Celebrity X-Factor Sound Quality

[Ynot]

Apart from some apalling singing performances (well, who was surprised with that...?:)) I felt that on at least three of the acts playing tonight the quality of the sound production was TERRIBLE!!

The worst was undoubtedly Capt Hewitt & Rebecca of the Loo - I have no qualms in saying that their performance was in itself dire, which may explain the noise-boy's stance, but it was plain from the start that they were NOT being picked up by their hand-mics. Not sure what WAS picking them up, but it sounded as though twas thirty feet away!

 

The point is, I've said this of other TV shows in the past couple of years, and feel it's a VERY sad reflection on the quality of pre-broadcast monitoring. I'd suspect that the mixing noise boys were on the ball OK, as the clips played near the end had a more balanced sound output (which probably didn't get the act any additional votes!!), so one has to put the blame for this at the feet of the person(s) monitoring the feed to live broadcast.

 

Thoughts anyone???

[tekhieboy]

Your right, I'd guess that the sound you could here was from their tieclips for when they were interviewed post singing, it certainly was not a quality job, although some of the acts were fine.

[Shez]

It was pretty dire at times. I had to turn down the volume three times within the first few minutes as it was sooooo loud & compressed to death...

 

Vocals were mixed pretty low (which may not have been a bad thing in some cases) and yes, there was something very wrong (in more ways than one!) when James & Rebecca came on. I think it was either their lavs picking them up, or the audience mics picking up the sound of them through the PA if the sound op had somehow managed to not route them to the broadcast mix. Cameras went a bit haywire too.

 

It's a shame - a show that should be all about the sound quality really isn't. Perhaps skills in live sound aren't that prevalent in broadcasting as they aren't needed very often.

[Light Console]

Phases such as you can't polish a t**d, and s**t in, s**t out spring to mind, but you are right that the sound was off. I thought I could hear the gallery during the James and Rebecca number.