a good mix will sound decent anywhere, but i'd say there's a difference between radio and tv..tv limiters leave your mix alone, unless you hit their treshhold, then they sound awfull, radio limits/compresses/multiband compresses/expands -and what not -your mix, untill no dynamics are present..I guess your mix has to be somewhat adjusted to that..

Actually if I'm mastering something specifically for radio, I try and not push it as hard. Don't try and make it sound like it's from radio before it gets to radio. The optimod comressors will take care of smashing it to death and the hotter it is, the more it will smash. TV is a little different.

I agree with Michael. For radio, don't squash it & I give it a little more mid sometimes. Each track is different.

wich leaves me with a little question:
how do you masteringguys check radio compatibility?
is it experience, do you have an optimod, do you you have an optimod emulation, or
c- something else..
thanks a bunch!
huub

some radio station really go way too far with the optimod i think..
there are radio stations that actually give me a headache..

The point of mastering for me is to work with the thought the song will be played on radio, tv, and whatever else. I take that all into concideration when working. Every once in a blue moon I will have a record that is very dynamic and we may do a pass with a little more comp for the radio/TV vers. But this is very rare.
Before with cassette and vinyl you had to work within certain parameters. That's no longer the case with CD, DVD, SACD.

thanx for all your answers !
how about bass-response ? I always had the feeling that my masters get louder on air when I lowered the bass-area a bit... or, as said, make it sound 'pseudo-bassy' by adding say 2db @ 100Hz....

how about different approach for radio and tv ?

in bob katz's book (excellent reading by he way), there's a bit by mr. orban (the optimod inventor/developer whatever), he explains that extremely limited (superloud) masters sound as loud as more dynamic masters on the radio...The loud ones sound worse though,
cuz they clip to death..

we're doing tv and radio commercials and i try to cut some low freq just clear things up(VO), make "more intelligible" as my boss woud always say, then compession for the mix, having 2-4 db dyanmics will be ok for me just to stay from that nasty optimode :)