Shhhhh - It's Glastonbury....

[User211]

Why oh why is the music transmitted at such a low level? The Beeb seem to do it every year. Then the presenters come on and because I have had to crank the preamp gain into the stratoshpere they are outrageously loud.

Truly unsatisfactory. WTF are the Beeb playing at?

[Tim]

I must admit I don't really enjoy watching a gig on the TV :scratch:

[Marco]

Indeed... I wonder how all the daftees there are coping with the mud! Apparently, the toilets are also 'legendary' :eyebrows:

Justin, you should send a complaint to the BBC. They're usually polite enough to reply.

Marco.

[Reffc]

Must admit I enjoyed the Seasick Steve gig last night...he was on form, but I agree with Justin. Why do they insist on compressing the music transmission but giving their anchors full whack?

[User211]

Marco, if I thought I'd get a result rather than some prose, I probably would:)

[User211]

Must admit I enjoyed the Seasick Steve gig last night...he was on form, but I agree with Justin. Why do they insist on compressing the music transmission but giving their anchors full whack?

With a huge amount of gain and some lively TJ tubes I was able to get a fairly listenable result, indicating that it has all been miked up well etc etc. If I was responsible for setting up all the sound gear up and some idiot producer did what they have done to it, I know I'd be pretty angry.

[The Grand Wazoo]

This has pissed me off for such a long time now.
The BBC sound people seem to think that the vocals must be pushed right to the front of the mix at the expense of everything else. This is just not how most gigs sound. The moment an amplifier appears on the stage it all goes to shit. They never used to have this problem when recordings were analogue.

[AlexM]

I was watching Chic last night (a guilty pleasure) and Nile Rogers guitar was completely inaudible for the first few numbers. I think that the sound from the desk is poor because when the acts change over the levels need to be reset for the different acts, and the sound balance did improve. The overall gain was low though.

Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

[Rothchild]

Must admit I enjoyed the Seasick Steve gig last night...he was on form, but I agree with Justin. Why do they insist on compressing the music transmission but giving their anchors full whack?

Sounds the other way around to me, the music is quiet cos it's not being smashed in to a compressor, the djs sound horrible though cost they've wound their gains right up and are smashing the limiter. Note how their breaths are almost as loud as the talking (this is the make up gain pulling up the background noise) and how the plosives sort of pop and duck back when they hit (that's the attack rate of the compressor snatching at the signal as it goes over the threshold)

Edit: just to add I'm listening to 6 Music via freeview

[Marco]

Must admit I enjoyed the Seasick Steve gig last night...he was on form

I like SS, but if you enjoy real old-time blues, sung by someone who's still alive, Catfish Keith is your man. IMO, no-one does it better :)

Marco.

[MikeMusic]

I watch as much of Glasto as I can.
Usually I discover a couple of artists I don't know that seem ok
There seems to be something off about the sound, not necessarily the quality. Can't quite put my finger on it.
I find if an artist sounds ok there they are usually good or even great

[User211]

I was watching BBC3 & 4 coverage via Sky, standard def, via a DAC into my main system last night. Too early for HD coverage.

BBC Two HD IS better AND louder flipping between standard def and HD on my 2nd system now.

It still ain't great, though.

[clap]

It sounds good through my Onkyo 605 with dts Neo 6 set for music. HD supplied by my Humax. I do have to turn it up for the music.
Off the computer via the dac @192 into my hifi it sounds flat and lacking bass.

[chelsea]

Had it through the stereo most of the weekend.
Really enjoyed it.

Nick cave and pil were the highlights for me today.

[User211]

Apart from the level issue, the sonics varied a lot between the sets. Felt a bit sorry for the Arctic Monkeys who totally lacked any excitement to the sound & with vocals too quiet relative to the music. Haim came through well SQ wise I thought.

At the end of the day I enjoyed it quite a lot gripes aside.

[Ali Tait]

Indeed... I wonder how all the daftees there are coping with the mud! Apparently, the toilets are also 'legendary' :eyebrows:

Justin, you should send a complaint to the BBC. They're usually polite enough to reply.

Marco.

What mud? Yes, there was some rain and some puddles for a while, but it's been scorchio for the last couple of days. I'm bloody sunburned!

[Ali Tait]

Oh, and as for the toilets, I think they are bloody amazingly good considering the level of use. The festival is run like clockwork, and the toilets are cleaned several times a day.

[Marco]

Lol... Just yankin' yer chain, dude. Glad you had a great time. Only thing is, gingers don't tan well! :lol: :D ;)

Anyway, did you manage to hook up with Beechy?

Marco.

[Ali Tait]

Nah, he had his hands full with the kids. Phew, just got back home. That was a hell of a drive!
Another vintage Glasto though!

[Ali Tait]

I'm peeling!

[Rothchild]

I managed to catch up with Public Enemy and Alice Russell last night (I've a neat linux script that pulls the best quality file directly from the beeb), looking through the list the beeb have done a top class job of capturing so many performances (there's probably over 100 available at the moment).

In terms of sound I think they are good quality live recordings, they're reasonably dynamic and they have a proper live character (sometimes stuff is wrong, for instance when new instruments come in they're invariably a bit too loud, vocals come and go a bit (probably because they're not using quite so much compression as in the studio to prevent feedback)) but on the whole they're excellent. Alice Russell in particular sounds great and is an absolutely compelling performer, shades of Aretha in the soul and gusto she brings.

PE were great too, not hugely consistent but the stand out tracks (mostly the classics) were exceptional.

[johnB]

Best way to improve the sound quality is to get down there for 5 days!

I managed to get watch the Stones (and Primal Scream and Elvis Costello 5 yards from the front) and the sound was great from there, although my kids told me that the Stones were too quiet further back.

My highlights (apart from The Stones) were

- Rokia Traore (with John Paul Jones and John Parish)....absolutely stunning singer from Mali
- Smashing Pumpkins......wow
- Sinead O'Connor......forgot how good her voice is
- Slim Chance.....back together after 40 years singing Ronnie Lane songs (what a talent)
- Robyn Hitchcock.....in a world of his own, and backed by the rhythm section of REM

John

[Rothchild]

- Smashing Pumpkins......wow
John

I'll have to grab this one tonight, both their big albums are masterclasses in how to produce a monster heavy, loud as f*&K sound without resorting to nasty mastering tricks, limiter smashing and clipping. Did they drop it hard?

[johnB]

?....... Did they drop it hard?
They did drop it hard Marc (not sure I know what that means, but they were loud and got the crowd going).....cheers John