Question about the sound of voices in reality TV shows

[swehner]

I don't watch reality TV shows often but when I stumble into one, I find the sound of the voices really annoying.

 

I don't know what it is. Something sounds wrong, and off, in a strange way that I cannot describe.

 

I'm not asking about the music or special sounds that may be used in such shows, I'm asking about the way people's voices sound.

 

Examples:

 

• RuPaul's Drag Race
• Great Canadian Baking Show

 

Both of these are recorded in the studio. The production crew is not struggling with the outdoors and doesn't have to chase after contestants
running away as in other reality shows. As far as I can tell they are in good control of the recording environment.

 

They do sound annoying in the same way to me.

 

Sometimes I think it may be that the voices are rerecorded, and replaced, so that they are not matched up with the situation as it can be seen,
or are out of synch with the person's natural movement. Is that possible?

 

Or: are they using microphones that capture too much of the sound, so that it doesn't actually sound right?

 

Or: do they apply dynamic range compression in order to make it sound more striking and attention grabbing, but introducing distortions that throw me off?

 

[thenannymoh]

Interesting re Great Canadian Baking Show...in the tent, I can understand what the range of challenges may be, but the interview singles are really odd.  At first I thought it was a post issue, but upon listening to it again I wonder what boom mic was used for those pieces.

 

Year after year, I am gobsmacked by the audio quality on the The Great British Bake-off, some of the best audio work of all the reality shows that I watch...I always figured that if I were to spend $ on a purely educational trip, I'd want to watch whoever does the GBBO.

[TVPostSound]

"ADR" on a reality show mostly consists of off camera host intros.

 

On 4/5/2019 at 8:07 AM, swehner said:

I don't watch reality TV shows often but when I stumble into one, I find the sound of the voices really annoying.

 

I don't know what it is. Something sounds wrong, and off, in a strange way that I cannot describe.

 

I'm not asking about the music or special sounds that may be used in such shows, I'm asking about the way people's voices sound.

 

Examples:

 

• RuPaul's Drag Race
• Great Canadian Baking Show

 

Both of these are recorded in the studio. The production crew is not struggling with the outdoors and doesn't have to chase after contestants
running away as in other reality shows. As far as I can tell they are in good control of the recording environment.

 

They do sound annoying in the same way to me.

 

Sometimes I think it may be that the voices are rerecorded, and replaced, so that they are not matched up with the situation as it can be seen,
or are out of synch with the person's natural movement. Is that possible?

 

Or: are they using microphones that capture too much of the sound, so that it doesn't actually sound right?

 

Or: do they apply dynamic range compression in order to make it sound more striking and attention grabbing, but introducing distortions that throw me off?

 

The result of lowest bidder production mixers!!

And of course, non union.

[swehner]

Thanks for the answers, everyone, especially since my question was a bit vague!