"chesty" voice from radio announcers...

Posted by: ken c on 24 February 2002

break from 552/SL2, etc...

i notice that most radio announcers voices have a rather "chesty" resonance about them. what causes that. i am using a NAT02, but i have heard this on all good tuners i have listened to, and not necessarily in my system only.

serious answers only please... or else i'll send the boys round to sort you out...

enjoy

ken
ken

Posted on: 24 February 2002 by ken c

I don`t possess a tuner at present but I know naim are legendary for them and am wondering will the advent of dab kill analogue tuners?

i have heard rumours that naim may be producing their own dab tuner in future. something to drool about at the next bristol show i guess...

enjoy

ken

Posted on: 24 February 2002 by Paul B

Ken:

I have an 02/52/250-passive SBLs similar to your own system. I have noted the chestiness of male announcers but this is not consistent from day to day even with the same announcer. This may be due to current variations affecting the equipment but more likely a characteristic of the broadcast signal that day.

Paul

Posted on: 24 February 2002 by David Dever

Did a large-diaphragm condenser-mic shootout on Saturday afternoon at a friend's studio. In this type of microphone (often used, natch, for studio voice-overs), the chesty effect you may be referring to may actually be the lack of an exaggerated presence region in the mic itself, and/or the lack of diaphragm "ringing", which tends to add a bit of sparkle on top (keep in mind that FM tuners notch-filter out the pilot tone).

Dave Dever

P.S. The **** cheap mics won hands down, regardless of preamp.

P.P.S. Sorry for the run-on sentence.

Posted on: 25 February 2002 by Noel

Having used lots of different tuners and ended up with a NAT01 I would agree that it's compression, equalisation and filtering that create this sound. The BBC used a lot of kit which lends itself to producing this sound - LS3/5As, LS5/8 etc. The BBC sound was seen as a virtue by many customers - Chesty, slightly full, bit of bloom and recessed treble. It does seem to vary strongly depending on who the engineer is and when the transmission goes out. Radio 3 and 4 still beat the pants off everything. Radio 2 is becomming increasingly interesting too.

Posted on: 25 February 2002 by Greg Beatty

quote:
I think it's because the announcers are speaking close to the mic and it's transmitted directly as opposed to the music that comes from
CD's, MP3, tape or Vinyl.

...aren't CD's, etc. recorded using the same type of (studio) mics?

I think this "chestiness" on radio (and TV???) broadcasts is partly to blame for my ProAc mess - hooking up the tele to the hi-fi lead to lots of daft-sounding vocals that were not there before.

Changing the supports under the cable box (in my case - tuner in your case) can help a bit, but it comes at a price. It is like changing the messenger - because it is the only part of the chain you have control over - when the message is botched. You can clean it up a bit, but other parts of the spectrum may then not sound as natural.

- Greg

Insert Witty Signature Line Here

Posted on: 25 February 2002 by Andrew Randle

Ken,

Do you find that Terry Wogan a good test for bass extension?

Oooh, someone's just knocked on my door.

Andrew

Andrew Randle
Currently in the "Linn Binn"

Posted on: 25 February 2002 by ken c

Do you find that Terry Wogan a good test for bass extension?

ha ha ha, you wont get me falling for that one!!!

enjoy

ken
ps: who was at the door, someone from radio tu??

Posted on: 25 February 2002 by ken c

interestingly, just listening to this lady who does requests in the morning on classic fm (jane jones i think?) and the chestiness in not apparent. so perhaps this chesty character is simply tosterone being transmitted via the air waves??

enjoy

ken