Echoed! Yes, I have trying asking the BBC where they get announcers with voices as loud as a full orchestra. Can be a real annoyance.
Dear Jim,
I read this with a bit of a smile as I completely disagree with your premise about the relative balance of the announcer and the orchestra at a large orchestra concert.
The announcer is usually in a broadcasting box, which is necessarily like any other posh box with a forward view of the players and probably largely closed in on five faces. The impression is of the announcer literally being in the same small space as the radio listener, rather like sitting next to them or across a small table. Thus I set the volume initially according to a natural spoken voice level for the announcer ...
Then consider the orchestra. A good broadcast [of a natural performance on un-amplified instruments playing in ensemble] will tend to give the impression of very considerable distance from the performance. Rather like the perspective from a good seat in the hall from the roughly the centre, between one third and two thirds the way from the stage towards the back. If you imagined anyone in the orchestra [or the conductor] speaking from that distance it would be quite difficult to make out their words even if you could tell that they were talking.
The correct level of reply volume is that which preserves this natural distance and natural loudness or softness, and so when the announcer reappears at the end [in a radio relay] they will sound once again at a natural spoken level as if sitting a few feet from you if you have let the music play at a natural volume to emulate the reality of listening at a live performance in the hall itself
This has the great advantage that you can hear what they are saying without having to turn the volume right up after listening to the music at the appropriate natural level.
I must have told this story before, but it is worth it to again ...
I took a girl acquaintance to a concert in the then relatively new Symphony Hall in Birmingham - many years ago now. The CBSO and a large choir made up of BBC [choral forces] and local choral societies fully filled the choir stalls. The orchestra was large, and the music was Beethoven's Eighth and Ninth Symphonies. I think Walter Weller was conducting ... We sat in the most expensive seat right in the middle.
It was a rather fine evening of music, and I was delighted. I asked my colleague what she thought of it, and she said she was terribly disappointed that it was nothing like as loud as her record player! I said little, except to note that she was certainly playing the recording too loud in that case!
Best wishes from George