BBC OB mix quality

[Firebottle]

We've been watching Blondie on the red button from Proms in the Park, a fabulous performance in my opinion.

However, whether it's just me I don't know, but I do think that the mix on these OBs is just too flat, the vocals and lead guitar are just far too recessed in the mix.
It needs a lot more 'presence' (anyone remember the old amps with a presence switch as well as loudness?) to come across with better attack :eyebrows:

:cool: Alan

[Ali Tait]

Agreed, incredible given she is 69!

Frankly, though the BBC used to be the byword on sound quality, that went by the board many yeas ago. Sadly all is run run by bean counters nowadays. :-(

[anthonyTD]

All too often' Everthing is turned up to the max these days, therefore, there is no real dynamic range deviation, so, as you quite rightly point out, there is no real perceived diffrence when a lead instrument, or voice is in focus, happens all too often in live gigs too these days' where everything is miked up, and sent through the PA system.:( where its then left up to the guy behind the desk often with ear buds in to decide whether its right or wrong.:rolleyes:

[Macca]

I've posted before about how the SQ on the Jules Holland show has gone downhill in the last few years. But with a live gig they will be at the mercy of whoever is on the desk so maybe not their fault?

[Firebottle]

Funnily enough the quality of the mixing for the headliner ELO was far better.

I have noticed this before with multi artist performances at various televised gigs, the mix always seems the best for the headliner :scratch:

:cool: Alan

[Rothchild]

Funnily enough the quality of the mixing for the headliner ELO was far better.

I have noticed this before with multi artist performances at various televised gigs, the mix always seems the best for the headliner :scratch:

:cool: Alan

Normal practice is that the headliner soundchecks first and (unless there's a really good promoter / stage manager) they will have a tendency to take their time and get it just right, as you head further down the bill the acts have had correspondingly less time to get sorted (with small gigs it can mean the first act are performing their soundcheck!) Also, generally, the bigger bands will have a bigger budget and therefore potentially a better engineer

There'll also be issues around the normalised averages for volume levels, there's a whole raft of trick that can be played to cheat the rules (long quiet talking between songs, taking the loudness as an average (so midway through the gig levels are nudged down a bit so that the finale can be jammed up) etc) which might mess with the overall presentation (although this should be a master buss to FOH issue rather than affecting how the recording is captured, still, if the FOH sounds different at different levels the the FOH house engineer will mix around the issues presented by that - ie system is bass light = mix is bass heavy)

[Firebottle]

Thanks for that Marc,

Alan