[Loren Amelang]

On 7 Nov 2006 20:03:45 -0800, wrote:

I have Comcast. I compared the HD with the regular broadcast and it was
the same issue. Vocals being squashed to a flat line. I don't have such
an issue with that as with someone's judgement that a rhythm guitar
should be louder in ratio to the mix than the lead vocal. Whomever
mixed Martina McBride had it right, she could be heard over the music.
Almost all the rest of the acts suffered from vocals mixed way too low.

I would be interested to hear from some other people that actually
viewed/heard the show rather than conjecture.

DirecTV, New York "national feed", antique Sony SAT-B2 receiver
(chosen and kept because it sounds better than most modern
cheapened-down boxes). Oddly, the LA feed was less crisp this time;
usually it is the better of the two.

I agree Martina's performance started out very nicely balanced. At
about 0:57, right after she let loose with "God..." in the chorus,
somebody or something "adjusted" the mix - so dramatically my first
thought was that I'd lost a channel. I suspect a slow acting limiter
on her vocal, because the same effect happens at 2:06 and 3:19. One
gloriously loud clear word and then she fades behind the orchestra
that isn't affected.

The overall envelope had unusually good dynamic range, so I don't
think the distribution chain could be blamed. I thought the CMAs had
better-balanced audio than most such shows in the last few years,
which I've come to suspect are mixed for 5.1 and distributed (at least
to me) with only LF and RF, the center channel info dropped
completely. Talk about vocals disappearing...

Loren