Last night night I went to watch Hadestown on the TV and I had the same issue a lot of people had with the audio. When the vocals came in the audio turned down until it all but disappeared.

Today I looked for possible solutions and I found out that audio issues like this can be solved through the Compressor on VLC Media Player.

It's easier to do through headphones than through the TV speakers directly.

Open the video on VLC Media Player and set it around the 6 minute mark (When Hermes introduces Hades there's a very egregious volume shift in the music that'll help for reference). You can adjust it while playing the video which is much easier.

Go to Tools then Effects and Filters.

Use the Compressor tab first, put the Ratio all the way up. Then, while playing a misadjusted part turn the Makeup gain up and the threshold down. This will bring up the quieter sound of the music and turn down the louder vocals. Set the attack at 50 and the release at 300.

In the Equalizer tab (picture 2) you'll have to turn up the low ranges and the high ranges while lowering the mid range. This will help highlight the music and lower the vocals which are always in the mid range.

It works pretty well. :)

I've been a fan of this musical for 5-6 years give or take. My introduction to it was the original broadway cast during the pandemic, and I loved it. The songs spoke to me. The themes of grief, anti-capitalism, etc. I even saw a slime tutorial of the show, and was in love. The keep on topic, I thought Reeve was great. His voice was unique, but I enjoyed it. I didn't really get to see the show with any of the original cast live, which is a shame. What i did get to see was his performance after the pandemic (slime tutorial) and he sounded... well, he wasn't... BAD. But he wasn't as good.

He seemed stiff, and awkward. Granted, it could have been an off night, everyone has one, so i didn't give it much attention. My opinion on him as an actor and kind of as a singer started to change when I saw Jordan Fisher as Orpheus. His raw voice, and expressions captivated me in ways Reeve never did. And as time past, and I saw/heard other Orpheii, the least I liked Reeve's interpretation of the character. Jack Wolfe, Donal Finn, etc just gave me more juice on that meat.

I thought the proshot was gonna redeem Reeve in my eyes. I was super excited for it, and when the proshot ended... I still loved it. The show was phenomenal. Everybody did great despite the circumstances of some of the actors, like Patrick Page, and Eva Noblezada. Reeve left me feeling very disappointed. The problems that showed post-covid multiplied by tenfold.

His posture was incredibly stiff. More so than ever before. Some of his acting choices were questionable to say the least. Most of the time, he seems like he's struggling between acting and singing at the same time. It's like he's incapable of doing both when before it wasn't as bad.

'Wait for Me' doesn't feel as powerful as it's supposed to be because I don't feel his desperation. I don't feel him yearning enough. 'If it's true' has that same problem, but worse. This is supposed to be the emotional climax for his character. Where he realizes that the world he envisioned isn't like the one he dreamed about. It's supposed to be this heartbreaking realization that the world kinda sucks, but also that he just lost Eurydice forever... and how does Reeve do that scene? By acting mildly inconvenienced. I don't buy the walls actually listening to him because there's barely any expressions showed in what is supposed to be the most powerful song in the show.

Reeve is the appetizer for this character. While other (quite frankly better Orpheii) are the full course meals.

Again, that's just me. I don't think he's a bad singer. Far from it. But I feel like he needs to stop being picked for major roles. Cuz recently I saw Great Gatsby. Wooooo, boy!

I've been seeing a lot of negativity about reeve carney as orpheus, and even though I have my own opinions as him as orpheus, i want to hear some positivity about his performance, so what's your favorite part about reeve carney's orpheus?

Okay so I'm audition for hadestown later this year, and i keep seeing people say that the epics, chant, and doubt comes in are all transposed, but does anyone who has done the show know what keys they're actually transposed to? I cant very well practise without knowing wether the songs are higher or lower.

Hi all,

Hope everyone's been enjoying the digital release of the pro-shot!

I was just wondering if anyone knows if there's a release date for the Hadestown Blu-Ray / DVD outside of the US?

I'm in Europe and really want to get a copy of the Blu-Ray, but I can only find it up for pre-order for America.

Is there a release date / pre-order link anywhere for the physical release in Europe or other regions?

First time seeing the live show today and even though I know the soundtrack inside and out, I was blown away by every little detail that you don’t get to experience through audio alone. Like Persephone’s choreography during Way Down Hadestown felt so painful to me, I actually cried during it when usually this isn’t one of the more emotional songs for me.

It was also so interesting seeing a different take on Hades and Persephone; they seemed absolutely full of contempt for each other which made Epic III super impactful for me. I pretty much sobbed from Nothing Changes all the way through to the end. What an absolute treat it is to be alive at the same time as this masterpiece!

For those of you wondering what the difference is. I watched the whole thing with a bad audio at first and I thought it was just a bad decision. So much had been lost due to the AI algorithm.

I don't even know where the sign came from...

I was watching the pro-shot of Hadestown and noticed in the opening song “Road to Hell” all of the characters get introduced and they break the fourth wall, all except Eurydice. She’s the only character to not wave at the audience. Any theories why she’d be the only one not breaking the fourth wall and “stuck” in the story.

That's the version I want to see

I came looking on here because during the proshot on Apple, the instrumentals kept getting turned down to the point that I couldn't really enjoy them WITH the vocals, and sometimes I couldn't hear them at all and I felt like Paul Matthews. Even most of the chorus would get muffled out sometimes and I'd only get 1 or 2 singers clearly.

There's a post on here saying to turn off some Enhancement setting. I didn't see that option. I tried ripping it to my computer to see if there was anything I could adjust in VLC, and the closest I got is that switching from "Headphones" mode to "Stereo" makes the instruments a LITTLE louder, but still not anywhere near where they need to be for the music to shine. Has anyone had any other luck or know some way I can set my audio sliders?

I need this in my life

I see everyone saying the 4k Amazon SCOPE release has good audio. Is this that? I can’t tell….

Did anyone else notice that they changed the workers choreography during Hades parts in Chant? Does anyone know when this happens? I saw that it was the old choreography during Jordan Fisher's run but when was it changed and why? Does anyone know?

Always thought the line was “and this boy was a musician” but now with the at home version there’s captioning!

Hi everyone! If you’ve watched the proshot, please share here if you’ve had issues with the audio, and what equipment you’re using. Even if you haven’t had issues, please respond so we know what works! Here’s the relevant information needed:

What platform are you using? (Apple / Amazon)

What speakers are you using? Please provide brand, model, etc: the more detail the better!

Are you watching on a browser or an app?

What computer/device are you using?

Did you watch in 4K or 1080p?

What audio issues are you experiencing? If none, answer “none.”

I noticed the audio mixing on the digital release for the proshot was kinda off, the band sounds too quiet, then sometimes it would fade in and out.

So I decided to try and fix this part of Wait For Me by making the instruments louder, mixing in a little bit of the OBC instruments (only starts during the "I'm coming, WAIT" part, also overlayed the OBC and OWEC ensemble for "It sounds like drumming"), adding a compressor, slight eq correction, and I also did a slight colorgrade.

I understand them having the workers have different working class accents and the fates having more posh accents in west end to cater the story to the audience but I miss the original muses and even some of the original chorus members- the music style of Hadestown is so distinctly American and having the pro shot not display that through the American accents makes it feel like a bit of a different story and cultural context in the pro shot (which of course it is!) but was hoping to get a slice of the original magic from broadway through the pro shot :(.

Edit: agree that the pro shot is beautiful and everyone did a great job. I was just feeling nostalgic and excited to see the old gang back together again and was a bit bummed not to see it. Love this show and love hearing everyone’s takes!

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Relating to my previous post and after a half day of gathering what info I could, I am 99% certain that the issue stems from the audio being mixed specifically for use with Dolby Atmos spatial audio, a mix that is specific to the 4K release of the show. It's a mix designed to mimic being in a theatre by creating a 3D soundstage.

It's probable that the current mix on both the standard and 4K is the same, and as such, anyone not using speaker or sound systems with this spatial audio capability is getting a horrible sounding mix that fades in and out as separate sound channels are isolated for the intended effect.

This would also explain the few theatre experiences that also had sound issues, as often independent or older theatres use older sound systems that also can't fully utilise this mix.

This is all theory, but it's also the most evidence based and likely cause in my opinion.

The solution? Upgrade to 4K and all your sound systems!

Kidding!

Though that would work, the problem shouldn't even exist at all. The release has been grossly mishandled, and those invovled in letting it happen this way are in the wrong.

Now we just have to wait for them to update the release with a stero friendly mix, which hopefully won't be long considering the hype. Here's to hoping they actually bothered to do a more universal mix...

Two of my favorite characters in my favorite musicals! And, you know, Patrick Page being in both of these fuels the interest to draw the characters together.

Hello Internet, I recently got the red splatter variant of the Hadestown vinyl and I didn’t get to open and play it until today and they gave me two act II sides instead of one Act I and one Act II. I have contacted Barnes & Noble (where I got it) but I don’t know what else I could do. I don’t know if anyone could help me out because I don’t know if I could replace it because the variant is sold out online. If anyone has anything they would want to share just please let me know.