LUDWIGSHAFEN, GERMANY: Attracting over 10 million daily listeners, RPR1., Radio Regenbogen and bigFM are three of Southwest Germany’s largest privately-owned radio stations. Featuring three distinctive formats, AC, Hot AC and CHR, each of the stations share a single ‘Service Center Production’ Sound Department. Head of Production, Stefan Müller, recently purchased Sonnox Broadcast Bundles for each of the Sound Department’s 11 workstations.

“I had considerable experience with Sonnox plug-ins as a film mixing engineer prior to joining the Radio Group,” Müller says. “Their overall sound quality and flexibility is simply the best you can get in the plug-in market, so I knew they would provide excellent audio processing for radio production where sound is the major priority.”

“One of the most important jobs is to get the voice through to our listeners as clearly and effectively as possible, without being harsh or unpleasantly loud,” he adds. “Of course the sound of voices, music beds and FX varies from format to format, so we needed a plug-in bundle that would suit all our needs; aggressive for one radio format, and more transparent for another without losing loudness.”

The Service Center Production Sound Department utilizes Sonnox plug-ins differently for each station. “The Oxford EQ is engaged for virtually every track, shaping detail and emphasizing transparency, but tailoring the finished mixes for specific audiences,” Müller explains. “The Oxford Dynamics plug-in’s built-in modules are particularly well suited to our bigFM audience, and to CHR where voices are more directly in the listeners’ face. The SuprEsser plug-in gets deeper into our AC and Hot AC workflows, enabling us to dynamically reduce ‘overemphasized’ frequencies. The Oxford Limiter and Inflator are our primary weapons in the ‘Loudness War.’ I’m not a fan of indiscriminately increasing volume. That translates to lost punch and transparency,” he says. “By creatively employing the Limiter and Inflator plug-ins in our summing busses and masters, we can achieve excellent loudness levels and retain the details, emotions and dynamics that make compelling broadcasts.”

“The Sonnox Broadcast Bundles have proved themselves the perfect solution to all our radio sound design challenges,” Müller concludes.

Photo: Stefan Müller, Service Center Production Sound Department Head of Production

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For information on Sonnox Plug-Ins please visit: www.sonnox.com