Wondering about the sound system at Royal Albert Hall. Have a couple of recordings from there. One is a Blueray of David Gilmore and the other one is Joe Bonamassa. Have had the Gilmore recording for a few years. While the music was good the sound was not very good. Pretty much unlistenable distortion for me at mid and high frequencies. Always wondered if it had been recorded with one of the early digital snakes (a snake being the cable that carries mic signals from the stage to the mixing console out in the house).
Just got a copy today of a Joe Bonamassa CD set recorded at Royal Albert Hall. Reason for getting it was I heard music from it in a couple online listening session videos and thought the guitar sounded strangely metallic. Hearing the CD today reminds me of the David Gilmore recording. Don't think I will play the Bonamassa CD more than once. Would like to enjoy the music, but hard to put up with the ugly (to me) distortion.
Anyone else notice this? Is it a feature of Royal Albert Hall recordings over some time period? Just wondering.
Just got a copy today of a Joe Bonamassa CD set recorded at Royal Albert Hall. Reason for getting it was I heard music from it in a couple online listening session videos and thought the guitar sounded strangely metallic. Hearing the CD today reminds me of the David Gilmore recording. Don't think I will play the Bonamassa CD more than once. Would like to enjoy the music, but hard to put up with the ugly (to me) distortion.
Anyone else notice this? Is it a feature of Royal Albert Hall recordings over some time period? Just wondering.
Seems to be an unusual sound system, with "465 permanently installed individual loudspeakers.
Every seat in the house now enjoys equal quality of sound – no matter whether you’re sitting in the Queen’s box,
up in the Gallery, or down in the Arena thanks to circle, gallery and box speakers for the first time."
Hopefully the recordings were not made from those speakers.
https://www.royalalberthall.com/abo...all-unveils-new-record-breaking-audio-system/
Every seat in the house now enjoys equal quality of sound – no matter whether you’re sitting in the Queen’s box,
up in the Gallery, or down in the Arena thanks to circle, gallery and box speakers for the first time."
Hopefully the recordings were not made from those speakers.
https://www.royalalberthall.com/abo...all-unveils-new-record-breaking-audio-system/
I've been to the albert hall a few times as like to partake of a prom or two. I've also seen Joe Bonamassa there and the live sound for that was pretty painful as had been cranked to 12. For classical concerts any re-inforcement they do is non-obtrusive and the live recordings the BBC do are pretty good as they've been practising for quite a long time now!
One thing I have noticed about JB recordings is the early ones are great and the loudness wars started kicking in around 'black coffee' and I've now given up buying his new releases as they are just compressed to oblivion and for me no longer pleasant to listen to. YMMV
One thing I have noticed about JB recordings is the early ones are great and the loudness wars started kicking in around 'black coffee' and I've now given up buying his new releases as they are just compressed to oblivion and for me no longer pleasant to listen to. YMMV
He''s been doing some "acoustic evenings" in the last few years.
Joe Bonamassa's upcoming new live release "Live At Carnegie Hall - An Acoustic Evening"
Joe Bonamassa's upcoming new live release "Live At Carnegie Hall - An Acoustic Evening"
Joe Bonamassa - Drive (Live At Carnegie Hall - YouTube
An Acoustic Evening At The Vienna Opera House - YouTube
From the DRDB list in the link below it's a hit and miss throughout Bonamassa's releases, interestingly vinyls shines through.
https://dr.loudness-war.info/?artist=bonamassa
https://dr.loudness-war.info/?artist=bonamassa
I tend to look at the microphones used, if I don't spot decent brands of large diaphragm capacitor microphones, I already know not to expect much.
I don't think there is anything wrong with the Royal Albert Hall itself.
I don't think there is anything wrong with the Royal Albert Hall itself.
RAH sound system is irrelevant, NO recording comes through them unless you are pirating a show from your seat.
Recording Company will have its own completely independent setup, of course.
Recording Company will have its own completely independent setup, of course.
I had enjoyed an arena show with SRV, where the seats behind the stage were empty, allowing for more of the sound directly from the stage monitors.
Recordings are definitely hit and miss.
Recordings are definitely hit and miss.
I think RAH is one of the best venues for classical music. BBC produces the Proms events, and the recordings are generally spectacular. BBC has been doing recordings here for a long time. Here is a soundonsound article with details. Here is a sample classical program from last year. Bitrate limited to 96k outside UK.
The only current nonclassical program from RAH on BBC radio is this Trevor Nelson show.
I think the bad sound is not due to the venue, but due to poorly executed productions.
The only current nonclassical program from RAH on BBC radio is this Trevor Nelson show.
I think the bad sound is not due to the venue, but due to poorly executed productions.
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Important: if you are outside UK and want to access the full bitrate program, use get_iplayer . Do not use a browser and VPN, because BBC will start blocking your VPN unless you are extremely careful. It's just best to use get_iplayer.
Command line: get_iplayer --cuesheet --tracklist --whitespace --pid=xxxxxxx where xxxxxxx is for example m001ghgf in the Berlin Phil program above.
Change default quality to high: get_iplayer --prefs-add --radio-quality="high"
Command line: get_iplayer --cuesheet --tracklist --whitespace --pid=xxxxxxx where xxxxxxx is for example m001ghgf in the Berlin Phil program above.
Change default quality to high: get_iplayer --prefs-add --radio-quality="high"
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Sometimes they use mic splitters so only one set of mics is on stage. Then it may depend where the splitting is done, say, perhaps before or after a digital snake?
I just dug out my Blu-ray of the Cream's 2005 reunion concert at the RAH. The sound is alright, the playing is... well, aged.
I'm still hating myself for having missed both the London and the New York sessions.
Mic splitting yes, it´s a "practical" measure which does not affect sound; not too sure about use of digital snakes, they are a space/cost saving method, maybe useful for casual recordings, I guess a real "Let´s record an Album" situation must do/use whatever it takes to avoid compromising results.
A 50-100 channel, high quality, high bitrate digital snake must take huge Bandwidth.
A 50-100 channel, high quality, high bitrate digital snake must take huge Bandwidth.