Distracting DJs

[bensteele]

On 03/10/2016 at 7:55 PM, TMD_24 said:

One of them has been a regular for several weeks but it was the other's first time on the power intros, (Can anyone confirm that one of the voiceovers was Holly Meyrick? It sounded like her but I need someone to double check.. )

Any chance you could post / share links to soundbites? 

 

[forde52]

I've had a listen through Friday's shows and it's not Holly Meyrick on the vocals, so it must be someone new!

[TMD_24]

Soundbite for people to hear: (2:07:10 if you want hear the voiceovers)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07vwfns

Get in quick before discount ends.

Also I emailed On The Sly to see if they were behind the jingles, their answer?... Just links to other packages.

[bensteele]

Whoooah, sounding good! 

But again, I'll vent that the use of the naff Scottish voiceovers, alongside newer voices, alongside even older voices, is ugly. Really really needs some consistency. 

I miss Mike W & Holly M (that audio is almost 100% not Holly). Radio 1 sounded its best with them.

[TMD_24]

There still seems to be a mix of V1/V2 NMF voiceovers plus current general voiceovers on the power intros today, a new male voiceover as well today on the 'Freedom' power intro. After feeling unsure of the male voiceover last week, I have now settled into the V2 voiceovers which I have now grown to like! I presume when we get more songs that get the power intro treatment in the future will use the V2 voiceovers and that the V1 VO's will be dropped leaving just the general package and the V2 voiceovers in the future.

Again some songs which got the power intro treatment before got a remake with the V2 voiceovers, although it seemed a bit pointless to revert to the V1 'Twice' power intro despite receiving a V2 treatment last week. I did like how they auto-tuned 'Where It Begins' into the 'King' power intro.

Also I emailed PURE Jingles about the power intros, they actually game me an answer. They claim the power intros might be an in-house production which seems a bit odd considering the BBC are supposed to be 'cost-cutting' and yet they are spending money on this. Still, good job by them on the V2 power intros so far!

[Ant L]

Any fellow nerds fancy a job?

http://careerssearch.bbc.co.uk/jobs/job/Station-Sound-Assistant-Producer-Popular-Music-Hub/18119

Interestingly the description lists 'New Music Friday' as some of the station sound the successful candidate would create, so perhaps these power intros are in-house productions.

[bensteele]

21 hours ago, TMD_24 said:

seems a bit odd considering the BBC are supposed to be 'cost-cutting' and yet they are spending money on this.

Well, not only do you not actually know whether or not this is the case currently, you also don't know Pure Jingle pricing. 

Sometimes it can be cheaper to house a small team to cover the network than to outsource production. 

[bensteele]

4 hours ago, Ant L said:

Any fellow nerds fancy a job?

http://careerssearch.bbc.co.uk/jobs/job/Station-Sound-Assistant-Producer-Popular-Music-Hub/18119

Interestingly the description lists 'New Music Friday' as some of the station sound the successful candidate would create, so perhaps these power intros are in-house productions.

Producing trails, sourcing and paying voice talent, "ensuring sound broadcast is of a high quality" . Seems an interesting job.

[TMD_24]

25 minutes ago, bensteele said:

Well, not only do you not actually know whether or not this is the case currently, you also don't know Pure Jingle pricing. 

Sometimes it can be cheaper to house a small team to cover the network than to outsource production. 

Well considering that PURE Jingles seems to think it's in-house and the job description on the BBC seems to back it up, so it looks like it's more of a in-house move..

I suppose it would be expensive for an outsource production to produce, but at the same I would have thought it would be just as expensive for the BBC to produce a package, although you are probably right about having a smaller team. I suppose that would save costs a bit.

4 hours ago, Ant L said:

Interestingly the description lists 'New Music Friday' as some of the station sound the successful candidate would create, so perhaps these power intros are in-house productions.

It also mentions 'Dance Anthems With Greg James'. Is that getting new imaging as well or am I looking too much into it? I would have also thought that if Greg's DA's shows would get new imaging I would have thought Danny Howard's show would get them as well?

[forde52]

1 hour ago, TMD_24 said:

It also mentions 'Dance Anthems With Greg James'. Is that getting new imaging as well or am I looking too much into it? 

Greg James' Dance Anthems show is actually pre mixed by station sound/music teams and split into sections a few songs long which give Greg (or Dev when he's in) spaces to talk, so i would assume it's probably making those pre mixes!

[forde52]

And I would love to apply for that role, it's a shame my job currently would prevent me from applying for it... Oh well!

[bensteele]

4 hours ago, forde52 said:

And I would love to apply for that role, it's a shame my job currently would prevent me from applying for it... Oh well!

Oooh, someone's doing well!

What are you upto?

[matthewm192]

On 10/8/2016 at 11:24 AM, Ant L said:

Any fellow nerds fancy a job?

http://careerssearch.bbc.co.uk/jobs/job/Station-Sound-Assistant-Producer-Popular-Music-Hub/18119

Interestingly the description lists 'New Music Friday' as some of the station sound the successful candidate would create, so perhaps these power intros are in-house productions.

I'm guessing this means Matthew Fisher (the guy behind stuff like the Big Weekend Mashup) is now leaving? Or if it's assistant is it a new role?

[bensteele]

1 hour ago, matthewm192 said:

I'm guessing this means Matthew Fisher (the guy behind stuff like the Big Weekend Mashup) is now leaving? 

Nothing to suggest that on his LinkedIn or Twitter. But I wouldn't rule it out. Perhaps they're expanding the team, someone could email to enquire I suppose!

[forde52]

On 10/8/2016 at 10:07 PM, bensteele said:

Oooh, someone's doing well!

What are you upto?

Not that great to be fair, I'm an Electrician but soon to be promoted to Test Engineer... yay!

[TMD_24]

Has anyone noticed the fact that some of the new/redone power intros are debuted on a weekend rather than a Friday, Last saturday I heard a redone power intro of Ex's & Oh's which I never heard on any of the Friday's. It seems odd that they are debuting these on a weekend when normally Friday is the first place to hear these.

[Ant L]

It all just seems rather random. I have noticed a lot of missed opportunities to use the intros lately.

[TMD_24]

Agree, I'm starting to get fed up of them bashing some of the power intros for weeks. Take 'Fade' for example, they have included that song in the TOTH/BOTH power intro treatment so much now, it seems like an overkill. Surely you would look at other songs on the playlist to get the power intro treatment rather than having the likes of Fade, Ain't Giving Up, A Head Full Of Dreams, My Way, & The Greatest constantly taking over the TOTH/BOTH.

Looking at the current playlist, I haven't heard any power intros done done for Chase & Status, Crystal Fighters, Giggs, GoldLink, James TW, James Arthur, Sampha, Sean Paul, Shawn Mendes, Sundara Karma, Tom Odell & Usher. Surely some of these would get a power intros considering some of the above have been on the playlist for a while, but no they waste the chance by using the above on repeat.

Hopefully though this Friday we will have a themed power intro day as it's the Teen Awards this Sunday, could be a great chance for old songs to get a power intro treatment.

[Ryan Pannell]

The intros are still very mixed and we have 3 different types being used:

• The 2014 sets, sometimes with the name of the DJ on air.
• The sets introduced earlier this year for NMF with Mike Wooller (which as each month passes I am liking more...dammit, I knew I would )
• The set with the awful plain voices introduced within the last few weeks.

Can someone please grab Ben Cooper firmly and instruct him to put a simple, clear branding in place? Up until April we did, until New Music Friday came along and ruined it. Then that branding has tried to edge itself into every weekend!

Yes, I've had enough of this 3-way branding direction. It's not professional. 

[TMD_24]

Speaking of voiceovers, one of the V2 NMF has crept into Cel Spellman's new shows, which are 'R1's Best New Pop' and 'R1's Most Played.'

It will be interesting how they treat the different set of voiceovers in the future, I bet the V1 NMF voiceovers will eventually be the main station package with the V2 NMF becoming the main NMF voiceovers (They sort are already) and the current general voiceovers kissing goodbye to R1 completely.

[bensteele]

On 30/10/2016 at 9:02 PM, Ryan Pannell said:

Can someone please grab Ben Cooper firmly and instruct him to put a simple, clear branding in place?

Agreed with most of what you said, but Ben Cooper isn't on station sound and doesn't have much input on jingles and audio branding. 

Whoever does should be ashamed. The 1tros era was best. 

Starting to really, really miss Moyles, actually.

[Ryan Pannell]

True, but being at the top, surely Ben Cooper gets a say on the audio and branding. I didn't realise until recently someone has to push a button for every single jingle. Kinda makes sense though, autocue could easy trigger the wrong one. But they're sitting there in front of a whole selection, and they choose the newer ones. Grr.

Also, every time I hear these I can't help but sometimes think Radio 1 are fiddling with artists music by incorporating power intros into the start of their songs. Are they actually allowed to do that? I'm sure every artist hasn't given them permission. I could be wrong here and it's all above board and legal, but sometimes the mind wonders. Dont Let Me Down by Chainsmokers is a good example.

[matthewm192]

18 hours ago, Ryan Pannell said:

I didn't realise until recently someone has to push a button for every single jingle. Kinda makes sense though, autocue could easy trigger the wrong one. But they're sitting there in front of a whole selection, and they choose the newer ones. Grr.

My understanding (from what I've seen on live streams/Greg's Snapchat/various Instagram) is that everything is cued up into a computer program that lines everything up on the relevant channels and then buttons are pressed - so it's not like Scott's doing his show, it comes to 2 o'clock and he's playing a song and thinks "oh yeah, better pick a TOH'"  - basically all audio output is lined up with timings before it goes to air (and that's how you get the Newsbeat bed to start exactly at the end of the last song before the news). 

I think the last person to do it 'the old fashioned way' was Moyles, who would have every individual sound played with no automation. DJs also have the option of the cartwall screen if they want something not in the program line up.

[OohErr]

Is that right? Surely if that was the case most of the shows would sound uniform, but they don't. E.g Clara tends not to play TOHs and only plays IDs, Scott plays a range of TOHs, Matt plays the BOHs with his name on them, Dev doesn't play his own name idents - only the generic R1 ones, Greg tends not to play any at all, etc etc. It sounds like each DJ does choose, and they all have their own preferences.

Also, as far as I'm aware it's up to the DJ to start the news ramp at 29:48 - it doesn't get played automatically. That's why on occasion you get a large gap between the jingle ending and the newsreader starting, or the newsreader crashing the jingle.

Although I think when they do the three-song segues where the songs are cut down to two minutes with the branded intros, those are all pre-mixed to sound tight af.

[matthewm192]

Is that right? Surely if that was the case most of the shows would sound uniform, but they don't. E.g Clara tends not to play TOHs and only plays IDs, Scott plays a range of TOHs, Matt plays the BOHs with his name on them, Dev doesn't play his own name idents - only the generic R1 ones, Greg tends not to play any at all, etc etc. It sounds like each DJ does choose, and they all have their own preferences.
Also, as far as I'm aware it's up to the DJ to start the news ramp at 29:48 - it doesn't get played automatically. That's why on occasion you get a large gap between the jingle ending and the newsreader starting, or the newsreader crashing the jingle.
Although I think when they do the three-song segues where the songs are cut down to two minutes with the branded intros, those are all pre-mixed to sound tight af.

I'm not saying anything is played 100% automatically - I'm saying the system sets up everything they are gonna use in the show so they don't have to search for it in the database, and gives timings in accordance. It also has the ability to count down on talk buckets/ramps to the vocal line. If you look in the picture you can see on the top right Scott's set up for the day, with timings and idents all logged in to the system.

I would assume the variation would be based on the producer/DJ, whoever sets up the order (the music order will be given by the Music Team). The fact that each DJ tends to have consistently the same set up would suggest this, so that whenever they go to make a new show they just change the music order and keep the idents (for example Greg ALWAYS plays the same ident out of the 1630 news, and always version 2 of that ident out of the 1700 news)

Saying this, the mistakes don't make sense. Like when Greg ends up playing the 10 Minute Takeover jingle instead of an ident. I suppose the answer to that would be that unless some kind of scrolling goes on the channel stays the same as it was previously, so the previous jingle would restart rather than the next one in line.

PS so glad I'm not the only one that knows that Newsbeat bed goes at 29:48 I HATE it when DJs (most often Clara) do it at like 29:46 and the DJ is just sitting there twiddling his thumbs till the top of the hour - how hard is it to press a button at the right time eh?


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