When the BBC did bass...

[No. 8 Wire]

Having a bit of a Thin Lizzy / Gary Moore moment last night on youtube.

This video brought to mind all the complaints we have on here about the beeb not doing bass on live recordings.

Well, they used to know how to do it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9xyWxXyOOg&list=FLpYWcKxDi6vFvWjYQk73bjw

[EBS_freak]

And here was me getting all excited about the return of BigBeefChief

[mikel]

I had a mate, back in the early 70s who was a sound guy for the BBC. He often moaned about the quality of sound reproduction in a normal TV, as the quality of the stuff they were required to produce was pristine, as the job demanded.

[wateroftyne]

I've been doing a bit of archive work for a band that were on telly a fair bit in the 70s, and the broadcast mixes are - without exception - fantastic. Even the lower-budget regional stuff.

[PaulWarning]

the bass is very 'knocky' but at least you can hear it, bass is very unfashionable at the minute,

[BigRedX]

That's because back in the day all the BBC programmes were made by the BBC and used their own in-house trained engineers.

These days nearly everything is made by independent production companies. The BBC no longer does training for the technical jobs and those who did receive BBC training are now in the minority. There is still the excellent Tonmeister course at the University of Surrey, but places are limited and programmes are made to a budget, which means the production companies can't always afford the best technical people. Also decisions on sound are being made by programme producers and others with no real understanding of what is required to deliver the best possible sound to the majority of viewers. Hence the recent spate of complaints about programmes where the dialogue is almost inaudible over the foley sounds and BGM. I'm sure it sounded great in the editing suite, but that's not how the majority of viewers watch the finish programme.

Also in the past very few people used anything other than the TV's in-build (tiny) speaker so programmes had to be mixed to take this into account. Nowadays the assumption seems to be that viewers have fancy surround-sound systems to go with that huge flat-screen TV, when IME that is most definitely not the case and the small speakers on modern screens don't even have the benefit of a large "enclosure" to help them deliver a decent sound.

[Happy Jack]

Having just viewed that clip, it has to be said that the Beeb clearly did NOT do rhythm guitar ...

[No. 8 Wire]

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1491395969' post='3272682']
Having just viewed that clip, it has to be said that the Beeb clearly did NOT do rhythm guitar ...
[/quote]

Maybe Phil decided where the mics went that day.

[Dan Dare]

FM still does bass. DAB loses a lot of the bottom octave due to lousy bandwidth.

[PaulWarning]

[quote name='Dan Dare' timestamp='1491410159' post='3272840']
FM still does bass. DAB loses a lot of the bottom octave due to lousy bandwidth.
[/quote]can't really agree with that, I listen to Gold Radio in the car and the bass cuts through better than any station I listen too

[LITTLEWING]

[quote name='Dan Dare' timestamp='1491410159' post='3272840']
FM still does bass. DAB loses a lot of the bottom octave due to lousy bandwidth.
[/quote]Listen to Radio X on DAB. Nice and bassy!! Damn fine toons too.

[ivansc]

But my LORD that bass is out of tune, or Phil is flubbing a lot.....

[LukeFRC]

the opposite is also true when they have presumed that everyone is using small speakers and they haven't put a HPF or whatever on it and mid programme our sub starts going low rumbley for no reason whatsoever

[skidder652003]

The coolest bass player of all time, Garys got a broken string and cozy on drums, utter classic.

[No. 8 Wire]

[quote name='skidder652003' timestamp='1491546282' post='3273773']
The coolest bass player of all time, Garys got a broken string and cozy on drums, utter classic.
[/quote]

Amazing players. This is probably old news, but I didn't realise this concert was available on youtube. Gary Moore just incredible. This just blows me away.

The best Thin Lizzy cover band ever:

[url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHoxD0y97Bo&t=1084s"]http://www.youtube....D0y97Bo&t=1084s[/url]

[url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wADza29R-M4"]http://www.youtube....h?v=wADza29R-M4[/url]

Edited April 7, 2017 by No. 8 Wire