The CMA’s from John’s perspective

I came across this story from voice dude John Willyard while exploring the archives over at Krash Creative Production’s blog. John voices a large number of television and radio stations, including WCOL here in Columbus Ohio. He’s also been the live announcer for the Country Music Association awards since 1996.

Click here to step into John’s world and learn what it’s like to voice a live television event like the CMA’s!

Multi-band compressing for music

I’ve been wanting an mp3 player for a long time but didn’t really want to spend the money on an iPod. Especially since they don’t come with FM built in, a must have for this radio addict.

So I decided to grab one of the refurbished 4 gig Sansa E260’s offered at Woot.com the other day for $49.99. So far, I really like it. Other than the fact that the screen scratches really easily. A screen protector seems to remedy this. Also, the amp inside this unit can’t seem to handle a lot of power when feeding a set of Sony 7506 headphones so the bass will distort if the EQ is set too bass-heavy. If you keep the bass somewhere around flat, you’re fine.

Since I try to protect my hearing whenver possible, it’s annoying to me when songs change volume without much warning or if there’s a big difference in volume from one file to the next and you’re left scrambling to get the ear buds out of your ears before you go deaf. And the radio-geek in me loves the sound of music that’s been run through a tastefully set multi-band compressor. Some people don’t, but it dulls the harshness in vocals, tightens up the bottom end and just sounds bigger and punchier overall. That’s, of course, the main reasons why radio stations use them as the final piece in their airchain. Here’s an example for you to listen to.

A non-modified track

And here’s the same track processed through the Waves C-4 plugin

And one more example….  Before       After

Multi-banding also has the added benefit of tightening up the bass so you can raise the EQ of the lower frequencies in the player just a bit and not get as much distortion

So the result sounded really, really good on the E260 with headphones. When connected through the stereo in the car, things sounded even better  This process is a little time consuming on each track but very much worth it in my opinion. If you don’t have a plugin that will do the job, I’m almost certain the latest release of Adobe Audition (3) has one built in.

Why is it so easy some days?

I had a really great day yesterday. No, I didn’t get a ton of new clients. I didn’t discover a way to get rich quick, or learn anything monumentous that will help me rise to the top of my field.

Actually, it was a lot more simple than that, but really complicated when I tried to figure out why and discover a formula to do it all the time.

Voicing yesterday was just… easy. Everytime I went into the booth to voice a script, my delivery seemed to be right on, at least according to my ears on playback. No second guessing or multiple takes to get it right. It was just hit after hit. Fun and virtually stress-free. Even auditioning this week was more fun than it normally is. Since I’m a bit of a perfectionist and almost always seem to set the bar too high for myself most of the time, I need days like this once in awhile. Freedom brings the fun back.

Honestly, I wish every day could be like yesterday. Why can’t it be?

Somebody get this blog a cake!

Today marks the one-year anniversary for this blog. It’s also interesting to note that including this post, I’ve made 52 entries which works out to one post every week, on average. That’s a slightly better track record than I thought I had. On the other hand, consistancy might need to be worked on since there were a couple of months that didn’t recieve any entires. Bad Joe.

All the numbers aside, thanks for reading my ramblings. Whether this is your first time visiting or you’re a regular, I hope whatever I put on here is worth the time it takes for you to read it. And I appreciate your comments and thoughts along the way.

Radio not dead, just sleeping

My buddy Clayton does mornings at 94.9 The Sound in Cincinnati Ohio. It’s an interesting station and I’m finding myself taking notes about their unique, no-hype approach to alternative radio. And when radio as a whole isn’t doing too well, The Sound is actually experiencing a considerable amount of growth.

Clayton recently blogged on his MySpace about how radio listening habits change with age and lifestyle. College students who are enjoying their iPods now may have a prodigal son experience with radio a few years down the road. 

Read the full blog here.

And if you’d like to check out how The Sound does radio, click here to listen live.

Also, belated congrats to another friend of mine Jay Kruz, who recently took the Program Director position at The Sound. Looking forward to hearing his unique influence on the station.



Want more on “success”?

I’m noticing that Stu Gray (his real name by the way) and I are trading trackback links like mad-men these days. It started when I responded to a post of his about success. Since then, quite a few others brought their own thoughts to the table as well and all of it is well worth the read. I especially liked what Bobbin Beam said about how success is relative and doesn’t happen overnight. So true.

So if you haven’t lately, surf over to Stu’s blog and temper what you read about success here with the thoughts of a few others there.

The state of radio

It’s easy to see that the radio industry is going through a lot of change right now. Roy H. Williams, commonly known as “The Wizard of Ads” believes that the changes aren’t done. His MondayMorningMemo from last week made an interesting prediction regarding the future of radio morning shows.

Check it out here.

Another fun video

Thanks to Stephanie at Voices.com for featuring this voiceover video that popped up on YouTube recently as part of a video contest. It’s good for a chuckle. Incidentally, “dad” is played by Dave Foxx from Z100 who was featured earlier on the blog in this video.

  

Strengthening relationships

After a rousing round of phone tag, I enjoyed reconnecting today with a producer at a medium-market production house who found me on the internet a couple of years ago. At the time, I auditioned for a campaign he was handling for a large supermarket chain and ended up not getting the gig, which isn’t a big deal. My real mistake was not staying in touch with him.

I decided recently to go through my list of production/agency contacts I’ve had dealings with and make sure I touched base with everybody in some way. This producer was kind enough to mention that he loved my work and the only reason he hadn’t submitted auditions to me recently was because I wasn’t top of mind with him. That’s a real eye opener. His suggestion was to email him once a month and just check in and see what’s happening. He assured me that an email is never an interuption and helps good talent get into his “inner circle” of people he goes to first when he needs a voice.

It’s been said that this business is all about relationships and relationships grow stale if there isn’t any time and effort invested. I’m learning to make that effort and betting that it will have a direct impact on my bottom line.

Previously on…

If you regularly read articles at “The Onion,” you know that fake news can be very funny. And certainly, this article about the voice actor who gets paid to say “previously on Heroes” was good for a chuckle. But, I also noticed that some of the things that are meant to be satire in this article, are also very true.

Read on.