Re: [ARSCLIST] Classical Radio, was [ARSCLIST] Mercury co-founder Irving Green passes

[David Lennick <dlennick@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Mike Richter wrote:

> David Lennick wrote:
>
> > Adding fuel to this..last night I was in Rochester NY and heard the most gawdawful sound coming from my radio for twenty minutes. It was a recording of Stravinsky's Firebird Suite, recorded in concert (in the 60s?) by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, it was very badly miked, and WXXI's compressors brought up every single noise from the audience, every cough (the entire first section of the suite was cough city) and shuffle and bang and footstep, and the whole thing sounded as if it was recorded in a high school cafeteria while they were clearing the dishes and stacking the trays. Somebody needs to notify that station that AAD recordings should be closely checked off an
> > air monitor, and if engineering can't modify the problem, they need to prune their library. There's no excuse for this kind of sound.
>
> I'm afraid I'm quite confused. What's the magic property of an AAD
> recording which makes it uniquely susceptible to poor broadcast engineering?
>
> My experience with commercial recordings is limited, but I've seen
> compression of all sorts, clipping of several db and all the other ills
> of poor engineering on DDD ADD and AAD classical recordings. Why would
> the first two be safe from corruption in broadcast?
>
> Mike
> --

They aren't..my (possibly incorrect) assumption is that at least ADD processing might have minimized the tape hiss and background noise. When I did a "collectors' classics" show on CJRT in the 80s and 90s, I had to make an unofficial arrangement with engineering to get them to shut off the limiters immediately before airing my show, or surface noise and crap would have been overwhelming. The particular CD I mentioned may be eminently listenable on most systems but not on a radio station which is aiming to put out a signal as loud as everything else on the dial. A couple of years ago the Buffalo station had similar problems any time it put on a Mercury Living Presence reissue or a
Sony reissue of any old Ormandy recordings. I don't notice this now but I don't know whether they improved their signal or acquired better transferred CDs.

dl