1 of 1- paterson1
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All This Great Technology and The Sound Is Crap
Friday afternoon I was out and about doing a few errands in the car. Had the radio on naturally shuffling around the dial.
It really struck me again the poor quality of voice tracked programming. I was listening to KW's new Bounce Radio and Michelle Cruise was on air. The drive show is local on Bounce Kitchener. However her voice tracked breaks were dreadful. Not Michelle, but the over modulation and distortion on some breaks. The sound was too loud and totally drowning out the music. On another break, still distorted but this time the music overwhelmed the voice track. Programming like this sounds like someone is learning how to run the equipment and audio board! Bush league...
The sound quality of the music and commercials on Michelle's show were excellent but everything falls apart when the voice track is played. Also when programs are voice tracked the announcer does very few breaks. I flipped over to The Beat 95.9, and guess what? A live announcer, who sounded great with a clean sound, talked about a bad accident on Friday afternoon, put listeners on the air, and sounded like he was in control and having a great time.
And mid morning today "Sarge" is on Bounce may be voice tracked, but sounds live and the quality of his breaks crisp and clean. But the more I listen, he may be live since he is doing more breaks and hitting vocals all over the place and talking about the music. Don't usually hear this so much on voice tracked shows. He is also doing current weather forecasts.
However, what good is all of this high tech technology if the end result is an over modulated, distorted and mono sounding break from the announcer? Is the issue the equipment or is it a people problem? I sort of think it is a technical issue since I have also heard poor quality voice audio on big syndicated shows like The Breakfast Club, John Tesh and Brooke & Jeffery. Not as bad as what I hear locally but still poor quality, mono sounding, over processed and sometimes distorted. And normally the breaks are totally detached from the music.
Anyway, I sure wish something was done about this since it is often making radio sound amateurish, and happens too often on too many stations and programs.
Last edited by paterson1 (May 24, 2021 12:22 pm)
- RadioAaron
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Re: All This Great Technology and The Sound Is Crap
paterson1 wrote:
And mid morning today "Sarge" is on Bounce may be voice tracked, but sounds live and the quality of his breaks crisp and clean. But the more I listen, he may be live since he is doing more breaks and hitting vocals all over the place and talking about the music.
I haven't listened to the now former KFUN to comment specifically, but don't get fooled by hitting the vocal is equalling live. The automation will now do that for you automatically. If anything, it's easier when tracked.
- paterson1
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Re: All This Great Technology and The Sound Is Crap
And mid morning today "Sarge" is on Bounce may be voice tracked, but sounds live and the quality of his breaks crisp and clean. But the more I listen, he may be live since he is doing more breaks and hitting vocals all over the place and talking about the music.
I haven't listened to the now former KFUN to comment specifically, but don't get fooled by hitting the vocal is equalling live. The automation will now do that for you automatically. If anything, it's easier when tracked.
Well, the automation wasn't doing it for Michelle on Friday, her breaks sounded terrible and the levels were all over the map. I find most voice tracked shows sound very generic with jocks doing the bare minimum number of breaks in the hour. If Sarge was VT mid day today, he nailed it and was totally conversational and natural like he is when live. And his breaks were clear with no distortion. He was doing a lot of segments in the hour and some of his breaks on the long side time wise. This makes me think he was live.
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Thread Starter- Radiowiz
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Re: All This Great Technology and The Sound Is Crap
It used to be that if there is no current temperature mentioned, that's the clue that the shift is Voice tracked. I'm not sure if that's still true today.
RadioWiz & RadioQuiz are NOT the same person.
RadioWiz & THE Wiz are NOT the same person.
- paterson1
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Re: All This Great Technology and The Sound Is Crap
Well, listening to the first 15 minutes of Michelle's show today. The levels are much better, however her 2:15 commercial break was a disaster. Just started her break out of a song for about two seconds and she was cut off by commercials. And then a few seconds later over two of the commercials were two of her VT breaks, talking about a contest. So two makegoods for the advertiser since their commercials were unlistenable with Michelle's track running at the same time.
Hope they work out the bugs quickly, sounds pretty amateur. Technology is only good if it actually works.
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Thread Starter- Big Doug
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Re: All This Great Technology and The Sound Is Crap
This is no doubt because of the pandemic. SO many announcers are still remote tracking their shows from home on sub-par portable equipment. It sounds bad, and it's been happening everywhere for over a year.
- radiokid
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Re: All This Great Technology and The Sound Is Crap
Something to also keep in mind..... Technology is only as good as the person running it. I can tell you from experience things like levels, segue editing, voice tracking with enough care to the content, is very important. A great talent will sound identical live as they are voice tracked. Today you can hear the tracks you are playing, coming out of and going into and able to edit the segue to ensure you hit every single post perfect. Sadly so few care enough when voice tracking to ensure levels are ok (which you can change while voice tracking), hitting missed posts (which you can change while voice tracking) and having content that you would normally do live. I have heard Sarge do voice tracked shows and do live shows... he is a talent who is able to be great on both. It's all about caring about the product. It's also about coaching the talent which so few stations have people to do that anymore.
Last edited by radiokid (May 25, 2021 5:51 pm)
- darcyh
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Re: All This Great Technology and The Sound Is Crap
What's the point in being local if you are voice tracking a drive show?
I always thought the reason this time period was profitable for stations is they have a larger audience in vehicles who listen to stay updated on traffic / time / weather and current issues. Perhaps even interacting with listeners like Freddy Vette on CJBQ AM Belleville.