Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1   Report Post  
Posted to rec.audio.pro
Mxsmanic Mxsmanic is offline
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 805
Default Bad sound at the Oscars?

I see people in cyberspace commenting that the sound quality of the Oscar
broadcast is terrible. Is that true? (I don't watch the Oscars myself, but I'm
curious to know if they've actually screwed something up--or deliberately
messed around with the audio.)
  #2   Report Post  
Posted to rec.audio.pro
Paul Winkler[_2_] Paul Winkler[_2_] is offline
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2
Default Bad sound at the Oscars?

On Feb 26, 11:31*pm, Mxsmanic wrote:
I see people in cyberspace commenting that the sound quality of the Oscar
broadcast is terrible. Is that true? (I don't watch the Oscars myself, but I'm
curious to know if they've actually screwed something up--or deliberately
messed around with the audio.)


I thought it was pretty bad. There was an annoying metallic ringing
noise on a lot of the speeches.
My wife, who rarely comments on such things, kept wondering what it
was.
Some facebook friends, none of them audio experts, also brought it up.

(I'm not a pro, just a lurker. Curious if anyone here has any guesses
what the problem was.)
  #3   Report Post  
Neumannu87 Neumannu87 is offline
Junior Member
 
Posts: 1
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mxsmanic View Post
I see people in cyberspace commenting that the sound quality of the Oscar
broadcast is terrible. Is that true? (I don't watch the Oscars myself, but I'm
curious to know if they've actually screwed something up--or deliberately
messed around with the audio.)
It was really bad for such a high profile broadcast. On my TV set, it sounded like HF acoustic feedback. Some other people said that it wasn't heard by the FOH system at the event, but then later in the show, you could tell someone inserted a Real Time adaptive noise filter in the signal, which IMHO, made it sound just as bad. It was like trading apples for apples.
I wouldn't be surprised at all if someone was fired over it.
  #4   Report Post  
Posted to rec.audio.pro
Marc Wielage[_2_] Marc Wielage[_2_] is offline
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 249
Default Bad sound at the Oscars?

On Sun, 26 Feb 2012 20:31:42 -0800, Mxsmanic wrote
(in article ):

I see people in cyberspace commenting that the sound quality of the Oscar
broadcast is terrible.
------------------------------snip------------------------------


I think Roy Rising elsewhere is correct, and it was a downmix problem,
exacerbated by slight acoustic feedback.

You know it's bad when even MSN is covering it:

"What's up with the Oscar microphone feedback?"

http://todayentertainment.today.msnb...0513860-whats-
up-with-the-oscar-microphone-feedback

A lot of the live reality contest shows use combinations of directional
mikes, feedback eliminators, careful EQ, feedback eliminators, and the
ubiquitous iZotope RX box in the rack, plus tons of rehearsals and set up.
The Kodak theater has got a very weird design -- 3 balconies, lots of
vertical speakers in a vast indoor area -- I don't envy anybody who has to
mix in an environment like that.

--MFW

  #5   Report Post  
Posted to rec.audio.pro
MG[_4_] MG[_4_] is offline
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 51
Default Bad sound at the Oscars?



"Marc Wielage" wrote in message
.com...
On Sun, 26 Feb 2012 20:31:42 -0800, Mxsmanic wrote
(in article ):

I see people in cyberspace commenting that the sound quality of the Oscar
broadcast is terrible.
------------------------------snip------------------------------


I think Roy Rising elsewhere is correct, and it was a downmix problem,
exacerbated by slight acoustic feedback.

You know it's bad when even MSN is covering it:

"What's up with the Oscar microphone feedback?"

http://todayentertainment.today.msnb...0513860-whats-
up-with-the-oscar-microphone-feedback

A lot of the live reality contest shows use combinations of directional
mikes, feedback eliminators, careful EQ, feedback eliminators, and the
ubiquitous iZotope RX box in the rack, plus tons of rehearsals and set up.
The Kodak theater has got a very weird design -- 3 balconies, lots of
vertical speakers in a vast indoor area -- I don't envy anybody who has to
mix in an environment like that.

--MFW


Long ago I worked in Master Control and QC was one of our primary tasks. I
see so much bad stuff on the air now that I wonder whether there are humans
in the chain anymore. I just find it mind-boggling that this could happen
on such a highly watched show.



  #6   Report Post  
Posted to rec.audio.pro
Steve King Steve King is offline
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 558
Default Bad sound at the Oscars?

"MG" wrote in message
...


"Marc Wielage" wrote in message
.com...
On Sun, 26 Feb 2012 20:31:42 -0800, Mxsmanic wrote
(in article ):

I see people in cyberspace commenting that the sound quality of the
Oscar
broadcast is terrible.
------------------------------snip------------------------------


I think Roy Rising elsewhere is correct, and it was a downmix problem,
exacerbated by slight acoustic feedback.

You know it's bad when even MSN is covering it:

"What's up with the Oscar microphone feedback?"

http://todayentertainment.today.msnb...0513860-whats-
up-with-the-oscar-microphone-feedback

A lot of the live reality contest shows use combinations of directional
mikes, feedback eliminators, careful EQ, feedback eliminators, and the
ubiquitous iZotope RX box in the rack, plus tons of rehearsals and set
up.
The Kodak theater has got a very weird design -- 3 balconies, lots of
vertical speakers in a vast indoor area -- I don't envy anybody who has
to
mix in an environment like that.

--MFW


Long ago I worked in Master Control and QC was one of our primary tasks.
I see so much bad stuff on the air now that I wonder whether there are
humans in the chain anymore. I just find it mind-boggling that this could
happen on such a highly watched show.


Don't you think the problem lies in the fact that there are so many more
'nodes' in the supply chain. When I was chief engineer of both AM and FM
radio stations, the only signal processing equipment (level controlling
amplifiers/limiters) were between the control rooms and the transmitter. In
much larger stations studios fed their signals to master control and then to
the transmitter. In that case there are, typically, three people between
the microphones and the transmitter. I can't imagine how many opportunities
to screw up the signal there are beween the Oscar show and my flat screen.
I know that a few years ago I had a chance to visit the local cable
operation's down-link and distribution center. I think there were
processors on the audio of every cable channel. Could be wrong about that,
but I do remember being surprised that there should be any local processing.

Steve King


  #7   Report Post  
Posted to rec.audio.pro
MG[_4_] MG[_4_] is offline
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 51
Default Bad sound at the Oscars?



"Steve King" wrote in message
...
"MG" wrote in message
...


"Marc Wielage" wrote in message
.com...
On Sun, 26 Feb 2012 20:31:42 -0800, Mxsmanic wrote
(in article ):

I see people in cyberspace commenting that the sound quality of the
Oscar
broadcast is terrible.
------------------------------snip------------------------------

I think Roy Rising elsewhere is correct, and it was a downmix problem,
exacerbated by slight acoustic feedback.

You know it's bad when even MSN is covering it:

"What's up with the Oscar microphone feedback?"

http://todayentertainment.today.msnb...0513860-whats-
up-with-the-oscar-microphone-feedback

A lot of the live reality contest shows use combinations of directional
mikes, feedback eliminators, careful EQ, feedback eliminators, and the
ubiquitous iZotope RX box in the rack, plus tons of rehearsals and set
up.
The Kodak theater has got a very weird design -- 3 balconies, lots of
vertical speakers in a vast indoor area -- I don't envy anybody who has
to
mix in an environment like that.

--MFW


Long ago I worked in Master Control and QC was one of our primary tasks.
I see so much bad stuff on the air now that I wonder whether there are
humans in the chain anymore. I just find it mind-boggling that this
could happen on such a highly watched show.


Don't you think the problem lies in the fact that there are so many more
'nodes' in the supply chain. When I was chief engineer of both AM and FM
radio stations, the only signal processing equipment (level controlling
amplifiers/limiters) were between the control rooms and the transmitter.
In much larger stations studios fed their signals to master control and
then to the transmitter. In that case there are, typically, three people
between the microphones and the transmitter. I can't imagine how many
opportunities to screw up the signal there are beween the Oscar show and
my flat screen. I know that a few years ago I had a chance to visit the
local cable operation's down-link and distribution center. I think there
were processors on the audio of every cable channel. Could be wrong about
that, but I do remember being surprised that there should be any local
processing.

Steve King

There are a myriad of devices in between, lots of ways to do it, and all
kinds of places for things to go wrong, but the reality is that live TV
events get distributed every day without these issues, so it's puzzling, at
least to me, how this could have been left unresolved. This was a very
high-profile event, and I'm sure they had been in place for several days.

  #8   Report Post  
Posted to rec.audio.pro
Frank Stearns Frank Stearns is offline
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,134
Default Bad sound at the Oscars?

snips

least to me, how this could have been left unresolved. This was a very
high-profile event, and I'm sure they had been in place for several days.


I missed the show. Oh, woe is me. smirk

Is Ed Greene still involved?

Once upon a time, Ed did audio for a lot of the major "event" shows from the mid-70s
through the 90s, and perhaps beyond. Pretty sure he did the Oscars for a while.
There was the Greene-Crow remote truck, which I never saw, but heard it was a
wonder.

Ed's work usually sounded fabulous (in a few seconds you could typically pick out a
show he'd mixed before seeing the credits). It even sounded good on the crappy tv
speakers of the day (not that they've gotten appreciably better).

Back when I had a meager expense account at Quad-8, Ed and I had lunch during the
1982 AES in LA and I asked him how the hell he got such fabulous sound on these
shows. He just gave a sly grin and said, "well, I do those shows like I was doing a
record, and try to make it sound like music."

What a concept! (Though of course there were countless layers of skill and
aesthetics that Ed brought to the table, er, desk.)

Although, with the loudness wars, maybe these days "making it sound like a record"
isn't the best idea...

Frank
Mobile Audio

--
  #9   Report Post  
Posted to rec.audio.pro
Peter Larsen[_3_] Peter Larsen[_3_] is offline
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,295
Default Bad sound at the Oscars?

"Frank Stearns" wrote in message
...


Although, with the loudness wars, maybe these days "making it sound like a
record"
isn't the best idea...


as long as it is not "cd quality" or "digitally remastered for your
listening pleasure" ... O;-) ... like a record to me implies like one of
those black 12" thingies that should be worse but some of the time are a lot
better than the CD.

Frank
Mobile Audio


Kind regards

Peter Larsen

--
.



  #10   Report Post  
Posted to rec.audio.pro
nb[_3_] nb[_3_] is offline
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1
Default Bad sound at the Oscars?

"stereo was full of a flanging
type sound on all the mics"

Confirmed. But I didn't notice it the whole time, just at points.

(I'm not paying attention to audio quality when I watch the Oscars and
listen on our crappy TV speakers; it has to really jump out for me to
be concerned.)

The voice on the singer during the "dead package" was hard to pick out
too. Too far back and too much room on it. I'm not sure why, but that
seems to happen a lot with live music on TV. They're probably
listening on monitors that are too good.


  #11   Report Post  
Posted to rec.audio.pro
Scott Dorsey Scott Dorsey is offline
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 16,853
Default Bad sound at the Oscars?

MG wrote:

Long ago I worked in Master Control and QC was one of our primary tasks. I
see so much bad stuff on the air now that I wonder whether there are humans
in the chain anymore. I just find it mind-boggling that this could happen
on such a highly watched show.


Is there anyone AT master control anymore? There certainly isn't at the
local affiliates....
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
  #12   Report Post  
Posted to rec.audio.pro
Les Cargill[_4_] Les Cargill[_4_] is offline
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,383
Default Bad sound at the Oscars?

Scott Dorsey wrote:
wrote:

Long ago I worked in Master Control and QC was one of our primary tasks. I
see so much bad stuff on the air now that I wonder whether there are humans
in the chain anymore. I just find it mind-boggling that this could happen
on such a highly watched show.


Is there anyone AT master control anymore? There certainly isn't at the
local affiliates....
--scott



I saw "the King's Speech" recently, and all the nattily dressed
engineers in front of immaculate racks of radio equipment
( which was probably CGI ) might have been the best
part of the movie.

--
Les Cargill
  #13   Report Post  
Posted to rec.audio.pro
Marc Wielage[_2_] Marc Wielage[_2_] is offline
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 249
Default Bad sound at the Oscars?

On Wed, 29 Feb 2012 15:48:05 -0800, Frank Stearns wrote
(in article ):

Is Ed Greene still involved?

Once upon a time, Ed did audio for a lot of the major "event" shows from
the mid-70s through the 90s, and perhaps beyond. Pretty sure he did the
Oscars for a while. There was the Greene-Crow remote truck, which I
never saw, but heard it was a wonder.
------------------------------snip------------------------------


Ed was (and still is!) a prince. I honestly had thought he retired, but
damned if his name isn't on the current episodes of AMERICAN IDOL. And the
show sounds extremely good, week after week.

I have to say, I never heard live sound problems like this in any of Ed's
work.

--MFW

  #14   Report Post  
Posted to rec.audio.pro
[email protected] ckozicki@snet.net is offline
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 64
Default Bad sound at the Oscars?

"Too much room" sounds like a hyper-compression issue to me - some thing that happened to the sound AFTER it left Ed's truck/domain.

-ChrisCoaster
  #15   Report Post  
Posted to rec.audio.pro
[email protected] ckozicki@snet.net is offline
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 64
Default Bad sound at the Oscars?

I'm thinking about just finding an older analog TV the ones with knobs to change the channel, setting it to channel 3 and just blasting the pink static noise while watching my main TV. Couldnt sound much worse and no less dynamic range than broadcast signal. LMFAO!
Reply
Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules

Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Hey Oscars are here! saqib.mj Pro Audio 0 March 10th 09 03:45 PM
Oscars sync? Chris Hornbeck Pro Audio 17 March 3rd 08 01:58 AM
A background rumble appears in a sound from microphone in Sound blaster Live. D Pro Audio 6 October 16th 07 09:19 PM
Sting at the Oscars John Neiberger Pro Audio 34 March 10th 04 06:54 AM
Q: Auto-Tune and The Oscars, etc. Revisited MikeTEACHR Pro Audio 1 March 8th 04 03:44 PM


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 08:45 PM.

Powered by: vBulletin
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004-2024 AudioBanter.com.
The comments are property of their posters.
 

About Us

"It's about Audio and hi-fi"