The Super Bowl was in San Diego, she’s from San Diego, so they thought oh, we’ll get a local. She got so nervous because she was a kid and she’d just been nominated for a Grammy. The big notorious one that I play for everybody was my very first Super Bowl in 1998. We always record a protection track for the halftime lead singer and for the national anthem. So it would be embarrassing if you had a close up of him and it didn’t match.īut do they all pre-record the vocals just in case? But some, like Bruce Springsteen, he changes the way he sings it each time he sings it. Madonna is spot on, probably because she’s been doing it for so long. Some people just aren’t good lip-syncers and some are. With Springsteen the sax was live, the guitar was live. Most of the solos, like all of Prince, his guitar playing was all live. Katy Perry, same thing, but even some of her vocals, the really difficult parts when she was flying, she got really nervous so she pre-recorded and we switched to that.Īh, so you gauge on the fly when someone needs a little support. But Madonna, for example, was just live vocal, and everything else was tracked. So we still had to push their stage out in six minutes, and then also connect it all up with actual drum mics, guitar mics, keyboard inputs, the whole thing. They refused to do any backing tracks so that was all live. The Rolling Stones was an exception in Detroit. Background vocals are always pre-recorded. I heard that the performers lip-sync during the halftime show. So, we use any part of the PA system that’s already in there and we have to work with their engineers that work in-house and create a way for me to take control of all their speakers with a push of a button for the pre-game, which is the national anthem, and the halftime show, and then, of course, it goes back to their control for the game itself, the referees, announcements, all that. So we have to accommodate 25 announcers broadcasting in Japanese and Russian and German and so on.
#How to use reverb system audio hijack tv#
a regular game, there are two TV trucks for the two broadcasters they invited. Then we’ll make two more trips out there and say, “How do we get wires?” We’ll drill big holes in the concrete floors and run cable trays where we need them for the Super Bowl, which isn’t like a regular game. That’s how much time you get to build the entire show on the field. From the end of the first half of a football game to the beginning of the halftime show is between six and seven minutes. We have to put the whole show on the field in six minutes. We figure out inside the stadium where we’re going to ultimately put amplifier racks where we can store the speaker carts. Where are we going to put broadcast trucks? Where are we going to put the audio compound where we build all the speakers? And we have to have trailers that are offices.
![how to use reverb system audio hijack how to use reverb system audio hijack](https://www.applegazette.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/audio-hijack-sweeten-5-1.png)
We make our first site survey in June take a look at the big picture of the space. That starts in June for a Super Bowl in February. The first is the site itself, the nuts and bolts. The Verge: How does the planning process begin with the Super Bowl halftime show?īaltzell: There are two sides to that.
#How to use reverb system audio hijack how to#
Baltzell talks with The Verge to give an insider’s look at how to make sure everything is heard without a hitch during one of the country’s most-anticipated broadcasts. And, while everyone will be cheering on the players, the halftime performer, and the person who sings the national anthem, we often forget there is someone, unseen, who has spent months making sure you can hear every word and note. One hundred-eighty countries will be watching this Sunday’s Super Bowl 52 between the Eagles and the Patriots. But Baltzell was not only in charge of the audio for the past 19 Super Bowls (excluding this year’s) - he also currently designs and mixes sound for the Grammys, Oscars, and presidential inaugurations. It’s likely everyone in this room has no idea who he is. Though I instantly recognize his signature thin frame and curls of white hair, no one looks as Baltzell stands to greet me with unbridled enthusiasm. He’s sitting alone in the convention halls of NAMM, a trade show for the music making industry. Patrick Baltzell has been the sound engineer for most of America’s most-watched events in the past few decades.