AV News 180 - May 2010
Audio Thoughts
T o n y S p ie rs
This letter was sent to Howard Gregory by Tony Spiers from Grays in Essex.
Dear Howard,
I have read with great interest your articles in AV News on improving the
audio side of our Audio Visual sequences.
I have purchased the excellent Marantz PMD 660 recorder (not one I have
seen reviewed in the NEWS - perhaps at £350 it's at the top end) and have
high quality Senheiser tie-clip, radio mikes and rifle mic and some years
experience in how to use them.
However, I find that when I have put sequences into competitions, the
judges - usually Fellows of the RPS and pre-eminent in the AV field - tend to
comment not on the carefully crafted, multilayered, cross-faded, balanced
with voice soundtrack, often with interviews recorded live in the field, telling
a story that has a beginning, a middle and an end, but on the fact that I have
only dissolves and cuts in my visuals!
I should mention that I have been taking photographs for more than 40
years, taught photography for many years and was an ARPS and FRPS
before I allowed my membership to lapse, so my photographs are of
reasonable quality.
It seems that multi-layered pictures, heavily Photoshopped and
manipulated, are much more highly regarded by judges than a multi-layered
audio track .... and if I see another winning sequence consisting of beautiful
pictures of the Lake District, Scotland, Switzerland or the Rockies,
accompanied only by a track of classical music or Enya, I shall scream!
Now for the nub of my letter.
Is it not time that we stopped SAYING at every AV weekend, seminar,
and club meeting that "the Audio is just as important as the pictures",
and started MAKING it so?
Is it not time that a new marking system be introduced in all Audio-Visual
competitions, in which the Audio is allocated 40% of the marks?
I would suggest that no more than 10% of the Audio marks should be
allocated to a music track just copied from a CD, with further marks for an
appropriate voice over, backg