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Author Topic: Compressors Out of Control: The Voice  (Read 1875 times)

Chris Burns

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Compressors Out of Control: The Voice
« on: May 18, 2019, 08:37:43 PM »

Am I the only one in this country that is completely annoyed by out of control compressors at work during vocal performances on The Voice??? I’m not sure who mixes the content for broadcast, but I’m pretty sure my Yellow Lab could do a better job. They are Attacking over and over and over repeatedly throughout the pieces with a hard knee. It’s awful and I’m not sure how a production like this allows it week after week.

The monologues and speaking between performance is fine, it’s the vocal performances.

Check out Shelton’s God’s Country performance from 5/14 (to mention one of many)Attack, Release, Attack, Release, repeat....Sad an A List National Act gets that level of production.


Had to share here.


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« Last Edit: May 18, 2019, 08:50:09 PM by Chris Burns »
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Milt Hathaway

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Re: Compressors Out of Control: The Voice
« Reply #1 on: May 18, 2019, 09:42:59 PM »

I would bet on it actually happening much further downstream, likely at your local network affiliate. A broadcast affiliate engineer's primary audio concern is preventing over-modulation at his transmitter, and many of them don't fully understand the compressor/limiters that help them achieve that goal.
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Mike Caldwell

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Re: Compressors Out of Control: The Voice
« Reply #2 on: May 19, 2019, 06:12:16 PM »

I would bet on it actually happening much further downstream, likely at your local network affiliate. A broadcast affiliate engineer's primary audio concern is preventing over-modulation at his transmitter, and many of them don't fully understand the compressor/limiters that help them achieve that goal.

While I don't watch the show that would be my guess as well. Actually by the time sound comes out of your TV I wouldn't be surprised that it has been hit numerous times with compression, limiting and various other broadcast processing.

Tim McCulloch

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Re: Compressors Out of Control: The Voice
« Reply #3 on: May 20, 2019, 12:06:07 AM »

Am I the only one in this country that is completely annoyed by out of control compressors at work during vocal performances on The Voice??? I’m not sure who mixes the content for broadcast, but I’m pretty sure my Yellow Lab could do a better job. They are Attacking over and over and over repeatedly throughout the pieces with a hard knee. It’s awful and I’m not sure how a production like this allows it week after week.

The monologues and speaking between performance is fine, it’s the vocal performances.

Check out Shelton’s God’s Country performance from 5/14 (to mention one of many)Attack, Release, Attack, Release, repeat....Sad an A List National Act gets that level of production.


Had to share here.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

There are a couple of home theater forums where broadcast audio is a common topic.  Without making a list... there are scores of places between origin and your ears where dynamics are altered, and the final place audio can be altered is at the AV receiver or a TV sound 'enhancement' setting.  Those forum discussion often veer to end user adjustments, presets and various enhancement schemes as there is no control over the audio as one receives it.

Many moving parts.
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Kevin McDonough

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Re: Compressors Out of Control: The Voice
« Reply #4 on: May 20, 2019, 10:20:41 AM »

There are a couple of home theater forums where broadcast audio is a common topic.  Without making a list... there are scores of places between origin and your ears where dynamics are altered, and the final place audio can be altered is at the AV receiver or a TV sound 'enhancement' setting.  Those forum discussion often veer to end user adjustments, presets and various enhancement schemes as there is no control over the audio as one receives it.

Many moving parts.

yeah, its often the same reason people complain about bad quality for live music broadcasts, festivals on TV etc etc.

There's usually more than one layer of extra multiband compression, EQ etc that gets added between it leaving the broadcast desk/truck and actually reaching your TV, so often the mix sound pretty different when it gets to you from what the on sire engineer was sending.

K
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John L Nobile

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Re: Compressors Out of Control: The Voice
« Reply #5 on: May 20, 2019, 10:41:39 AM »

Our local radio station has the worst use of compression I've ever heard. Should be a textbook example of the term "pumping".

The thing that bothers me most on TV broadcasts is the snare. It seems to be the most affected instrument. I always wonder if that can be improved by bringing it down in the initial mix so that it doesn't get "squashed" to death further down the chain.   
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Craig Leerman

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Re: Compressors Out of Control: The Voice
« Reply #6 on: May 23, 2019, 02:01:33 PM »

My wife was watching the finals of The Voice the other day and I came in from work to sit with her and watch a bit. The thing that bothered me the most was that they buried the vocals in the mix. I was straining to hear the singers over the band. I could hear the instruments fine, especially during a guitar or a dobro solo, but some of the singers were buried.

While I don’t watch TV a lot, my wife also likes America’s Got Talent and I have sat with her to watch that show. They seem to have a better grasp of how to mix vocals with a track.
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John L Nobile

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Re: Compressors Out of Control: The Voice
« Reply #7 on: May 23, 2019, 02:32:56 PM »

My wife was watching the finals of The Voice the other day and I came in from work to sit with her and watch a bit. The thing that bothered me the most was that they buried the vocals in the mix. I was straining to hear the singers over the band. I could hear the instruments fine, especially during a guitar or a dobro solo, but some of the singers were buried.

While I don’t watch TV a lot, my wife also likes America’s Got Talent and I have sat with her to watch that show. They seem to have a better grasp of how to mix vocals with a track.

The guy performing with Travis Tritt was hard to hear. To me it seemed like the there was a lot going on musically and his voice didn't cut through and got lost in the mix. Travis sounded just fine though. I fast forwarded through most of the other numbers but I loved the Sarah McLachlan duet.

They certainly had a lot of star power on that episode.
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ProSoundWeb Community

Re: Compressors Out of Control: The Voice
« Reply #7 on: May 23, 2019, 02:32:56 PM »


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