Last of the Summer Wine sound

I watched the final series, but I found the studio laughter amazingly
intrusive. I actually missed several jokes because people were still
laughing at the previous one. Eventually I put the subtitles on, and
that solved it. But why should I have to do that?

Last night I watched a repeat of an earlier episode (8:00, BBC4) with
Compo etc. I particularly noticed that the sound of the studio audience
didn't affect the dialogue. It seemed as though the laughter track had
been delayed for 1-2 seconds to prevent it overriding the dialogue track.

Is this possible/likely? If Yes, then why don't they do it today? Does
nobody in charge look/listen to the tape before it's broadcast? Or don't
they care any more?

Hugh

--

Hugh Newbury

www.evershot-weather.org

On Mon, 06 Sep 2010 08:31:50 +0100, Hugh Newbury
wrote:

Is this possible/likely? If Yes, then why don't they do it today? Does
nobody in charge look/listen to the tape before it's broadcast? Or don't
they care any more?

With nobody looking after the technical quality of programmes any more
you could say that they don't care.

--
Alan White
Mozilla Firefox and Forte Agent.
Twenty-eight miles NW of Glasgow, overlooking Lochs Long and Goil in Argyll, Scotland.
Webcam and weather:- http://windycroft.co.uk/weather

"Hugh Newbury" wrote in message
...
I watched the final series, but I found the studio laughter amazingly
intrusive. I actually missed several jokes because people were still
laughing at the previous one. Eventually I put the subtitles on, and that
solved it. But why should I have to do that?

Last night I watched a repeat of an earlier episode (8:00, BBC4) with
Compo etc. I particularly noticed that the sound of the studio audience
didn't affect the dialogue. It seemed as though the laughter track had
been delayed for 1-2 seconds to prevent it overriding the dialogue track.

Is this possible/likely? If Yes, then why don't they do it today? Does
nobody in charge look/listen to the tape before it's broadcast? Or don't
they care any more?

Hugh

--

Hugh Newbury

www.evershot-weather.org

Hi Hugh.

Each episode is shown to an audience and it's their laughter that goes onto
the soundtrack. I guess the editor / mixer adds the laughter where / when
/as they feel is appropriate.




--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: ---

On 06/09/10 09:31, No spam please wrote:

....


Each episode is shown to an audience and it's their laughter that goes onto
the soundtrack. I guess the editor / mixer adds the laughter where / when
/as they feel is appropriate.

I think that's what I object to, some technician adding the audience
sound and not noticing that it often drowns out the dialogue. It used
not to be like this.

Hugh

--

Hugh Newbury

www.evershot-weather.org

Hugh Newbury wrote:

On 06/09/10 09:31, No spam please wrote:

Each episode is shown to an audience and it's their laughter that goes
onto
the soundtrack. I guess the editor / mixer adds the laughter where / when
/as they feel is appropriate.

I think that's what I object to, some technician adding the audience
sound and not noticing that it often drowns out the dialogue. It used
not to be like this.

If they take the time to screen it to a real audience instead of using
an off-the-shelf laugh track, why fiddle with the real laughter at all?

In article ,
No spam please wrote:
Each episode is shown to an audience and it's their laughter that goes
onto the soundtrack. I guess the editor / mixer adds the laughter where
/ when /as they feel is appropriate.

Plus added 'canned' laughter where the director feels the real audience
didn't react enough. Ie damn near everywhere.

On a real performance in front of an audience, the actors would pause
after a big laugh to make sure they weren't drowned out. That timing is
why you still have sit-coms with a real audience. Of course not possible
with this prog as it's made on location.

--
*If you think this van is dirty, you should try having sex with the driver*

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

In message , Hugh Newbury
writes
I watched the final series, but I found the studio laughter amazingly
intrusive. I actually missed several jokes because people were still
laughing at the previous one. Eventually I put the subtitles on, and
that solved it. But why should I have to do that?

Last night I watched a repeat of an earlier episode (8:00, BBC4) with
Compo etc. I particularly noticed that the sound of the studio audience
didn't affect the dialogue. It seemed as though the laughter track had
been delayed for 1-2 seconds to prevent it overriding the dialogue track.

Is this possible/likely? If Yes, then why don't they do it today? Does
nobody in charge look/listen to the tape before it's broadcast? Or
don't they care any more?

I'm pretty sure that, on most of the comedy programmes on both TV and
radio, almost all of the laughter, is 'canned'. The result is often
howls of sustained manic laughter at the end of almost every sentence -
even if nothing remotely funny has been said.

I suspect that they have even added more to some of the old archive
material. I recall watching an old episode of Dad's Army, and the
laughter was so artificial, I simply couldn't stand it any more, and had
to switch it off.
--
Ian

In article ,
Ian Jackson wrote:
In message , Hugh Newbury
writes
I watched the final series, but I found the studio laughter amazingly
intrusive. I actually missed several jokes because people were still
laughing at the previous one. Eventually I put the subtitles on, and
that solved it. But why should I have to do that?

Last night I watched a repeat of an earlier episode (8:00, BBC4) with
Compo etc. I particularly noticed that the sound of the studio audience
didn't affect the dialogue. It seemed as though the laughter track had
been delayed for 1-2 seconds to prevent it overriding the dialogue track.

Is this possible/likely? If Yes, then why don't they do it today? Does
nobody in charge look/listen to the tape before it's broadcast? Or
don't they care any more?

I'm pretty sure that, on most of the comedy programmes on both TV and
radio, almost all of the laughter, is 'canned'. The result is often
howls of sustained manic laughter at the end of almost every sentence -
even if nothing remotely funny has been said.

I suspect that they have even added more to some of the old archive
material. I recall watching an old episode of Dad's Army, and the
laughter was so artificial, I simply couldn't stand it any more, and had
to switch it off.

while it may be different now, at that time ALL the laughter came from a
studio audience. That was BBC practice. However, I do remember being told
by one sound operator that one regular member of the audience sounded soo
artificial, they had problems keeping his sound to a minimum. In our
amateur theatre we used to have one member whose laughter was enough to
stop those in neighbouring seats hear what was hapening on stage.

--
From KT24

Using a RISC OS computer running v5.16

On 06/09/10 11:02, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

....

On a real performance in front of an audience, the actors would pause
after a big laugh to make sure they weren't drowned out. That timing is
why you still have sit-coms with a real audience. Of course not possible
with this prog as it's made on location.

Exactly so. That's why they should take more trouble with the
superimposed audience track.

Hugh

--

Hugh Newbury

www.evershot-weather.org

In article ,
charles wrote:
I suspect that they have even added more to some of the old archive
material. I recall watching an old episode of Dad's Army, and the
laughter was so artificial, I simply couldn't stand it any more, and
had to switch it off.

while it may be different now, at that time ALL the laughter came from a
studio audience. That was BBC practice. However, I do remember being
told by one sound operator that one regular member of the audience
sounded soo artificial, they had problems keeping his sound to a
minimum. In our amateur theatre we used to have one member whose
laughter was enough to stop those in neighbouring seats hear what was
hapening on stage.

It's been the practice at the BBC to 'sweeten' audience reaction on pretty
well every show since it's been possible. So roughly from the introduction
of the 'Sypher' dubbing system in the early '70s. And for a while before.
Of course the BBC deny it in the same way as Clinton said 'I did not have
sex with that woman'

Very few shows have dubbed laughter added from cold. Most have laughter
added to the existing studio audience reaction. The excuse being the
audience didn't laugh again because of a re-take. Or whatever.

It's easy to make a real studio audience sound 'canned' by vicious use of
the audience fader. LWT were masters at this art. ;-)

--
*Ever stop to think and forget to start again?

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