The Use of MP3 Files in the Theatre

[SteveAATW]

Even with technology advancing as it is the biggest limiting factor in the quality of most live sound will probably still be the PA system, there's still a lot of systems out there which sound truly awful. Yes a 128kbps MP3 will probably sound a bit worse, but it would be a minor issue on a lot of systems does HF cut off really matter when you've got some god awful 2" compression driver trying to do everything between 450Hz and 20Khz and doing none of it well?

 

The lossless codecs are good, but with storage advancing as it is the space saved isn't that big a deal everything should be just done in WAV really - it's more portable and versatile than FLAC or Apple Lossless.

[Bobbsy]

Although the HF roll off is the best known effect of bit rate reduction (possibly because it's easy for geeks like me to post a photo of the spectrum on the BR!) it's far from the only artefact. This gets into subjective adjectives I'm afraid, but MP3s, particularly the 128kb variety, sound muddy and lifeless, far more so than the roll off around 16k would account for. Since midrange muddiness is often a problem with less-than-perfect sound systems, adding more of this characteristic to the source material strikes me as not the best thing to do.

 

What strikes me about this topic so far is that, with one or two exceptions, there has been a general acceptance that MP3 (or other forms of BRR audio) are now a norm, the debate being about playback systems etc. However, what nobody has answered is "why?". Storage is so cheap these days, I can't see the reasoning behind choosing a lossy format (I can't speak for Apple lossless being a PC kinda guy) over an uncompressed original. Oh, I can see the advantage if you want something to listen to on the bus to work, but why use the same consumer stuff at work?

 

As I said earlier, on any job I take on, I create specific files (on CD or HDD) for that job rather than ask some software to create a playlist out of gigabytes of extraneous source material. For corporate stuff, I try to judge the music to match the event; for theatre I'm almost always layering lots of different tracks of effects to get the "soundscape" I want.

 

Just call me "luddite".

 

Bob

[mackerr]

For corporate stuff, I try to judge the music to match the event; for theatre I'm almost always layering lots of different tracks of effects to get the "soundscape" I want.

 

Just call me "luddite".

 

Bob

When you're on a corporate event and you discover during walk in that you misjudged the mood and all the CDs you made are inappropriate, wouldn't it be easier to just drag in new stuff to the playlist? Since the client is going to be making requests the whole time anyway, why not be prepared for what ever they want. If that means I have to download a low bitrate cut from an online source, that's what it will be so the client is happy that I can get them what they want right now.

 

On a dramatic theater production that didn't involve too many cues I would probably stick with CD for reasons of budget. It is expensive to rent an SFX system, or even a QLb system, but on a musical where the sound operator is going to be busy I would want the easy operation and back up of SFX or QLab.

 

Mac