Q It Up: What do you do when you turn off the DAW and the lights and leave the building?
The Q It Up panel offers some great responses to this Q: What do you do when you turn off the DAW and the lights and leave the building? Hobbies? BASE jumping? Volunteer firefighter? DIY freak? Do any of your hobbies or outside activities relate to or compliment your career as a producer/VO talent, and if so, how? What advice or suggestions would you offer others about outside activities?
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Production 512: All Things Being Equal…
by Dave Foxx
Let’s talk about equalization, or as our British friends spell it, equalisation. (They get to have their own spelling because they refined it to an art.) Equalization is NOT the same thing as EQ; in fact they are nearly the opposite. Of course, it’s the one tool most producers feel comfortable with because it’s a fairly simple concept, and generally speaking, you just play around with it until it sounds good. Compression is a lot trickier, and some plug-ins have long setups and need a lot of fine tuning. Perhaps it is the easy familiarity producers have with equalization that make it the one tool I hear being abused constantly.
RM Labs' SawStudio: Three Long Time Users Weigh In
by Don Elliot
There’s an old Saw that says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. When it comes to the current as well as the up-and-coming new generation of producers, the opposite is also true... you can teach a new dog some old tricks, because they are true, basic and a solid foundation. The “saw” here to which I refer is the now infamous “SawStudio” DAW that will make you the legend in your market!
Creativity (and real life)
by Juliette Nicholls
It’s said that we check our phones over 100 times a day. It’s so tempting to know what’s going on and to be available all the time; it’s the first thing we look at in the morning, and we’re even messaging during dinner and conversations with friends. It’s been said that we spend over 3 hours a day on our phones. In a generation so seemingly time-poor, that’s a lot of wasted hours scouring Facebook. A lot of wasted hours that we could be using to hone our creativity.
From the Frontlines of Freelancing: Balancing Work and Life
by Joshua Mackey
So get this guys! I have a friend that makes a six-figure income, and doesn’t even have to change out of his pajamas! Isn’t that crazy? When I started freelancing in 2012, I was very confident in my ability to balance work and life. After all, I had been balancing work and life for years while I was in radio. Granted, work often seemed to outweigh life, which made life become a heavier weight on my shoulders. I made it work. Most of the time. Right? The idea of having MORE free time to allocate seemed like a luxury. Then reality set in.
"....And Make It Real Creative!”: Finding the Muse in Music
by Trent Rentsch
Danger, there’s a breakdown dead ahead. And just maybe, you’re in way above your head. These lyrics mean a lot to me. To understand why, we have to go back to 1980. I was a 2nd Semester Freshman at South Dakota State University, trying too hard to fit in with the theatre crowd. Too much plaid (the shirt of the moment for the cool kids), too much booze, too many off the mark jokes (while everyone else was clever as hell). A square peg trying to fit in a well-rounded groove.
Radio Hed: How To Create An Effective Commercial And Keep Your Client Happy
by Jeffrey Hedquist
The first thought that comes to mind is, “It can’t be done.” Often your client will give you an assignment and then tell you how to do it. “Okay I want to sell annuities, cranial surgery, or safe daycare services… oh, and I want it to be funny.” You know from experience, that the client’s suggested approach, structure, content, casting, or technique might not work. And, after all, getting his/her approval should not be the ultimate goal. Getting him/her results is. But… you can’t have one without the other.
The R.A.P. Soundstage - June 2016
It’s back to our regular format on the Soundstage this month after wrapping up another inspiring 3-month presentation of the RAP Awards! We kick things off with our next Editor’s Choice Award winner, a nicely done creative commercial from Fraser Manning at X92.9 in Calgary. Track 2 is the promo Dave Foxx references in his Production 512 column on page 3. Commercials are on tracks 3-11, beginning with some good work from another SAIT student making a debut on the Soundstage on track 3. Promos are on tracks 12-17. Track 18 comes with some info from producer Matt Redmond: We recently had a fireworks display in Bunbury for the Australia Day celebrations. Tim Hammond did a 25 minute piece for it. Attached is 1 minute 30 sec piece of it which I contributed, in reflection of a recent natural disaster which affected people locally. And we wrap it up on track 19 with a montage of imaging promos from Chris Diestler for AAA formatted KBAC’s 20th anniversary. Log in and check ‘em out!
