What is wrong with the sound on Conan's Tonight Show?

[willerichey]

hahaha shows you how much of an audio nerd i am.... I think these pics look better than what is shown on TV every night! It looks like one hell of a production and crew! Kudos for all of your hard work on the set Lovekrafty. Its a beautiful set and you can tell you guys did some amazing work in such a short period of time!!!!!!!!!!!

I can understand that in the rush of the show's productions there is going to be some bugs. I believe one of Late Night's main attractions is the showcase of musical talent. For awhile there Conan was introducing alot of new talent on Late Night. Conan (or his staff) booked alot of great acts that I probably would never have heard of if not for the show.

I guess my nostaliga and uncomfortabilty with change may lead to my overall disatisfaction with the new show. It's not only the sound, but some of the content just doesnt keep me interested and I was a big fan of the Late Night show. I think part of the appeal was the low budget antics like Racoon with a jet pack and dog with long legs.

I am 32 but feel like I am too young to not be hip to the Conan type of comedy and too old to appreciate anything but the Roots on Jimmy Fallon's show. The Tonight Show is getting better, it just feels like Conan is trying a little too hard to bridge the age demographics.

[willerichey]

Originally Posted by Topgear

I've only watched the first few shows, but I noticed that Max's snare would just get completely lost in the mix. It wasn't a case of "lack of punch", it's as though the whole mix is massively overcompressed/limited, and the frequencies are fighting each other on top of that.

These guys used to sound like the best band on tv.

I have totally made the same observation on Max's snare. It's a shame because he really rides that thing on fills too.

I do appreciate the snare sound of Questlove on the Late Night intro though.

[hank alrich]

Originally Posted by RKrizman

The content.

-R

S'what ya git fer watchin'! Go play piano! <g>

"Blow up yer TV" : John Prine

[lovekrafty]

Yup that's Lian, she is very cool,great fun to work with ,I'm the guy in the Pink Floyd T-shirt.

[lovekrafty]

Originally Posted by willerichey

hahaha shows you how much of an audio nerd i am.... I think these pics look better than what is shown on TV every night! It looks like one hell of a production and crew! Kudos for all of your hard work on the set Lovekrafty. Its a beautiful set and you can tell you guys did some amazing work in such a short period of time!!!!!!!!!!!

I can understand that in the rush of the show's productions there is going to be some bugs. I believe one of Late Night's main attractions is the showcase of musical talent. For awhile there Conan was introducing alot of new talent on Late Night. Conan (or his staff) booked alot of great acts that I probably would never have heard of if not for the show.

I guess my nostaliga and uncomfortabilty with change may lead to my overall disatisfaction with the new show. It's not only the sound, but some of the content just doesnt keep me interested and I was a big fan of the Late Night show. I think part of the appeal was the low budget antics like Racoon with a jet pack and dog with long legs.

I am 32 but feel like I am too young to not be hip to the Conan type of comedy and too old to appreciate anything but the Roots on Jimmy Fallon's show. The Tonight Show is getting better, it just feels like Conan is trying a little too hard to bridge the age demographics.

I actually had the chance to see the show live a few weeks ago
was cool to see it in action, I think in some respect Conan now has to stick with more of a formula to the show , gives him less flexibility.
All the guests are doing PR for some movie etc.

The thing I don't understand.... the music sounded great live both
the MWB and Peter Yorn sounded great ... Saw the show on TV later that night ( it's actually taped in the afternoon ) and was not impressed with the mix.

Was funny one day guess what showed up on the loading dock..........
A Carbon Frozen masturbating bear, was pretty surreal.


Cheers
LK

[wesarvin]

Originally Posted by lovekrafty

FYI, I've got lot's of pictures of the build out, including the audio production rooms if anyone is interested.

Please! Thanks for chiming in. It's great to get things straight from the horse's mouth.

Edit* forgot to scroll. Whoops.

[willerichey]

Originally Posted by lovekrafty

Was funny one day guess what showed up on the loading dock..........
A Carbon Frozen masturbating bear, was pretty surreal.


Cheers
LK

Now that would be an an awesome site!

[eligit]

the sound of the music is simply horrible on that show. it is a bummer...MWB7 is a killer band.

it is just muddy as all get out. i was listening for jimmy on guitar....you could barely make it out at all in the washy muck.

how hard is it to close mic, cut some lows and pan? i suppose horns can present some issues in that setting. either way....it does not sound professional at all...they really need to work on it.

however even considering the sub par sound and the somewhat compromised conan....it is so much better than leno ever was....it is a net positive.

however as noted above....joel goddard was the man....unfortunately he is too creepy with his penchant for leather bondage gear and young male escorts for mainstream american audiences...or at least that's what i guess they were thinking. andy is ok i guess....but joel was way better.

[lovekrafty]

Originally Posted by willerichey

Now that would be an an awesome site!

Here ya go

[BB Edwards]

These pics are great, thanks for sharing. I got to see a show last month. The studio is gorgeous! And I'll agree the mix was good in the room, and the system sounded nice-but MAN was it loud! (and I do FOH for loud rock/metal acts regularly)

But yeah I have to say the broadcast mix is just awful. Every musical guest I've seen on the show has sounded pretty bad. It's a real shame, esp. because all the other production elements are done so well. I decided to search for a thread on this topic after I watched Daughtry perform tonight. Snare drum smashed to hell. Guitars were tiny and all fuzz. Vocals too loud. Will someone show this guy the pan knob??? It was shockingly bad. I hope they get it figured out soon because it is really ruining the show for me. They need to get a guy on the job who is a MUSIC mixer!

[Sounds Great]

Originally Posted by BB Edwards

They need to get a guy on the job who is a MUSIC mixer!

Yes, and they are SO hard to find. Especially in Los Angeles.

[Batchainpuller78]

Originally Posted by Stevil

"Later... with Jools Holland" has had some disappointing sound problems as well. Typically volume drops like someone has a mix bus compressor set too aggressively.
Really distracts from some otherwise spectacular performances & recordings.

also many terrible performances, best thing I saw on Later with Jools was a bunch of old guys playing acoustic music and singing together, some country bluegrass stuff.
It sounded absolutely amazing, probably because of the acoustic instruments and that these guys were able to perform, all electric rock/pop bands paled in comparison and where baffled as well when they heard these guys play.
They sat there going, wow this is really good, the guys got the loudest applause from the audience AND the other musicians waiting to perform.

[kittonian]

One of my friends is the mix engineer for both the MW7 and the bands that perform. He mixes it all in 5.1 and it sounds great in his room, however it then goes to someone else who does the stereo fold down and then it gets sent to NYC where they master it and limit the hell out of it. Some days it sounds great and others, especially lately, it isn't sounding good at all.

There's a lot of cooks in the kitchen with regards to the sound on the show and I think that's been leading to a lot of the issues thus far.

[eligit]

actually....i noticed that band with the girl singer who covered the heart song barracuda sounded pretty good....or was that just me?

[lovekrafty]

Originally Posted by kittonian

One of my friends is the mix engineer for both the MW7 and the bands that perform. He mixes it all in 5.1 and it sounds great in his room, however it then goes to someone else who does the stereo fold down and then it gets sent to NYC where they master it and limit the hell out of it. Some days it sounds great and others, especially lately, it isn't sounding good at all.

There's a lot of cooks in the kitchen with regards to the sound on the show and I think that's been leading to a lot of the issues thus far.

Also the Music Mix room is not the best as far as room design
which is usually the case in broadcast facilities.

First off it was too small , especially for the speakers chosen
No bass trap's just 703 panels 3 feet , up to the ceilings
Ceiling tiles , and a row of metal racks to the right of the room.
on the left side is a support column boxed in sheetrock
sticks out about 2 feet.

Factor all that in , plus stereo fold down , then " Mastering "
Probably some funky stuff going down in the low end .

Cheers
LK

[BB Edwards]

Originally Posted by kittonian

There's a lot of cooks in the kitchen with regards to the sound on the show and I think that's been leading to a lot of the issues thus far.

Thanks for clearing that up, that makes sense. I'm curious now-Can anyone tell a difference between the broadcast 5.1 mixes and the stereo mixes? (I don't have a 5.1 system )

[danika]

Originally Posted by lovekrafty

Don't think so , other than the Exec Producer it's a whole new crew.

Does the new audio crew happen to be Jay Leno's old crew? Maybe they're just trying to sabotage things for Conan so Leno can return to his rightful time slot.

[lovekrafty]

Originally Posted by danika

Does the new audio crew happen to be Jay Leno's old crew? Maybe the're just trying to sabotage things for Conan so Leno can return to his rightful time slot.

Nope, the new employee's were picked before Jay's tonight show went off air
The Audio production engineer ( not music mix ) is freelance he also
works for the Ellen TV show

[paultools]

NOW THOSE ARE SOME SLUTTY PIX!!!!!!!

[Quint]

Kick ass. The Masterbating bear image is the new background on my computer.

[gvonbaren]

Well at least it's better than the SNL mixes Frighteningly inconsistent!
Yeah I miss the NY studio sound.... Hopefully they will work out the kinks.

[symplectiq]

Has anyone seen the december 10th show? With 30 Seconds To Mars. I've heard some nasty pitch shifting like a vinyl scratch effect on them singing thoughtout the whole song accuring randomly. First I thought that Jared's voice is falling apart. Then these effects just kept jumping in. And it was all good before the finnishing music act. I'm just wondering if that was my tivo or some anti-piracy trick or something else like what this thread discussed, shitty mixing crew.