By John Pellegrini
There are certain libraries that require nothing further in the way of description than their names. Brown Bag Productions is in that category. Robert and Michael Lee have been cranking out some of the hottest, well-produced production libraries for as long as I can remember. I have yet to encounter anyone who isn’t aware of them. Further, I have yet to encounter anyone whom when admitting that they don’t have Brown Bag stuff at their stations, wish that they did. Price would often be listed as the reason for not having Brown Bag. Let’s face it, you aren’t going to drive a Mercedes for cheap either. But now, the price factor has been aided significantly with Brown Bag’s new Barter packages, FIREPOWER and ROCKET SCIENCE.
Firepower is geared toward Rock formats, including hard rock, alternative, new rock, harder classic rock, and Newstalk/sports. You’ll find loads of guitars, drums, and ear splitters contained within. Rocket Science is geared for hot AC, CHR, oldies, and more rhythmic formats. Each package comes with a start up collection called Brown Bag’s Arsenal, a 5 CD set with four CDs of the best of Brown Bag and a fifth CD of all new stuff. Disc 1 contains logos, sounds, and music beds; disc 2 contains logos and underlays; disc 3 features a full assortment of sounds including white noise, hits, explosions, and more; disc 4 is a second set of sounds, and disc 5 has 65 tracks of music beds in: 60 and: 30 lengths.
Every two weeks thereafter, you get an update CD with 100 brand new cuts and bonus tracks, including highly useful stuff like current and historical news drops, and something Brown Bag calls, ‘Seize the Moment Audio’ which includes special coverage beds of certain timely milestone events. An example of this from the Firepower package that I auditioned were some specially produced beds for the Indy 500 that had vintage news audio put together with some great music beds that you could add your own voice-over to for promotional purposes. Also included in the package was some well-produced news beds using songs like Dirty Laundry, Day in the Life, and Digging in the Dirt.
Rocket Science has great timely updates as well, all perfect for the Hot AC, CHR, and rhythmic formats. The update disc I auditioned from this package had custom montages for Father’s Day, as well as artist mixes for Hansen, No Doubt, and a special power intro mix for Turn Your Lights Down Low. Then, there’s the added assortment on each disc of brand new promo beds with mix outs, logos with mix outs, sound effects, artist drops, listener reactions, comedy bits, historical montages, current movie drops, artist interviews, and more. Each element perfectly geared toward the respective formats that Firepower and Rocket Science serve, all done with the sound quality Brown Bag is famous for. Absolutely no compromises on that aspect.
Brown Bag’s successes over the years have always been the quality of their work, and they’ve gained an international reputation as the best in what they do. Although they started primarily in radio, which is how most of us know of them, their libraries are used by major television programs and networks. For example, the next time you see a TV promo for The X Files, listen carefully to all the sounds; they’re more than likely something that Brown Bag created. This is also why their libraries are a bit pricier than others are; their sound quality is that much better. I’ve been stuck with many libraries in stations that I’ve worked for in the past where more than a third of all the tracks are unusable due to either not fitting the format, or just sounding poor. Not so with Brown Bag; there’s not a track that isn’t stellar in any of their packages.
Firepower and Rocket Science are a great way to get Brown Bag into your station’s sound without the entire corporation’s cadre of bean counters being ticked off about budget expense limits. Even if your station already has a Brown Bag package, you might want to check into these barter agreements, after all, what’s wrong with new updates every two weeks?
For more information and a demo of each, call (972) 239-6220, or visit the Brown Bag Website at www.amfmradio.net/brownbag for all the Brown Bag goodies.
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