MICROPHONES

New Zealand Listener, Volume 34, Issue 874, 4 May 1956, Page 5

MICROPHONES

Sir,-For the second time in-as many weeks I have listened to recorded programmes by a visiting organist, only to have my pleasure spoiled by atrocious recording. If this was an isolated incident it would not be quite so bad, but in my opinion and that of a number of people with whom. I have discussed this matter, such is not the case, The fact is that many locally produced programmes suffer from a lack of crispness and clarity, the sibilants usually being missing, as can be noticed immediately if one listens and compares BBC rebroadcasts and local announcements; and musical programmes, particularly the National Orchestra, lack the brilliant highs that are heard on the better LPs _ broadcast. During a recent overseas visit I listened to many broadcasts and the comparison on return to New Zealand was most striking. There is no doubt that the Broadcasting Service has fallen far behind current practice, Technically, one can ignore local broadcasts, one is forced to rely on one’s own recordings or those LPs transmitted by the local oC. The fact that recordings sound quite good on the air means, I imagine, that the trouble lies in New Zealand studios or microphones. The halls used in Germany seem no better acoustically than

many local halls, so presumably the microphones are at fault. Let us hope that better ones will be used, even if they have to be imported.

STUDENT

(Wellington).

(1. If, as is to be inferred, the reference is to two programmes recorded by Gerald Knight, the balance of one recording was affected by the unavoidable need to transfer the performance, at short notice, from the church where full recording preparations had been made to another. 2. The microphones used throughout the Service are used as standard high-fidelity equipment throughout the world.-Ed