Q It Up: Are you prepared for a studio disaster?
Q It Up: Are you prepared for a studio disaster? How do you back up your work? USB external hard drive? Do you use a “cloud service”, and do you encrypt? How often do you back up? What do you back up, just audio files, or documents and system files, too? What about the hardware side of the studio? Do you maintain spare studio parts/equipment or even a spare computer? Can you troubleshoot and service your own hardware? Do you use a UPS for power conditioning, particularly in parts of the country prone to heavy lightning or “dirty” mains electric?
New Column - The Commercial Chronicles: He's Baaaaaaak!
by Dennis Daniel
Hmmmm… now where was I? NOT WHERE I AM NOW! REWIND: Many RAP readers may remember my column TALES OF THE TAPE back in the day. Wayyyyyy back in the day! Ahhh… those were the days! The days when radio was still radio and not whatever you want to call it now: Paidio? Lameio? Not the same-io? ...Back in 2012, your kind editor Jerry Vigil did an interview with me to talk about how the times had changed and what I was up to. At that time, we discussed the possibility of doing a column again...
Production 212: Still Thinking WAY Too Much
by Dave Foxx
This month we continue with the Top 10 Most Common Mistakes I see people make over and over again. This is NOT all encompassing; in fact I wrote last month’s column over and over again as I remembered some things that were worse than what I originally wrote about. This month’s group will no doubt give me brain freeze more than a few times. These mistakes generally count for imaging and commercial work and aren’t in any particular order. Here are the last 5:
Feature: Creative Thinking
By Juliette Nicholls
As an audio producer, who writes and creates new trails every day, sometimes it’s straightforward and at other times, it’s staring at a blank piece of paper with a deadline of an hour and nothing at all comes into your mind. But creativity – the phenomenon of constructing something new and valuable – can be taught. And although some of us see ourselves as more creative than others, creative energy has been proven to be a muscle that can be flexed like any other. So I’ve taken some time recently to really think about what “being creative” is and how we can be more creative each day.
Radio Hed: Emotional Radio Makes Uncommon Sense
by Jeffrey Hedquist
Radio advertising can accomplish the unexpected. Common sense would tell us that no matter how you try to advertise to them, people won’t be motivated to purchase unless they have a perceived need - some event or change in their lives that generates the “I need a…” response. That assumes that the advertising is informative, that it reaches people on a conscious intellectual level. Unfortunately, many of the radio commercials airing are designed to do just that, ignoring that fact that we make our buying decisions emotionally. So create commercials that engage us emotionally.
"....And Make It Real Creative!”: Moving Forward… Backing Up
by Trent Rentsch
When it comes to getting sick, I don’t do it half way. There were, in fact, concerns that I might not make it to 14, but despite the best efforts of my appendix, here I am. That’s not to say that I haven’t been so sick that I wished I was dead a few times since. At the moment, I’m coming back from a combination that included a sinus infection, bronchitis/pneumonia, and shingles. Any of them are no fun on their own (shingles, especially… get the vaccine, trust me), but the full house laid me low for a couple of weeks, and I’m still working on getting back to full speed after a month of this nonsense (shingles… vaccine… get it). But you know what really made me sick? What was waiting for me when I got back to work.
Feature: Creativity On Call
by Ben Thorgeirson
One of the reasons I love my job is because I feel like I learn something new almost every day. And whether that’s something about my job, or about myself with regards TO my job, it’s an aspect of my day that I look forward to when I wake up. One thing that I realized a couple of weeks ago that was pretty significant is HOW to be a commercial producer. And when I say ‘How’ I don’t mean, ‘this is how you make and edit in Adobe,’ or, ‘your mic levels have to be at THIS in order to not clip.’ No, when I say ‘how’ to be a commercial producer, I mean how to go about being creative day to day. And sometimes, that’s not going to happen. You’ll have slow days, busy days, days where you could probably leave for 2 hours and no one would notice. But your creativity will be sitting in your head on call. And part of your job is to know when to step up and mentally perform for your clients.
The R.A.P. Soundstage
Radio And Production’s audio showcase has run every month for 26 ½ years, beginning with the first RAP Cassette in February of 1989, becoming the RAP CD in February of 2001, and finally the RAP Soundstage in January of this year. This past year has resulted in fewer and fewer contributions to the Soundstage, to the point that we either need to a) receive more participation, b) make it a bi-monthly or quarterly presentation, or c) stop offering the Soundstage altogether. As has always been the case, what becomes of RAP’s audio showcase is determined by you.
