February 2008 RAP
February 2008 Highlights
Production 212: Impressionism Mechanism (How to Become a
Dutch Master... NOT a Cigar)
by Dave Foxx
For some of you dear readers, this column will be a bit of déjà vu all
over again. LOL – I keep comparing what we do to art and how we can step up
our skills to become Masters. Last month I told you to never underestimate
the audience. This month I want to remind you that, like art, radio
production is a mental thing, even though we strive to make it emotional.
The emotion you feel when you stand next to Michelangelo’s David or gaze at
Rembrandt’s Danea, is what makes these pieces communicate and gosh… I’m
pretty sure that’s what we’re trying to do aurally. You might not see the
immediate relevance of a bit of art history has to radio production, but
it’s an important allegory to what we do, so stick with me, please.
Interview: Zeus the Voice, Cheraw, South Carolina
by Jerry Vigil
Chances are, you’ve heard the voice of Zeus. Currently serving over 100
radio stations and television network affiliates, Zeus has carved a nice
piece of the voiceover pie in a relatively short period of time. And if that
sounds like a lot of stations to be dealing with regularly, you’re right. In
fact, Zeus finally had to build a small studio at his vacation home to keep
up with the demand. Now that’s a good thing. This month’s RAP Interview gets
the inside story on this successful VO talent, who has firmly planted
himself among radio’s top imaging VO talents. Zeus shares some of his tips
to success while living the good life in a little town of 10,000 people.
Some of his work is featured on this month’s RAP CD.
Feature: The New World of Opportunity
by Michael R. Lee, Ph.D.
As 2008 unfolds, there is considerable consternation at all levels of
radio. Declining audiences and revenues, ongoing encroachment by internet
radio, iPods and satellite radio, personnel attrition and incredible
shrinking budgets are but a few. The simple fact is that these issues are
supra the role and scope of radio’s imaging and commercial producers. Your
ability to persuade the decision-makers that creativity is important has
been limited. Readers of RAP have fought the good fight for many years,
eloquently and passionately.
Radio Hed: No Imagination
by Jeffrey Hedquist
There once was a man with no imagination. Whatever came to him through
his senses was what he experienced. Nothing more. Songs made no sense to
him. Poetry – meaningless. Multimedia, subtlety, irony, metaphors, humor –
all were a waste of time. They triggered no memories, evoked no emotional
responses. Stories, plays, movies and books were just… words. You had to
repeat information to him ceaselessly to communicate.
Test Drive: Speakerphone from Audio Ease
by Steve Cunningham
Anyone who has been around production for a while knows how to create a
phone filter using EQ; just roll off everything below 500 Hz and above 2.5
kHz, add a little distortion, and Bob's your uncle. Whether it's used simply
for dramatic effect, to add realism to phone conversations in spots, or
theatrically to indicate a character's inner thought process, the classic
phone filter is perhaps one of the most-used effects in production. Or, as
the Firesign Theater's Nick Danger would ask, "and ...how do I make my voice
do this?"
Audio Ease, the folks who brought you one of the first pro-level convolution
reverb processors, has tackled the simple phone filter and applied the same
sophisticated convolution technology to emulating phones, radios,
turntables, guitar cabinets, walkie-talkies, and almost anything else with a
speaker. The result is Speakerphone, a plug-in that includes a speaker
emulator, a convolution reverb, signal processing, and even some cool
background effects samples. This ain't your father's phone filter -- even
Bud Selig would recognize the juice that's used here. Let's take a look.
Feature: Lessons Learned at the Knee of Pete Townsend
by Craig Jackman
If you are still new in your Radio Production career, if you still can’t
believe that they actually pay you every two weeks to play with someone
else’s toys, if you think getting to spend all day creating little sixty
second pieces of audio art is better than sex, you don’t need to read this
article. Just go on to the next article. Go ahead.
OK, the young folks are gone. We adults can talk veteran to veteran. If
you’ve been in Radio Production for more than just a bit, you are going have
those days occasionally. You know, those kind of days where you say, "Why am
I doing this?" Again. Why am I dealing with this client? The kind of client
who hasn’t liked anything you’ve ever done but somehow remain on the air on
your station on a daily basis. Why am I dealing with plastic Herb Tarlick
replicas that don’t care a whit about burning you so long as the scent of
fire stays away from their reasonably priced suit and they can get to the
dealer on time to pick up their freshly leased SUV? The kind of days where
you wonder exactly where all that excitement went. I mean wasn’t it just
here not that long ago?
Feature: Skip the Cliché, Drop the Excess Verbiage
by Neil Holmes
I abhor clichés, especially in radio copy. They are lazy. "For all your
toe shoe needs," "sale ends soon," "the tent is up, the prices are down."
Ick. I know I'm not alone, 'cause audiences mentally tune out at these trite
idiocies. Where's the inspiration? Where's the motivation? Why are we
wasting our time writing, producing and listening to these? My intent for
this article was to provide a list of some clichés I've heard in radio copy
over the past couple months (no wonder I feel sick, I've been listening for
those nasty clichés) and provide alternatives. But I have found in
assembling this article that the vast majority of cliché's used in
commercials come because the copywriter is 'telling' the audience, instead
of 'showing' them something.
...And Make It Real Creative - Making Noise: Chapter 9
by Trent Rentsch
Welcome class, synth school is back in session. When last we met, I was
explaining how oscillators and samples are the basic sounds used by the
synthesizer to create an entirely new sound. They can be a waveform
generated by the oscillator, a noise generator, or in the case of
sampler/synthesizers, it may be a sampled waveform which is than
manipulated. With some keyboard synthesizers, the "sampling" can be done on
the fly via a mic plugged into the input (think vocoder). Whatever flavor
you use, one or more of these base sounds is mixed together to begin
creating an entirely new sound.
The Monday Morning Memo: Why Most Ads Put Us to Sleep
by Roy H. Williams
How often are you conscious of the fact that Earth, only Earth, is buried
beneath an ocean of
air? We, the fleas that dance on the skin of Mother Earth, live in this dry
ocean. We use it to hold our airplanes off the ground. We blow out candles
with it. We suck it in and out of our lungs like a fish pulls water through
its gills. And we almost never think about it. Akintunde, my friend from
botanical green Nigeria, tells me his first impression of America was that
everything here smelled burnt. He spent his first few days turning this way
and that, ever looking for the fire. Finally he realized it was only the
hydrocarbons of a hundred million cars.
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