'Tant pis' indeed....
 

Anybody catch the Mahler just now?

I don't know if my ears are being poisoned by the fullrange speakers I'm
using atm, but the sound off the telly (external amp Sony, Ruark speakers)
was almost unlistenable with the Mahler 1 on tonight's Prom. Are we being
compressed again (digital channel)?

Also the tempo - was it me (I've only got about a dozen different Mahler
1s...) or was it a bit swift/nippy throughout? At 55 minutes duration (which
I saw somewhere - maybe on the website) it certainly isn't *extended* and, I
have to say, it sounded like it was just the one long, hurried movement to
me....

It should have been a good listen, it wasn't - I never have too great
expectations of 'youth orchestras' (especially ones which are a bit thin on
the ground) but this performance pretty soon proved to be a 'mainly visual'
experience....

'Tant pis' indeed....!!

'Tant pis' indeed....
 

"Keith G" wrote in message
...

Anybody catch the Mahler just now?
Viewed (on analog) but didn't record.

I don't know if my ears are being poisoned by the fullrange speakers I'm
using atm, but the sound off the telly (external amp Sony, Ruark speakers)
was almost unlistenable with the Mahler 1 on tonight's Prom. Are we being
compressed again (digital channel)?

Also the tempo - was it me (I've only got about a dozen different Mahler

They had to hurry so as to allow "Coast" to start on time?

We thought the sound was OK, but then we were comparing it with what we
endured last night at Kenwood, where the sound was dire.

--
M Stewart
Milton Keynes, UK
http://www.megalith.freeserve.co.uk/oddimage.htm

'Tant pis' indeed....
 

"Malcolm Stewart" wrote in
message ...
"Keith G" wrote in message
...

Anybody catch the Mahler just now?
Viewed (on analog) but didn't record.

I don't know if my ears are being poisoned by the fullrange speakers I'm
using atm, but the sound off the telly (external amp Sony, Ruark
speakers)
was almost unlistenable with the Mahler 1 on tonight's Prom. Are we being
compressed again (digital channel)?

Also the tempo - was it me (I've only got about a dozen different Mahler

They had to hurry so as to allow "Coast" to start on time?

We thought the sound was OK, but then we were comparing it with what we
endured last night at Kenwood, where the sound was dire.


****-poor sound quality is becoming a modern epidemic....

'Tant pis' indeed....
 

"Keith G" wrote in message
...

"Malcolm Stewart" wrote in
message ...

We thought the sound was OK, but then we were comparing it with what we
endured last night at Kenwood, where the sound was dire.

****-poor sound quality is becoming a modern epidemic....

I wonder if one of my fellow residents, Marshall, in Milton Keynes is
responsible? In a recent local TV review of his company and career, I
remember people being interviewed saying that they liked the "thicker" sound
of his amplifiers. I think that was referring to amplifying electric
guitars, but it now seems to be everywhere as the norm. (Didn't see any
labels at Kenwood so don't know whose gear it was, but it certainly didn't
do anything for the music. Makes the discussions about MP3 versus ATRAC
compression seem somewhat pointless.)
--
M Stewart
Milton Keynes, UK
http://www.megalith.freeserve.co.uk/oddimage.htm

'Tant pis' indeed....
 

In article , Keith G
wrote:

Anybody catch the Mahler just now?

Yes. Via DTTV.

I don't know if my ears are being poisoned by the fullrange speakers I'm
using atm, but the sound off the telly (external amp Sony, Ruark
speakers) was almost unlistenable with the Mahler 1 on tonight's Prom.
Are we being compressed again (digital channel)?

Well, my wife and thought it was the best performance of Mahler we'd ever
heard. :-) I don't usually rate Mahler very highly, but thorougly enjoyed
this. The sound seemed good overall to me, albiet with a fair bit of level
compression as tends to be common on TV.

Also the tempo - was it me (I've only got about a dozen different Mahler
1s...) or was it a bit swift/nippy throughout? At 55 minutes duration
(which I saw somewhere - maybe on the website) it certainly isn't
*extended* and, I have to say, it sounded like it was just the one
long, hurried movement to me....

YMMV. :-) Maybe you like all the performance we dislike. :-)

In general, I find that Mahler tends to 'wander around' and I get bored
listening. Here I was able to follow the 'thread' of the music and the
phrasing/playing seemed to bring out the contrasts neatly without losing
the 'line'. Hence my wife and I sat and stayed involved all the way through
the symphony. TBH I wasn't expecting this, so was pleasantly surprised.

It should have been a good listen, it wasn't - I never have too great
expectations of 'youth orchestras' (especially ones which are a bit thin
on the ground) but this performance pretty soon proved to be a 'mainly
visual' experience....

Quite a different reaction here. Looking forwards to re-enjoying the
recording I made on DVD. Also planning to record the R3 FM rebroadcast onto
CD for comparison purposes.

You say "sound off the telly". FWIW I fed the sound as s/pdif from my DTTV
RX to a meridian dac, and then to the rest of the audio. Experiments show
that the analogue outputs from out TV sound much poorer than this.

Slainte,

Jim

--
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Audio Misc http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/AudioMisc/index.html
Armstrong Audio http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/Audio/armstrong.html
Barbirolli Soc. http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/JBSoc/JBSoc.html

'Tant pis' indeed....
 

In article ,
Keith G wrote:

Anybody catch the Mahler just now?

I don't know if my ears are being poisoned by the fullrange speakers I'm
using atm, but the sound off the telly (external amp Sony, Ruark speakers)
was almost unlistenable with the Mahler 1 on tonight's Prom. Are we being
compressed again (digital channel)?
:

I agree. From a Sony Digibox the BBC 4 sound was just plain distorted -
clearly something wrong. It was especially obvious whenever there was an
enthusiastic thwack on the bass drum; the system audibly ducked, and
never cleaned up even during more even passages.

I wish we could return to the good old simulcast days when you could
substitute R3 sound, but the asynchronism between pictures and sound -
anything from seconds to minutes - now rules that out.

Patrick Wallace
__________________________________________________ ________________________

'Tant pis' indeed....
 

In article , Malcolm Stewart
writes
"Keith G" wrote in message
m...

"Malcolm Stewart" wrote in
message ...

We thought the sound was OK, but then we were comparing it with what we
endured last night at Kenwood, where the sound was dire.

****-poor sound quality is becoming a modern epidemic....

I wonder if one of my fellow residents, Marshall, in Milton Keynes is
responsible? In a recent local TV review of his company and career, I
remember people being interviewed saying that they liked the "thicker" sound
of his amplifiers. I think that was referring to amplifying electric
guitars, but it now seems to be everywhere as the norm. (Didn't see any
labels at Kenwood so don't know whose gear it was, but it certainly didn't
do anything for the music. Makes the discussions about MP3 versus ATRAC
compression seem somewhat pointless.)

Yes but isn't the amp part of the sound of the guitar?....
--
Tony Sayer

'Tant pis' indeed....
 

"tony sayer" wrote in message
...

Yes but isn't the amp part of the sound of the guitar?....
--
Tony Sayer

I guess it is, but it's certainly not normally the sound of a classical
orchestra playing opera excerpts.
I suppose the fabric "tent" behind the orchestra reflects so little of the
orchestra's sound that some amplification is needed.

--
M Stewart
Milton Keynes, UK

'Tant pis' indeed....
 

In article ,
Pat Wallace wrote:
I agree. From a Sony Digibox the BBC 4 sound was just plain distorted -
clearly something wrong. It was especially obvious whenever there was an
enthusiastic thwack on the bass drum; the system audibly ducked, and
never cleaned up even during more even passages.

There was some *very* enthusistic whacking of both tympani and bass drum
on the first half, and no distortion on BBC2 via DTTV. And my STB is
routed through my TV before going to my amp.

As far as I know, BBC4 takes a straight R3 audio feed for the music part
and just adds its own presenters.

By the number of spot mics I'd say BBC2 produced their own balance.

--
*The older you get, the better you realize you were.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

'Tant pis' indeed....
 

"Jim Lesurf" wrote in message
...
In article , Keith G
wrote:

Anybody catch the Mahler just now?

Yes. Via DTTV.

I don't know if my ears are being poisoned by the fullrange speakers I'm
using atm, but the sound off the telly (external amp Sony, Ruark
speakers) was almost unlistenable with the Mahler 1 on tonight's Prom.
Are we being compressed again (digital channel)?

Well, my wife and thought it was the best performance of Mahler we'd ever
heard. :-) I don't usually rate Mahler very highly, but thorougly
enjoyed
this.


OK, that's good - TBH, I thought it might be the worst I'd ever heard, but
it's different strokes for different folks. I'm glad you both enjoyed it. If
nothing else, it was well up to par for for one of DB's typically unsubtle
'musical olive-branch' exercises!


The sound seemed good overall to me, albiet with a fair bit of level
compression as tends to be common on TV.

Also the tempo - was it me (I've only got about a dozen different Mahler
1s...) or was it a bit swift/nippy throughout? At 55 minutes duration
(which I saw somewhere - maybe on the website) it certainly isn't
*extended* and, I have to say, it sounded like it was just the one
long, hurried movement to me....

YMMV. :-) Maybe you like all the performance we dislike. :-)

In general, I find that Mahler tends to 'wander around'


Ging heut morgan ubers feld? :-)


and I get bored
listening. Here I was able to follow the 'thread' of the music and the
phrasing/playing seemed to bring out the contrasts neatly without losing
the 'line'. Hence my wife and I sat and stayed involved all the way
through
the symphony. TBH I wasn't expecting this, so was pleasantly surprised.


Well, I thought it was the 'Eurovision verson' segued into one long
undulating, tune with very limited dynamics (not the band's fault - it, was
so small) and none of the real drama (the anticipation, thunderous
crescendos/ensuing tranquility) of the *real thing*. I know Barenboim's
association with Mahler goes back half a century when, as pianist, he was
connected with names the likes of Furtwangler (no great Mahlerian
asitappens) but he's no Walter or Horenstein 'on the stick'....

You may be interested to know (if you don't already) that your 'own' Barber
Olly* is/was considered one of the most important of *the* Mahlerian
conductors and that his 5th (EMI 5 66910-2) recorded in 1970 (I think) with
the New Philharmonia at Watford Town Hall 'set the standard for decades to
come - both musically and technically' according to the guff in HiFi+...??

Sadly, I wouldn't know - I have not yet come across a copy, but I do have
the absolutely superb 9th he recorded with the BPO in Berlin in January 1963
(CFP 41 4426 3) after which performance he was paid this compliment: "Not
since Furtwangler have we heard such human warmth and soul combined with
such musicianship." Needless to say, as a result of this 'conversation', I'm
now *gagging* to play it again! When I do (it needs a clean first), I will
probably record it to hard disk at the same time...(??? ;-)


It should have been a good listen, it wasn't - I never have too great
expectations of 'youth orchestras' (especially ones which are a bit thin
on the ground) but this performance pretty soon proved to be a 'mainly
visual' experience....

Quite a different reaction here. Looking forwards to re-enjoying the
recording I made on DVD.

Also planning to record the R3 FM rebroadcast onto
CD for comparison purposes.


When is that? - I went for the R3 button when the TV performance was on to
see if I could get a better sound (as you do) but it was summat else
entirely!

Would you like an 'evaluation copy' of my Naxos CD version of the First by
the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra under Michael Halsz? The
recording's a bit weedy but the actual performance is *outstanding* - the
very first few bars clearly demonstrate what little chance any 'youth
orchestra' (however worthy) stands when attempting to reproduce true
'Mahlerian' range and scale!! (An utterly sublime recording - I'm certain
you and your wife would like it!)


You say "sound off the telly". FWIW I fed the sound as s/pdif from my DTTV
RX to a meridian dac, and then to the rest of the audio. Experiments show
that the analogue outputs from out TV sound much poorer than this.


That's probably where it hangs - we only have the iDtV's analogue output
going into an AV amp...


* A snippet on the record sleeve of the 9th I think well worth the effort to
repeat he

"Whilst recording the first movement Sir John was asked by the players to
solve a difficult fingering problem for the 'cellos. Leaving the rostrum and
picking up the first 'cellist's instrument, he played the passage with the
'cello section. The result was a revelation."

(Asked the right bloke there asitappens, but it is still the stuff of
legends...!! :-)