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I'm trying to make a sound file sound like it's being played through a radio. Is there a way to do this without actually playing it through a cheep radio and recording it? Maybe a plugin effect or something that makes it sound like it's being played through a radio...

thanks
Brian

Have you tried out the filters and effects in Audacity? Or any other audio software will do... You just need to filter out some of the frequencies...

Simply - use eq, cut low and high frequencies, boost some mids - just listen when you will be doing it

don't forget to put a bit of static under it.

If you are going for complete authenticity in the sound don't forget to also make sure your sounds are in mono. Amplitude Modulation broadcasts are only in mono.

ejfortin
If you are going for complete authenticity in the sound don't forget to also make sure your sounds are in mono. Amplitude Modulation broadcasts are only in mono.

good call.

Over compress/limit it too.

Tape Delay -
Hi Pass -
Mono Filters -
Boost the Mids -
and Compress it in a Vintage way -
And yea dont forget to add some static or have an overdrive hiss made on a seperate mixer channel thats constantly going, and just turn the mixer volume down...
Theres a cool VST too called SFX Machine, that has a projector and Radio filter. . . . they are pretty cool.

or play it off an FM transmitter and run the headphone out to the pc and record the radio, thats the "authentic way" . . . .

I am super old school but you could just go to walmart (by the by F-walmart go to target or where ever) and get a cheep pair of walkie talkies and record through them, its basically a cheep filter/Ep and will get you a nice dirty sound if that is what you want, you can also do really messed up feedback things with 2 wakie talkies if that is what you want...

Use LFX-1310
A free mutli-fx,
and it's free,
withv ery low cpu usage ..

It AMreadio is great!

It can be found here:
http://vst4free.blogspot.com/2008/11/lfx-multi-effects-with-very-low-cpu.html

eNjOy !

CyberiaLainKittyKat
Tape Delay -
Hi Pass -
Mono Filters -
Boost the Mids -
and Compress it in a Vintage way -
And yea dont forget to add some static or have an overdrive hiss made on a seperate mixer channel thats constantly going, and just turn the mixer volume down...

I think your best bet would be to build your own AM Transmitter, would be very simple and youd get that genuine sound that you desire.

http://sci-toys.com/scitoys/scitoys/radio/am_transmitter.html

Very easy, I've done it before just a very basic soldering skills is all thats required, if you need any help feel free to message me. It actually sounds very genuine, I really like it. The crystal oscillator is about the toughest thing to find and its not hard at all to find.

Here's what I'd do:

1. Convert the file to mono at 8000Hz sampling rate (make sure the utility you use to do that has anti-aliasing filtering). By law AM stations are limited to 4000Hz bandwidth (not positive on that, but I'm pretty sure) so resampling will get rid of all frequencies above half the sampling rate.

2. Record some static/crackling from a real AM receiver not tuned to any existing station and mix it in with the other sound.

3. Use high-pass filtering, adjust the frequency till it sounds right. A really cheap/small speaker won't reproduce much below about 300 or 400Hz I would think. Then again I've got a fairly old radio that has good low frequency response.

As someone else said, compression would be a good idea as well. Either before or after mixing in the static, or both.

Edit: a subtle amount of short tail reverb or very short echo would give the effect of making it sound like the radio is in the distance, or somewhere else in the room, if so desired.