Lawrence Welk Show

EasyGo · Post by **EasyGo** » Sat Nov 12, 2011 5:41 pm

I was flipping through the channels tonight, and checked out a later period episode of the Lawrence Welk Show on PBS. Other than reminiscing about how my grandparents used to tune in to the syndicated reruns every Saturday night, I thought about how great the musicians sounded and specifically how nice the audio was presented. Obviously they were dealing with top notch musicians who could blend nicely with one another and nail their parts live. But not only that, the audio capture itself sounded great. Particularly the brass and woodwind instruments, pianos, everything really. Just really rich, deep, smooth sound.

I noticed that every musician had his/her own mic and wondered what they were using? On vocals and some instruments, I saw what looked like an elongated EV 635. The horn players were using something else, but nothing I recognized.

Given that every musician had a mic and that so many were onstage together, I wondered if the program were mixed live, if there was some submixing going on, or if each player actually got a track? Would they use the same type of multitrack mixer/analog tape process that would be used in a recording studio? Or would they need to mix it live to mono/stereo for the broadcast as it happened? How would the video and audio be synched?

Anyways lots of questions. I feel like I have a pretty good idea how music was recorded in studios, but I feel completely ignorant of how music for live TV with so many musicians would have been captured.

Would love to hear insights, particularly from folks who may have worked in television/radio. Thanks!

Gregg Juke · Post by **Gregg Juke** » Sat Nov 12, 2011 9:06 pm

We watch them evry once in awhile with our kids, too... My grandparents did the same thing!

Sometimes it looks like it's a live mix of live music (obviously the band features), other times, I wonder about singers lip-syncing to tracks.

It would be cool to get a rundown from some one in-the-know.

GJ

Dominick Costanzo · Post by **Dominick Costanzo** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 4:54 pm

Welk's orchestra had top notch musicians, many of them part of the band for many years.
They listened to each other.
Musical arrangements were geared for TV sound.

ElectoVoice mikes everywhere.
The "elongated 635A" is an RE55
Shhh! it's a secret weapon.
Best analogy is it's like an omnidirectional RE20.
Plenty of EV 635A and RE15 on the stage as well.
If you go back to earlier shows you see lots of EV 666.
Even earlier shows and you see RCA 77DX mics.
They did a guest appearance on The Jack Benny Show
If you look that one up you'll see a stage populated with Stanley Church mics!!!

Everyone has their own mic? - I don't see that.
Certainly the horns and reeds paired up.
Multitrack? - no. Stereo? - no. This was television, mono sound. Nothing else.
Live mix - more often than not, audio recorded directly to the video recorder,
most likely an Ampex 2" "quad" video machine.
If it was a feature act performing to a prerecorded backing track,
the backing track was most likely recorded to a 1/4" mono recorder.
The performance was then mixed live to the backing track playback and recorded to the video recorder.

Dominick Costanzo · Post by **Dominick Costanzo** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 5:28 pm

You piqued my interest on this.
I grew up in the 50's and started my musical path with .... wait for it...
accordion lessons! Yes, I still play.

from W*k*p*d*a,
"In 1958 "Lawrence Welk's Plymouth Show" was the first American television program to air in stereophonic sound. Due to the fact that stereophonic television had not yet been invented (it would be 25 more years before it would become standard), ABC simulcast the show on its radio network, with the TV side airing one audio channel and the radio side airing the other; viewers would tune in both the TV and the radio to achieve the stereophonic effect."
Larry was not a slouch when it came to audio!

Then of course, there's this (Live mix!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye3ecDYxOkg

joelpatterson · Post by **joelpatterson** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 8:56 pm

I'm glad to see the guy rehabilitated and given his due... for anyone who lived through the era-- he was one of the most convenient symbols of the thing that needed to be swept away... although: I'm sure at the time I exaggerated the threat to human progress that he represented.

Every since Kurt Cobain and Richard Nixon died within days of each other in 1994, I've thought: "Now there are the two poles of the American experience. Look around all you will-- you couldn't find more extremely opposite people who share the same citizenship. Isn't everybody, deep down, on one side or the other?"

Gregg Juke · Post by **Gregg Juke** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 9:21 pm

Thanks for the info, Dominick. Coolio.

Yes Joel, he's still a pretty easy target now, and truthfully, there's some siiiiillllyy stuff on that show. But the band was crackerjack, and those guys all had to sight-read and solo on at least THREE instruments before being considered for the gig.

GJ

Gregg Juke · Post by **Gregg Juke** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 9:23 pm

PS-- I can do you one better. My grandfather came to this country as an old IWW labor cat; he died a Nixon supporter. Sometimes, one side and the other are one and the same.

GJ

Electro-Voice 664 · Post by **Electro-Voice 664** » Tue Nov 15, 2011 9:38 pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYZ94xf3a4o
I love the color of this one

plurgid · Post by **plurgid** » Wed Nov 16, 2011 6:07 am

The Lawrence Welk Show was always an enigma to me. Still is in some ways. I first encountered it in the 80's when they started airing reruns of it before Dr. Who on PBS on Saturday nights.

Even my parents thought it was lame. My grandparents may have watched it, but I never was around when they did. The whole thing was soooooo square as to be like a caricature. I could never tell if it was a put on or what, and that held a sort of fascination for me. Not one that I really would care to enjoy in more than 15 minute spurts, but a fascination nonetheless.

As an example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye3ecDYxOkg

yeah. they managed to square up "one toke over the line".
A put on? It had to be!

joelpatterson · Post by **joelpatterson** » Wed Nov 16, 2011 6:15 am

Gregg Juke wrote:...Sometimes, one side and the other are one and the same.

GJ

Do you suppose that there's ever been anyone who's made the opposite journey? Started out as a reactionary and ended up with flowers in their hair?

Dominick Costanzo · Post by **Dominick Costanzo** » Wed Nov 16, 2011 7:22 am

I wouldn't read too deeply into the show's squareness being a put on.

Welk was a farm boy from North Dakota.
He was working professionally by 1924 and was very popular by 1940.
What was hip then was perceived 40 years after as square.
But that holds true of any style of music.

How many popular bands from 1971 are still touring, playing the same music that made them popular 40 years ago?
Do you think Black Sabbath consider their act a put on?

Welk sincerely liked what he played.
He took great pride that it was old fashioned.
It certainly was successful.

willhouk · Post by **willhouk** » Mon Dec 19, 2011 9:02 am

I have really mixed feelings on that show. As an adult I can recognize that they are fantastic musicians. But as a kid I was forced to sit threw that show with my grandma and I hated every minute of it. I just can't seem to get over that.

I'm kind of surprised hipsters haven't exploited the Lawrence Welk show in an ironic sort of way. Seems like it would be a prime target. A cool indie band that dresses and sounds like Lawrence Welk, that is the new frontier. Kind of like the Nirvana video "In Bloom" but in a more exaggerated manner.

Good info on the RE55, that sounds like a cool mic. Thanks for that.

On a side note, politically speaking I used to be a libertarian and now I am a progressive. So I guess I started out really conservative and ended up with "flowers in my hair." I kind of see the two extremes (say Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich) as being rather close in some odd ways. More on social issues than fiscal issues.

cjogo · Post by **cjogo** » Mon Dec 19, 2011 11:20 am

THe Welk show started me on the way to playing drums -- The program was on fairly late for my bedtime hour. So, I used to sneak out of my room and crawl around to the back of my Dad's chair . Peak around the arm and watch the show. I was hooked on the variety of beats the drums had to perform. Got a snare for Christmas 63 .. saw the Beatles on TV in 64 ...and had a small set of Ludwigs by the following year ( took 4 years to pay those off

) > I was on my way. My folks still watch Lawrence ~ every Saturday reruns.

joelpatterson · Post by **joelpatterson** » Mon Dec 19, 2011 2:45 pm

willhouk wrote:... and I hated every minute of it...

That was the "politically correct" attitude for the times-- I sure used t' heap witheringly dismissive scorn on all these people-- out of all proportion to their transgressions!

Battle lines being drawn, it was impossible for me to see into the whites of any of their eyes-- these spokespeople and henchmen of the Establishment. Much, much later I realized: all my "idealism" was sort of ridiculous-- the compromises that people make to live in society, to be able to bear every burden, you just gotta cut them some slack, Lawrence Welk was not personally clubbing demonstrators in the streets of Chicago!

Even if he was, you know, playing on the soundtrack...

vvv · Post by **vvv** » Mon Dec 19, 2011 4:12 pm

I hadda wife some years back, and she had elderly parents living down on the border with Mexico (in "the valley"); her da' was a retired cop.

Anyway, we'd go to stay, and every evening we hadda wartch The Lawrence Welk Show - this would be for a week or two at a time. Every night.

Did I mention, "every night"?

I never found it offensive (this was the mid to late 90's), just boooooooring.

But every now and then it seemed something interesting would happen, mebbe 1 outta 10 shows.

But I can't remember what.

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