Can somebody explain this to me?

DarkJager

Why do album versions and radio edits sound so different? There seems to be clearer sound and some added effects on radio edits while the album version is just poor compared to them. For example, the recent tune by Ben Macklin called Feel Together, sounds so much better in its radio edited form than the orginal mix. Is this for sales reasons??

cornbb

It is generally the same edit you hear, its just that on the radio music tends to be heavily compressed before it is broadcast. This means that the dynamic range (i.e. loudness) of the music is narrowed, making it all as loud as possible. This is mostly because radio stations want to sound louder than their competitors. Radio versions may sound clearer because bits that are normally quiet are more audible, but heavy compression generally takes away from the quality of the music IMO.

As for the whole "radio edits" thing, some artists just shorten a track to make it "radio friendly", all effects (usually just compression/EQ) are added by the radio station themselves.

unreggd

I find that the radio usually sound better than my MP3s or CDs


weird

DarkJager

I'm not sure. I've heard some edits in the past few weeks that are higher pitched, have more effects (not radio jingles or effects) and just sound so much better than the original.