Feature:
Quick And Dirty DAW Tricks
By Craig Jackman
Pop Filter, "Alternative"
Filter, Multi-Band Limiting, Time Compression, Keyboard Macros, The
Internet, The Antares Mic Modeler, Wheel Mouse, Drive Partitioning, and
System Maintenance.
Interview:
James Stodd, BRMB, Birmingham, United Kingdom
By Jerry Vigil
Commercial radio in the United
Kingdom is still relatively new in comparison to commercial radio in the
US. And in the past decade, the UK has seen an explosion of commercial
radio stations that has quickly ushered UK radio into the spectrum of
great radio around the world. Capital Radio is the UKs most profitable
radio group with 19 stations throughout London, Birmingham, Cardiff,
Oxford, Kent, Sussex, Hampshire, the North East, the North West and the
East Midlands. The group now broadcasts to over half of the UKs adult
population. James Stodd is Capital Radios new Regional Production
Manager, having recently relocated from Capitals Red Dragon FM in
Cardiff to BRMB in Birmingham. In this months RAP Interview, James
offers some insights into UK radio and production and gives us a dose of
first-class image production with a remarkable demo on this months RAP
Cassette..
Test Drive: SEK'D Samplitude Studio 5.5, with Prodif Plus Sound
Card
By Steve Cunningham
 As
some of you know, Im a Macintosh guy. While Ive used Wintel
computers now and again over the last 15 years and Im familiar with
them, I do all my audio work on Macs. So when RAP Editor Jerry
Vigil invited me to review a multitrack editing package from German
manufacturer SEKD that runs under Windows, I gathered my courage,
rented The Empire Strikes Back, and prepared for a journey to The
Dark Side... Nah just kidding. This stuff is great! The box that
arrived on my doorstep included Samplitude Studio version 5.5 and the
companys PRODIF PLUS sound card. First, well install the sound card
into the old Dell PC.
Feature:
In Defense of "Bill"
By John Pellegrini
There is a famous story, which was
recently recycled on chain e-mails, about a young "sailor" named
"Bill." He goes to sea and is shipwrecked and drowned. Another
man, a Prince, needs an alter ego. You see, hes a member of Royalty,
and the Royal types arent supposed to engage in "commoners"
work. But this Prince loves the theater and loves to write poetry, so he
finds Bills name in a graveyard at his church and uses that for his pen
name. There are other variations on this same story about the Prince,
usually claimed to be the Earl of Oxford, but all of them end the same
way, with the smarter-than-thou author stating, "now you know the Truth
about William Shakespeare." Except that the Truth of this
story is a BIG FAT LIE.
Q It Up:
The RAP Network Speaks
By Jerry Vigil
MP3 and Commercial Delivery
Via the Internet
Part 2
This months Q It Up gets part 2 of our
responses as we focus on the use of the Internet to send and receive audio
for on-air broadcast.
Q It Up: The use of the Internet for delivering
commercials to radio stations is here, with companies such as SpotTaxi.com,
SlingSpot.com, AudioSonix.com, and SpotTraffic.com all vying for a piece
of the new pie. The common thread is the use of MPEG compression to reduce
the audio files to sizes more compatible with todays Internet
connection speeds. There is a concern among some radio engineers that the
use of MPEG compression in conjunction with existing audio chains that
utilize other digital compression algorithms may cause some degradation of
the quality of the audio, resulting in a potential tune-out factor. What
are your thoughts on this, and on the use of the Internet for spot
delivery in general? Is your Chief Engineer for or against the use of MPEG
files on the air for commercials? Is your station planning to utilize this
technology? Feel free to add any other comments you have on the subject.
Radio Hed:
Feelings
By Jeffrey Hedquist
Feelings, nothing more than feelings.
How will the audience feel when they use your product or service? If you
can transmit that emotional response in the commercial, youll get
listeners to start using it in their minds. Their imaginations will
provide the most powerful "test drive" on the planet. Put the
listener in the situation where theyll experience those feelings.
...And
Make It Real Creative
By Trent
Rentsch
Guarding the secrets one has spent a
career mastering is natural, but limiting. If you have a good idea and you
meet another Creative with a good idea of their own, doesnt it make sense
to share, so you both leave with twice what you walked in with?
The
RAP Forum:
I Did It. Every Writer Should Do
It!
By Albert
Berkshire
I did it. In fact, I did it again. I did it in 1998 and I
did it again in 2000. Only this time I gave up the power baton to do
it. God it feels good. Now you may be thinking its a demotionbut
really, its not. In fact, I strongly recommend every writer do itat
least once. Im so convinced its that good, I asked one of my fellow
writers to consider doing it too. OkayokayIll fess up. You may not
think its that big of a deal, but Im all for it. I quit my job as
Creative Director for three stations to take a position as a writer for one
station. In fact, Im not even the Creative Director at this one station.
Im just a writer. A guy behind a desk.
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