Unit 6 –
Production
Process
Radio Commercial Forms
• Straight-Read
Copy is presented with no music or other
effects
Depend on quality of one’s voice
Emphasis, Pausing, Inflection, and Rate
Chosen based on tone of voice and
enthusiasm
Radio Commercial Forms
• Fact Sheet Commercial
Listing of basic information and characteristics
Announcer must ad-lib the spots
Sounds natural
• Straight Read and Fact Sheet are difficult because
the only tool you have is your voice
Radio Commercial Forms
• Music Bed Commercial
Punches up straight read commercial
Appropriate mood
Not distracting or too loud
Could also use SFX to create a “natural”
environment
Radio Commercial Forms
• Music Bed Commercial
Punches up straight read commercial
Appropriate mood
Not distracting or too loud
Could also use SFX to create a “natural”
environment
Radio Commercial Forms
• Donut Commercial
Combination of recorded message and local
live copy
Jingle is at beginning and end, local announcer
is inserted in the middle
Timing is essential
• Live Tag
Recorded info comes first and announcer adds
a bit of information that connects message at
the end
Radio Commercial Forms
• Spokesperson Commercial
Well-known person, owner or manager
• High Production Value (Dramatization/Slice of Life)
Collection of voices, music, sound effects,
singers
Present everyday scenes and insert
commercial message
Mini dramas with characters, settings,
Structure of Commercial
• 1. Get Attention
Ask a question
Make an unusual statement
Use a sound effect
• 2. Create Need
• 3. Satisfy Need
• 4. Demand Action
Analyzing Commericals
• Goal
Selling is not the only goal
Also interested in image
What are they trying to accomplish?
• Mood/Tone
Read it to yourself first
Tone of voice must be appropriate
Understate the tone, don’t be too obvious
Identify changes in the mood
Analyzing Commericals
• Sincerity/Energy
Must attract and hold attention
How should this sound?
Be cautious when using humor
• Message
What is advertiser trying to get across?
Action, Idea, Urging
Identify key information and emphasize it
Analyzing Commercials
• Intended Audience
Demographics
Listen to everyday conversations
Helps with dramatized commercials
• Emphasis
Key words
Mark your copy
Analyzing Commercials
• Timing
+/- 1 sec on target
Pause, Tempo variation, Clarity, Phrasing
• Hard Sell v Soft Sell
Hard Sell – tension and excitement
Soft Sell – relaxation and conversational
Pre-Production
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Very little radio happens by accident
Involves planning
Thinking, Writing, Gathering, Discussing
Always be on the lookout for ideas
Formal and informal research
Find Unique angles
Pre-Production
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Think about WHY you are producing the project
Informative, Entertaining???
Motivation will affect how you put piece together
What action do you want audience to take?
How do you want the audience to feel?
Create visuals with audio
Pre-Production
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Think about WHY you are producing the project
Informative, Entertaining???
Motivation will affect how you put piece together
What action do you want audience to take?
How do you want the audience to feel?
Create visuals with audio
Audience & Style
• Demographics – age, sex, income, nationality, etc.
• Psychographics – hobbies, interests, affiliations
• Same information can be packaged for different
groups
• Be original, bring a personality to your project
• Serious, funny, silly, sarcastic, epic, etc.
Production Elements
• Voice (VFX)
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Host/Narrator
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Actualities
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Characters
Production Elements
• Music (Audio Architecture Library)
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Foreground (focus)
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Background (bed)
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Music Libraries
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Usually sectioned by style
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Can create your own beds
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www.royaltyfreemusic.com
Production Elements
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Sound effects (SFX)
Augment (add to) or Punctuate a point
Atmospheres (Effect It CD)
Natural environment
Stingers (Imagio Library)
Short and sharp to command immediate action
SFX Libraries or create/record your own
Silence can be a SFX
Dramatic pause vs dead air
Production Elements
• Scripting
• Writing and collecting audio will happen
simultaneously
• Ongoing process
• Script is the blueprint
• Beginning, middle, end construction
• Script Format
Words are LEFT justified
All other FX in brackets and RIGHT justified
Double spaced, All caps
Analog Audio
• Analog is electrical signal whose shape is defined
by the shape of the sound
• Can store a duplicate of this signal on magnetic
tape
• Sound pressure changes result in changes of
voltage and are recorded as changes in magnetic
strength
• Each new generation of analog recording will be
subject to degradation, because signal slightly
changes shape
• Depends on tape, and there could be defects or
decreases
Digital Audio
• Digital is electrical signal composed of series of
on/off pulses (binary numbers)
Filtering
• Analog signal is stripped of frequencies above and
below human haring range
• Aliased – inaudible frequencies are shifted into
audible ones
• Anti-aliasing – they are not
Sampling
• Analog signal is divided many times a second
• Measures the amplitude at each moment a sample
is taken
• More samples, more exact the reproduction
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Much like motion picture
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32,000 44,100, 48,000 samples per second are
common
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Rate must be at least twice as the highest
frequency
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We hear up to 20,000 Hz, so 44,100 Hz rate
is common
Quantizing
• Rounds each amplitude sample up or down to the
nearest value
• Bit Depth = rounding levels
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Higher the bit depth equals better fidelity of the
recording
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1 bit = 2 levels (no amplitude or maximum
amplitude)
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2 bits = 4 levels
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3 bits = 8 levels
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16 bits is most common = 65,536 levels
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20 and 24 technology is now being seen
Coding
• Putting 0’s and 1’s in a series to correspond with
each value
• This binary code is what is actually recorded
• So we can have numerous copies with not loss of
quality
Editing
• -Won’t usually record what you want on the first try
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Eliminate mistakes without rerecording entire thing
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Do it take by take
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Take out vocal filler
• Decrease length of production work
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Must achieve exact length for your pieces
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Manually edit pauses
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Time compress
• Record out of sequence
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Rearrange order of recordings
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Use portions of longer recordings
Digital Editor
• 2 track and multitrack
• Need a DSP Audio card
• Software programs
Adobe Audition
Digidesign Pro Tools
Sony Sound Forge
Steinber Cubase Studio
• Other Types
Digital audio workstations
Personal audio editor
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Shortcut
Digital Pros/Cons
• Accessing and cueing up is faster
Adjusting length
Encode file with other labeling information
Ease of repair
If it does crash you lose EVERYTHING
though
-Backup your files
Noise problem (fans, disk drives)
MIDI & Latency
• MIDI/SMPTE each allow operator to sync multiple
different pieces of equipment together
• Latency
• Time to convert analog to digital, add digital effect
to audio, or to move audio from one place to
another
• Usually only milliseconds
• More complex the project, more you are
susceptible to it
Digital Audio Editing
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Begins after you have recorded audio into the system or Ripped – pulling
audio from CD
Edit View: Record, process, edit
Waveform view: shows audio file you are editing
Transport buttons: control recording and playback functions
Timeline display: timing information and horizontal/vertical zooms to
scale the audio
File, new, select appropriate recording specifications
Sample rate: 44,100
Channel: Stereo (Mono if voice only)
Bit Depth: 16 bit
Clicking record begins the recording
Check your levels at the bottom (keep them around -6)
You can save from here
Region
Trimming
Shift + Click to adjust edit points (may need to zoom)
Nondestructive Nature
• Original audio isn’t actually altered
• You can always save a copy of your master
unedited file
• Undo feature allows you to go back a step if you
have not saved
• Can use the same audio in many places within a
project
Multitrack Techniques
• Each element can be recorded and placed on a
separate track
• Manipulated individually and played simultaneously
• Pull down menus give you a variety of functions
• Audio can be mixed, moved, copied, and deleted
• Each track has pan and volume faders
Multitrack Techniques
• Over-dubbing: Adding a new track to existing
tracks
• Punch In/Insert Edit: Record over just the part that
has mistake
• Bouncing/Ping-Pong: Combining two or more
tracks on a multitrack recorder and recording them
on a vacant track
Multitrack Voice FX
• Voice Doubling: Illusion of 2 people reading same
script at same time
• Chorusing: Adding at least 2 more tracks on top of
double in sync
• Stacking: Singing in harmony to existing track
• Dovetailing: Appears to be 2 different announcers