Terry Edwards
From:
Florida... livin' on spongecake...
|
Posted 18 Nov 2005 5:39 pm |
|
...from Cybergrass.com website:
Oct. 26, 2005:
Nashville - The Country Music Association is taking important steps to ensure that the performances on "The 39th Annual CMA Awards" are music to artists' ears. "Our music is the cornerstone of the CMA Awards and we are taking every step possible to make sure that the sound quality meets our high-level of expectation," said CMA Executive Director Ed Benson. Driving the ambitious agenda of dealing with sound issues in a new venue for a show with more than 20 live performances is award-winning producer James Stroud. Stroud is a member of the CMA Board and on both its Television and Artist Relations Committees.
"We've invited the music producers who make the records to come in during Awards rehearsals to discuss the sounds that were used on the records and the mixes of the records," said Stroud. "We've also invited the artist's team that works with them on the road to work with our Awards show engineers to achieve the monitor balance that the artist prefers when they are performing.
"The other thing we've done is to invite the artist's actual house mixer to talk to the show's engineers about how the band sounds, how the artist likes to set up and be mixed, and all of the things that they normally do on the road."
"CMA is committed to making every effort so the show can sound as good as it possibly can," said Kix Brooks, CMA Board Chairman and host of the 2005 CMA Awards with partner Ronnie Dunn.
Challenges exist. Madison Square Garden is a much larger venue than the Grand Ole Opry House, where the CMA Awards have been held in the past. It is an arena versus a performance hall, so the move will dictate a different approach to sound.
"It's a completely different venue as far as sound goes," said noted audio expert Elliot Scheiner, who serves as CMA Awards Audio Producer. "I've worked in this facility many times. It's a real bear. Whereas the Opry is a smaller, compact room good for both performance and recording, the Garden is huge and much more difficult to deal with. We're committed to doing a great job and I'm confident that we'll be successful."
Scheiner's credits include mixing, engineering and producing for a wide variety of touring and recording artists including Beck, Jimmy Buffett, Eric Clapton, The Eagles, Foo Fighters, Faith Hill, Loggins & Messina, Phish, REM, Renee Fleming and Donald Fagan. In addition to several nominations, Scheiner has won five GRAMMY Awards for his work with Steely Dan.
Orchestrating sound for an event like the CMA Awards is a complex and multi-tiered proposition with two separate but complimentary goals – having the best possible sound in the house for the audience and reaching viewers at home with equally good quality for the live broadcast.
"The Garden does not have a permanent stage so we'll be insulating the underside of the stage that gets put up," added Scheiner. "Aside from that, we're just dealing with a bigger, more live sounding room."
"It's more complicated than it appears, but we have a terrific team of top-notch professionals working on making the sound for the 2005 CMA Awards what the artists have come to expect," Benson said.
"We're going into a place where there has not been a CMA Awards show before," Stroud said. "There is going to be a lot of difference in the size of the room and the people with whom we're working. However, we still have the nucleus of the CMA show that we do here."
"The 39th Annual CMA Awards" airs live Tuesday, Nov. 15 (8:00-11:00 PM/ET) on the CBS Television Network from Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Performers already announced for the 2005 CMA Awards include Dierks Bentley, Big & Rich, Bon Jovi with Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland, CMA hosts Brooks & Dunn, Kenny Chesney, Sara Evans, Faith Hill, Alan Jackson, Alison Krauss + Union Station Featuring Jerry Douglas, Miranda Lambert, Martina McBride, Brad Paisley, Rascal Flatts, Julie Roberts, George Strait, Sugarland, Keith Urban, Gretchen Wilson, Lee Ann Womack, and Willie Nelson and Paul Simon, who will perform and then present CMA Song of the Year.
Stroud is determined that sound quality at the 2005 CMA Awards will be a benchmark for future shows.
"I hope we can learn what the artists want and need and then apply that in a professional way, so that they can walk away from the show saying and feeling that they had the best performance possible," he said. "I want every artist involved in our show this year to look forward to next year."
The CMA Awards are produced by Walter C. Miller and directed by Paul Miller. David Wild will script the ceremonies. MJI Programming, a division of Premiere Radio Networks, is the official radio packager of the CMA Awards, which includes Red Carpet coverage and a stereo-radio simulcast of the gala event. Chevy, an American Revolution, is the official automotive sponsor of the 2005 CMA Awards. American Airlines is the official airline of the 2005 CMA Awards. Additional promotional sponsors include Prilosec OTC, Country Weekly, Creme Savers® Candy and Gibson Guitars. Charles Fazzino is the official artist of the 2005 CMA Awards. |
|
Jason Stillwell
From:
Caddo, OK, USA
|
Posted 21 Nov 2005 10:53 am
|
|
I didn't see the whole show. Maybe my DirecTV mix was messed up, but I couldn't hear any steel on the obviously live tunes. Martina and Alan both had steels I could see but barely hear. However, the ones that sounded too perfect were ones that had a live vocal and a canned backing track, i.e. George Strait, Lee Ann (those were about the only ones I cared anything about hearing). I noticed even AKUS were forced to use canned backing tracks (obviously capable of carrying out the job, but I'm sure TPTB saw the need for time's sake  ). |
|
