April 2004 RAP
April 2004 Highlights
Interview: Steve Stone - Stone Creative
Productions, Inc.
By Jerry Vigil
Some very talented people have come and gone through the production room
doors at K-Rock in New York. Steve Stone is no exception. K-Rock was his
last stop before leaving to take a shot at making it on his own, and judging
from his list of clients, Steve is doing exceptionally well. This months RAP
Interview gets an up close look at Steve's early career and how it formed
the imaging and voice-over pro he quickly became. Steve offers some advice
for anyone looking to land that "big gig" as well as those of you wanting to
bust into the lucrative voice-over market. Steve also shares some mike
processing "secrets" that aren't secrets after this interview, as well as
some things he's found to be most important in the voice-over industry. Be
sure to check out Steve's demo on this months RAP CD.
Test Drive: SAWStudioBasic, from RML Labs
By Steve Cunningham
Bob Lentinis Software Audio Workshop, or SAW, has been a player in the PC
multitrack audio field since the early 1990s. Its loyal users rave about its
speed and capabilities, thanks to an audio engine constructed entirely in
assembly language to squeeze the maximum performance from a Wintel CPU. But
SAW was expensive and its learning curve was steep, and during the downturn
of 2001 Lentini was forced to shut down his company, IQS. While that company
may be no more, Bob and his products are very much alive, thank you, under
the flag of RML Labs. RML has released a new version of SAW, dubbed
SAWStudioBasic, that features the same fast assembly-language engine as its
more expensive siblings, but at a radio-friendly price of $300.
Production 212: Radio: The Ultimate Recycling Machine
By Dave Foxx
I always like to tell people who send audio for a critique that I love
having more things to stealer, borrow for my work. The truth of the matter
is, I do "borrow" rather a lot of my stuff. I subscribe to RAP Magazine,
Chase Cuts, FrostBytes and regularly cruise the Clear Channel Imaging site.
(For those who are not fortunate enough to work for Clear Channel, its a
closed website featuring production from all over the company. Its like
getting a fresh RAP CD every day.) If I don't hear something I can use
directly, because of copyright or some such thing, I almost always hear an
idea I can improve on. But, even more than borrowing from other producers
around the world, the place I borrow from the most is the past the real
advantage veterans have over newbies in this business. (There's got to be
some advantage to getting older!) Case in point: Our recent Z100 $100,000
Match Game.
Q It Up: The RAP Network Speaks - How much work are you
doing for your station(s)? -- Part 2
Q It Up: Its time once again to get an update on how
much work you're doing for your station(s). What is your job title? What are
your responsibilities? How many stations are involved? What market does your
station(s) serve? How much help do you have in the production department,
including interns and full and part-time help? How many hours do you work on
a typical day? This information is helpful when negotiating salaries and
raises, as you are able to compare what you do with others in similar
situations and markets. Please feel free to add any other comments.
Radio Hed: The ANA - Audience Needs Analysis
By Jeffrey Hedquist
Were all familiar with the Client Needs Analysis the conduit for vital
information from the client to the creative team, even if you're that team.
Is there anything wrong with this? It often leaves out the most important
part of the radio success equation the audience. Without including what they
need, we may be defeating ourselves and shortchanging the client. Why not an
Audience needs Analysis?
Feature: On Good Grammar
By Ed Thompson
The fragrant smoke of a Padron 3000 cigar envelopes the studio/office of
my new home and I ponder the state of our society. One afternoon, not long
ago, on one of the stations in my cluster I heard a commercial of the
"conversation that you never hear in nature" variety. Within that spot, the
following line of dialogue came out of my speakers, "Where are they located
at?" Huh? What did I just hear? Was that, no? It couldn't have been. "Where
are they located AT?" Who wrote a spot on my radio station with a sentence
that ended in a participle? Quick! Someone had better find Sister Mary Steel
Ruler so I can get medieval on somebody's knuckles. It didn't take me long
to find the session on a master CD and edit the offending grammatical
transgression. Its taken me longer to simmer down after hearing such a
blatant mistake.
...And Make It Real Creative:
By Trent Rentsch
To truly be creative is to believe in the unreal. The idea that "comes
out of nowhere" is an example. You know the one I'm talking about you
agonize over copy points for hours with nothing to show for it, yet when you
take a break for a Diet Coke, a flash of inspiration strikes as the can
falls from the machine. Even more amazing are the ads that "write
themselves," the ones that immediately come to you like turning on a light
switch. This is not metaphysics; its proof that there's more to what's going
on in our noggins than we give ourselves credit for. Being creative is more
than knowing what EQ setting will make a human voice punchier or that the
sound of a blender is on sfx disc 13.
|