A Helpful VO Interview

Lance Blair · Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2007, 06:22 (GMT) Post subject: A Helpful VO Interview

My apologies if this interview has already been posted elsewhere on these forums, or if it's not good netiquette to refer to the following site, but this is a nice interview with a certain well known vo talent:

http://www.minewurx.com/echos/article.php/20070319082041121

Disciplinarian Training +
Engagement with Production Techniques+
Sensibility for Popular Dramatics and Timing =
_______________________

Don

Ed Gambill · Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2007, 12:35 (GMT) Post subject:

Lance

Thanks, it was a very good read. I took special not about his studio method. Read it, keep it dry and let the client do all the tweeking. A very good KISS system

Ronald T Robinson · Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2007, 14:14 (GMT) Post subject:

The way we used to "time" a mix on multiple Ampex machines was by putting a chunk of colored tape on the reel; back it up 2 or 3 full revolutions and hit "play".

We'd watch the reel and just before it finished it's revolutions, we'd hit a "record" on the master-Ampex.

Worked like a damn! - occasionally!

Getting that "The Big Hurt" or "Itchycoo Park" flanging effect was another story altogether! Smile

Lee Gordon · Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2007, 16:46 (GMT) Post subject:

David Oxford · Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2007, 17:33 (GMT) Post subject:

Ronald T Robinson · Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2007, 17:40 (GMT) Post subject:

As the "old-farts" convention continues...

We never had vari-speed remotes on anything, so what we would do is use thumb-pressure on one or both of the reels of each deck until we got juuuuust the right flanging effect.

Now, about those mountains of tape on the production-room floor.... Smile

Michael Strah

Imagine how many of us were trusted with these three things: grease, alcohol, and a razor blade when approaching an Ampex!!!! Laughing

And how many of us forgot to turn off the machine and amp when demagging? Something you only did once Laughing

And how many of us dodged a flying piece of sketchy plastic reel flange when it self destructed at max rpm's rewind?
And how many of us found creative uses for metal flanges? Laughing

It would be fun to have an old school edit contest against Dan L.
Say 5 mouth noise edits and 5 sentence breaks (but with "room tone" spliced in).

Colin Campbell · Posted: Fri Sep 07, 2007, 15:32 (GMT) Post subject:

Wow! Man... that was a great article. Being an old analog fart myself. Ah... the days of the grease pencil and razor blade.

On the phazing bit.... I remember screwing around on the air as a jock with two copies of the same record very slightly slowing one down, then the other mixing them together on the air to create a "psycadelic" effect.

Great stuff.

Michael Strah · Posted: Fri Sep 07, 2007, 15:35 (GMT) Post subject:

And the PD's never understood what drove a jock to do that on air.
Working alone in a small market with a format that was too tight was always the "mother of invention". Laughing

Jacob Ekstroem

Michael Strah · Posted: Fri Sep 07, 2007, 17:38 (GMT) Post subject:

"How many of us forgot to rewind the tape, took it off the machine and archived it, so the next time it played backwards?"

Ah, c'mon, we all know you covered that one with "Hey, didn't anyone ever teach you what "tails out" is?" Laughing

Said with a straight face and a dismissive tone, it saved the lives of many LOL!

Colin Campbell · Posted: Fri Sep 07, 2007, 19:21 (GMT) Post subject:

Ronald T Robinson · Posted: Fri Sep 07, 2007, 23:09 (GMT) Post subject:

I was on the air and doing production, as well. One of our "prod"-jobs was to be sure to place a piece of sticky tinfoil on the tape in the cartridge juuust before the audio started. (This served as the "start/stop"-cue.)

Once again, the foil had fallen off and the cart refused to start. I turned in my chair and hollered, "C'mon bitch! Start!!"

The next time I bellowed at a cart-deck, I made sure the on-air mic was off! Smile

Lee Gordon · Posted: Fri Sep 07, 2007, 23:56 (GMT) Post subject:

My first radio job was at a station that could be described as a "toilet." We had three ancient Tapecaster cart machines (the ones that looked like bathtubs) all running through the same pot on the board. So every cart that was poorly erased (and that was most of them) would leave a little "whoop-whoop-whoop" sound in the background as the next spot was being played. And, of course, when the cart "burped" at the end because the cue was too tight, you got to hear that on the air as well. The obvious solution to this problem was to stop the carts as soon as they were done playing and wait until the stop set was over, pot down, and finish cycling the carts until they re-cued. But who the hell ever remembered to cue up all of their carts. And that, of course, resulted in the other problem: dead air when sombody slapped an uncued cart in the machine, hit the start button, and got nothing -- well, except for the "whoop-whoop-whoop" and the burp.

David Oxford · Posted: Sat Sep 08, 2007, 00:11 (GMT) Post subject: