June 2007 RAP
June 2007 Highlights
Production 212: Not Enough Toilet Paper
by Dave Foxx
Quite possibly, I owe a friend a profound apology. Brendan Tacey –
Austereo Network, Australia – sent me a promo that is out of the ordinary,
not only in the evident skill it took to produce, but for the event it is
promoting; “Live Earth.” On July 7th it kicks off in Sydney and will have
hundreds of acts all over the world participating to mobilize all citizens
to help ‘save’ our planet. Instead of simply commenting on his work, I
immediately jumped on my soapbox and started preaching. That is why I owe
Brendan an apology. It’s also what has inspired this month’s column: Media
Hype – how we contribute to the problem.
Interview: John Pallarino, Entercom, Greenville, SC
by Jerry Vigil
Greenville, South Carolina. Market #60. Just under a million population.
A couple dozen stations. Entercom has six of those stations, and they’re
proud to say five of them are in the top ten. But what happens in a market
this size, with 6 stations in one cluster? A LOT of local direct
advertising. To a production person, that means a TON of spots to produce.
John Pallarino heads up the task at Entercom Greenville with what many would
consider a small crew for such a large task. But they manage, and they
manage to keep their department not only running like a fine tuned engine,
but they’re able to go above and beyond what one might expect in this
situation. Furthermore, they’re feeding six internet streams as well. You’ve
heard the phrase “spot factory”. This month’s RAP Interview gives you an
inside look at one. This month’s RAP CD features some of the excellent work
coming from this factory.
Test Drive: Sony Sound Forge 9.0
by Steve Cunningham
Sony’s Sound Forge has had a long reign as one of the heavyweights in
stereo editing. We last looked at Forge in 2005 with version 8 (see the May
2005 issue of RAP), which added audio scrubbing, ASIO and VST support, and
flexible keyboard mapping. Now Sony’s back with the ninth rendition of this
venerable editor. Let’s have a look. The most significant update in Sound
Forge 9.0 is multichannel audio recording and editing. Before any of you go
crazy here, let me assure you that these are crafted for surround work
rather than true multitrack work, but they can be made to serve that purpose
after a fashion. Other improvements include drag-and-drop mixing and pasting
between channels, a phase scope and mono-compatibility meter, and improved
snapping.
Feature: Notes Off the Napkin - Now It's Personal
by Andrew Frame
Personal expression. Cars, clothes, footwear, tattooing, piercing,
spandex, overuse of makeup, jewelry, gaudy jewelry, hideously gaudy
jewelry... Personal... branding? I have a fondness for tropical shirts. Not
just any garden-variety tropical shirt. Rather, richly hued shirts, the kind
that require polarizing sunglasses to prevent catastrophic retinal
implosion. Normally, when I see someone wearing a particularly optically
stunning garment, I will compliment the wearer on his or her choice of
wardrobe. They will see mine, and we’ll often share a nerdy chuckle.
Q It Up: The RAP Network Speaks! - What's the Method to
Your Mix? - Part 2
Q It Up: What’s the method to your mix? Do you just
throw all the elements on their tracks and begin adjusting levels as your
ear dictates? Do you start with the VO and adjust everything else around it?
Do you use EQ to bring elements out in a mix or subdue others? Do you use
compression on the stereo master to minimize all the tweaking, or do you try
to retain as much dynamic range as possible? Do you use compression on
individual tracks to reduce the dynamic range of a VO track, a music track,
SFX? Do you switch between different monitors and tweak accordingly?
Describe your method, and feel free to add any other approach that gets you
to your ultimate goal.
...And Make It Real Creative
by Trent Rentsch
When last we were time-trip ping back through the history of modern
synthesis, we were among clean-cut mad scientist types in white coats,
fiddling with auditorium-sized devices that were capable of cranking out all
sorts of interesting beeps and boinks. Neato, huh? How ‘50s! But as the ‘60s
dawned, with revolution in the air, it was inevitable that “established”
ways of making electronic noise were going to both experience and be a part
of massive change.
Radio Hed: Push It
by Jeffrey Hedquist
“C’mon, give me twenty!” I was just thinking how my Army drill sergeant
and the woman who three decades later led my poetry class used almost the
same command. Tough ol’ Sgt. Blades at Ft. Benning had me hit the ground for
pushups whenever he felt I wasn’t pushing hard enough. Diane Frank, my
gentle poetry mentor, would circle one of my ordinary phrases and say, “Push
it further. Think of twenty more ways to say this.” “Twenty!?! How about 5
or 6?” “No, twenty. You can do it.”
Monday Morning Memo: The Future of Ad Writing
by Roy H. Williams
America has been flattered by advertising (“Because you deserve it”),
misled by ads (“Lowest prices anywhere”), hyped by ads (“While supplies
last”), and lied to repeatedly (“Guaranteed!”). The result of all this
misinformation is a growing numbness to ad-speak. We’re becoming deaf and
blind to it. With effortless ease we shut it out of our minds. Why are
advertisers happy when their ads sound like ads?
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