first few bars and then I need the song to kick in full volume (the radio effect needs to disappear).. I edit with Premiere Pro CS5 and have Soundbooth, though I regret to say I've never used it.. I also have audacity. Is it possible to get this effect with these programs, and if so, can someone on here be completely awesome and walk me through the process or point me to a solution??? I have googled and found articles on making a song sound like it's on the radio, but I need to effect to ramp-off (ramp-down?) and I haven't found any help on that.

Thanks in advance!
N.
 
Probably the easiest way is to worldize the song by playing it thru a small, very cheap computer speaker (or even those cheap 2 dollar headphones you can buy at the check out isle of the grocery story) and while playing it, re-record the sound coming out of the speaker. Drop the resulting file on your timeline (aligned with your high quality version) and then you can cut/crossfade between the two.

Butchnap said:
Hi everyone.. I am NOT an audio-guy, but appreciate the importance enough to work for good audio in my video projects.. However, in my current project I need to take the beginning of a song and make it sound like it's coming through a transistor radio - I need this effect for the first few bars and then I need the song to kick in full volume (the radio effect needs to disappear).. I edit with Premiere Pro CS5 and have Soundbooth, though I regret to say I've never used it.. I also have audacity. Is it possible to get this effect with these programs, and if so, can someone on here be completely awesome and walk me through the process or point me to a solution??? I have googled and found articles on making a song sound like it's on the radio, but I need to effect to ramp-off (ramp-down?) and I haven't found any help on that.

Thanks in advance!
N.
Click to expand...
 
The next best is to use "Speakerphone" by Audio Ease, but for what you want a close second is "Vinyl" by iZotope. The first is $500 or so the second is free. Both can also add things like warp and pops and static etc. that you won't get with just worldizing.

And I would do it the same as above. Make an effected version and crossfade between them. I've actually done this a few times in films and it can be very effective.
 
I see 3 options for now. From easy to hard.

1) As gpforet suggested, worldizing would be the quickest and easiest.
- Find an old computer speaker or radio with an input.
- Play your song from the computer or music player through your speaker.
- Record the song coming out from speaker in your preferred size of room.
- Trim and slice this to be inserted into the first few bars, crossfade at desired point into original song on same channel.

2) Make two audio channels, one for the transistor radio sound in MONO, and second for your original FULL-volume sound STEREO.
- Trim and slice desired bar length of song to be altered for transistor radio perspective. Channel 1.
- Remaining song at desired point on Channel 2.
- EQ setting on Channel 1, lowcut everything below 500Hz, highcut above 3kHz. Boost around 1kHz-1.5kHz as desired.
- Reverb on Channel 1, Reverb Time should be less than 1 seconds in a small room, Size of room depends on where the transistor radio is being played (bedroom, living room, bathroom), Dry signal should not be 100%, Early Reflections the closer you get to 100% the more exaggeration of the room becomes, Reverb Tail shouldn't be much unless it's in a bathroom, large living space, or cathedral. Adjust to taste.

3) Requires automation of EQ, Reverb, Volume for your song.
 
if you edit in adobe, you can use a soundbooth preset to get exactly the sound your going for. it may take some tweaking, but there's some stock presets that should get you close to begin with.
 
Set up a parametric EQ with six bands all with a Q-width of 4 and boost or cut the following frequencies as directed:

f 21.5 / cut 35db
f 623 / boost 12db
f 84 / cut 19db
f 1663 / boost 18db
f 192 / boost 11db
f 3354 / cut 7db

This will boost your overall loudness a little, so you might need to bring the volume down on the track too.
 
Butchnap said:
Hi everyone.. I am NOT an audio-guy, but appreciate the importance enough to work for good audio in my video projects.. However, in my current project I need to take the beginning of a song and make it sound like it's coming through a transistor radio - I need this effect for the first few bars and then I need the song to kick in full volume (the radio effect needs to disappear).. I edit with Premiere Pro CS5 and have Soundbooth, though I regret to say I've never used it.. I also have audacity. Is it possible to get this effect with these programs, and if so, can someone on here be completely awesome and walk me through the process or point me to a solution??? I have googled and found articles on making a song sound like it's on the radio, but I need to effect to ramp-off (ramp-down?) and I haven't found any help on that.

Thanks in advance!
N.
Click to expand...

In addition to the other suggestions you can capture 'radio background hiss' by tuning to an unused portion of the AM band, and capture the background noise. You can also capture 'scanning for a station' sounds as well. Then add that to your 'radio' set of tracks.
 
in soundbooth, under effects choose advanced graphic eq and there is a preset called walkytalky that will give you the tonality you want. Do make it mono and you also might want to compress it a little bit too. then, as has been said above, you can crossfade to your full track over however long or short a time you want. i also like the idea of adding some radio hiss to it. good luck. sounds like fun.
 
FWIW there's a song by Dirty Vegas that starts just like that (old, tinny and scratchy), and the transition effect is remarkable.
 
My 2¢.
Don't forget to compress the hell out of the audio in addition to all of the other suggestions (i.e., EQ, reverb). Slam it with at least a 10:1 ratio. Old radios used very "slow" tubes and the transients used to be very soft. If you have a "tube amp" emulator plug in, then that may also get you closer to the desired effect if used in conjunction with all of the mentioned measures. Copy the section of your original audio you'd like to manipulate onto an adjacent track. This way, if you lose too much fidelity, you can still mix a bit of the original should you need to increase ineligibility for any reason. Record a nice, scratchy, dusty record intro or outro (no music) for some "crackle".

Okay, it's getting intense. . .
 
The Queens of the Stonage album "Songs for the Deaf", has a re-occurring radio broadcast series of inserts... Here's a blurb on the 'style' from the wiki...

----
Songs for the Deaf is loosely considered as a concept album, taking the listener on a drive from Los Angeles to Joshua Tree while tuning into radio stations from towns on the way such as Banning and the "Bible Belt" on "God Is In The Radio" and Chino Hills, California.
----

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songs_for_the_Deaf
 
I have a method for you that is a little more complicated, but it is free and sounds much better than the EQ methods.
You can use an impulse, which is basically an audio measurement of something. They are normally used to emulate the reverb of a real space, but they can also be used to emulate the frequency response of a speaker.
First, grab the free SIR plugin from http://www.knufinke.de/sir/sir1.html. Then you need a wav file that is an impulse of a tiny speaker. There are some cool ones at http://www.xs4all.nl/~fokkie/IR.htm#speakers. Use the wav files that are linked to at the end of the description.
Combine this with some compression and you should be in business.
Here is a forum post describing how to use SIR to emulate a guitar speaker: http://www.freestompboxes.org/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=930
 
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