Nothing idle: sound resources and design

When thinking of sound resources on television I could think no further than Australian Idol. And, since Jo records the Sunday night performances most weeks, I didn't have to plan to be in front her parents' TV set. (We've bad reception in the shed.)

They had an 80s theme for the night and the white suits made that nasty hiss. The sound was further degraded by being recorded on a mono video recorder. A shame as I couldn't hear the full extent of their large group of musicians. It was interesting to hear what they chose to focus on in the single audio channel: vocals, bass and drums. There was usually a lead instrument in the mix too, keyboard or guitar. But none of the strings or wind or the freaking harp.

The sound design of the show was interesting in how effective that seemingly two-note theme track in the background when the presenters were talking kept the pace up. It maintained energy in the show and pushed the aural identity. I quite like songs with this kind of unresolved riff built from snippets that sound like they came from something even cheesier than the enthusiastic sample.

While the theme bubbles along the hosts do a good job of sounding relaxed and in control. James occasionally gets that faltering, emotive tone in his voice but otherwise they play it very cool and professional. The presenters used different microphones than the performers and it made me wonder if the foam covers were needed to stop breathing or just to rest against their chin as they talk.

The attraction of the show is obviously the performances. The singers all seemed to use the same sort of wireless Shure mic. Watching the young vocalists mostly belt through their tunes, I wondered whether someone was manually adjusting their levels. It wasn't like the performers were making a lot of effort to adjust the distance of the microphone. Maybe they just heavily compressed the signal to be fairly forgiving. If that's the case, it might explain why there's nothing subtle in the mix. A mate of mine who works in mastering tells me he's seen commercial radio stations feeding contemporary recordings through six compressers in series for broadcast. I'd expect television does something similar and it must remove most of the dynamics of the performance.

A really striking sound in the show was the stamping on the floorboards in one section. The audience mics gathered a deeper sound than the claps, whistles and cheers you'd anticipate they'd need to capture. It seemed the studio audience were totally hyped for the show and it struck me as being an extremely orchestrated production, from the short burst of cheers to the near silence when the judges were talking. It ran incredibly smoothly for a live broadcast. And, except when some of the performers would respond to the judges and forget to raise their mic, the audio levels were there.