Audio on television

Alistair Taylor is a Sound guy. Not only because he’s a pretty nice and together sort of person, but also because he works as a sound engineer in television.

He’s worked on programmes such as Blue Peter, ‘Dick and Dom in Da Bunglow’ and other CBBC shows.

So Mr nice sound guy, what do you do all day?
Well, when you’re watching a TV programme on which I am sound engineer, I’m in charge of all the sounds that come out of your TV set.

Like what for example?
Everything from the presenters talking, bands playing music and singing, sound effects, the programmes’ theme tunes (which come from a CD) to pre-recorded items on Blue Peter about elephants.

Take us through an average day then.
Before the programme starts, I clip small microphones on everyone who needs to be heard, usually onto their shirt. Sometimes we may need other floor microphones - which stand on the ground - to hear musical instruments, or very long microphones on a pole called boom mics.

So you must get to meet lots of celebrities then – go on impress us.
I’ve ‘miked up’ Busted, S Club and all the Pop Idols and…

Wow! You’ve touched Busted!
Errm yes and…..

Cool! Did you have to sit in a darkened room to recover!?
Errr No…I had to sit behind a sound desk to make sure that when they started to sing, all their voices sounded the right loudness – or what we call level – and all their instruments were also at the right level.

Oh…OK, how do you do this then?
On the sound desk there are lots of faders and each fader can control the loudness (level) of one or more microphones in the studio. So when the director of the programme says that he or she wants to hear a presenter talk or the band sing…

Like Busted?
Yes, yes like Busted…then I push open the right faders to the right point so that it sounds right. I can also add an echo effect to make their voices sound fuller

Do you always work in a TV studio?
Yes, but some sound engineers work on location – outside the TV studio – perhaps on drama programmes or live sports events.

Getting back to Busted…
I’d rather not.

OK. If you didn’t work in TV where else could you work?
Well, you also find sound engineers working in the theatre, in radio studios and in music recording studios.

So you could also meet Busted there?
Can we stop talking about Busted.

Sorry.
That’s OK.

What’s the best thing about the job then?
Working in a fun environment and on lots of different types of shows.

What makes a good sound engineer?
You have to have good hearing, a good knowledge of how sound works and able to work well with a team of people.

One final question. What did it feel like to touch Busted?
Good bye.

Want to know more about sound engineers?

http://www.prospects.ac.uk/cms/

http://www.learndirect-advice.co.uk/

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Turn that noise down!

Shona Harvey is an Environmental Noise Control Officer with her local council. So watch out…if your radio is too loud and your neighbours complain, she might be round.

Hi Shona, so what’s the big noise then?
Pardon.

Sorry, I mean what do you do?
If people have a complaint about noise I’ll investigate if they have a case.

What kinds of complaints do you get?
Mainly noisy neighbours - but also barking dogs, music from nearby pubs and clubs and we had one lady complain about a noisy typewriter from upstairs, but there wasn’t much we could do about that!!

But don’t we all have different tolerance levels to noise?
Good point.

Thanks
That’s the real problem when it comes to noise. We all have a different perception of what noise actually is. One person’s ‘noise’ is another person’s music. And if you happen to be aware of a noise, even if it’s at a really low level, if you can still hear it, it might still make you angry.

So what do you do then when you get a complaint?
If we think that there is a problem, then we’ll write to the person making the noise making them aware that someone has complained. And we’ll also ask the person who’s made the complaint to keep a noise diary for two or three weeks. This helps us to decide whether or not to take it any further.

What can you do if the noise continues? Can’t you just go ‘Sssshhhh!!!!’ really loudly.
Ermm no. We can go round to the location of the complaint or next door to it and monitor the noise.

Do you have big ears then?
That’s very personal.

Sorry, so how do you take measurements?
We leave a tape recorder called a DAT machine with a microphone pointing towards the noise for a day or so and then return the following day to collect it and listen back to the recordings. Or we might also use a handheld device that measures the loudness of the noise on a meter. One rare occasions the person responsible for the offending noise may have to pay a fine.

Describe a typical day?
I might be setting up noise monitoring equipment in a house whose owners complained about next door’s dogs barking. So I’ll place a microphone near the window facing on to the next door’s garden and then collect the equipment the following day. Or sometimes at weekends I’ll go out with colleagues on a nighttime noise patrol where we respond to people complaining mostly about loud music. And then I’ll write up a report about all the various complaints and outcomes.

So are you a noisy person?
I used to be! When I was at university I’d go clubbing to some very noisy bars. Now I’m might be telling those same clubs to quieten down a little!!!

What do you most like about the job?
I meet people from all walks of life and spend a lot of time out of the office, dealing with an enormous range of issues. I really enjoy the variety and the challenge of juggling my workload.

What makes a good Noise Control Officer?
You have to be caring when dealing with people’s problems and confident but friendly dealing with the neighbours causing them. You need to be able to make a judgment whether or not the noise is a nuisance or not and you have to be technically good operating the sound equipment.

THANK YOU FOR TALKING TO US!!!!!
Please don’t shout.

Sorry…thank you.
OK

Want to know more about being an environmental noise control officer?

http://www.lgcareers.com/careers/profile.asp?93


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Painting pictures with sound

Julian Mayers is a radio producer.

So what exactly do you do?
I produce radio programmes for the BBC. What that means is that I think up ideas for interesting programmes and make them using sounds.

What kinds of programmes do you make?
Everything from sitcoms set in the future to documentaries about science. Or childrens’ stories to ideas like setting an England World Cup football match to classical music.

What kinds of sounds do you use?
The obvious ones would be people talking. That might be presenters, experts who you’d interview, or actors. But also we can use music and sound effects to make the programmes more interesting.

What kinds of sound effects?
Well, say you want to do a radio story about monsters from outer space. Obviously there are no recordings of real monsters from outer space. What you can do is one of two things. First you could build a space ship which travelled faster than the speed of light to find planets with monsters on and then ask one (very politely) to say ‘Roar’. Or you could find something on a sound effect CD – which is a CD with just lots of specially recorded sounds on it – of perhaps a lion roaring. You could then slow down the roar, maybe add some echo to it and there you go, a space monster. Much easier. (Though it won’t win you a Nobel Prize in science!)

Isn’t it harder to make programmes purely in sound and without picture?
Not at all. In fact it’s much easier. Going back to that programme about space monsters, on TV you’d have to see one as well as hear it. Imagine the difficulty and expense of trying to recreate a space monster on the screen. And with radio your imagination paints much better, or scarier or sadder pictures than TV can ever do.

OK, so how do you do all that - what are your tools?
In the ‘old’ days - well up until about ten years ago, most radio was produced using analogue technology – you’d record your sounds, interviews, actors etc on tapes and then go into a radio studio to mix them together. Today it’s nearly all done using digital technology – minidisks, CD’s, mp3 files. And you’d mix them all on a computer.

Mixing sounds – sounds messy!
Well, it is a bit like mixing a cake really. You take your ingredients, in this case different sounds – and add them to each other. So for example, if you wanted to do a story about a boy walking down the street whistling some music when a lion suddenly passes by. You would take your sounds of the boy whistling, some footsteps, and our sound effect of lion roaring – and by mixing them together - which means playing them at the time at the correct volume – you’d hear exactly what you wanted. If you wanted the lion to appear to be nearer the boy, you’d simply make the lion sound louder.

What tips do you have for getting into radio?
Listen to as much radio as you can, music as well as other non-music programmes. Go and help out at your hospital station or local radio station - most are only too pleased to have extra people there. And clean your ears regularly!

Want to know more about Radio production?

http://www.prospects.ac.uk/cms/showpage/


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Thank you for the music!

AD Chivers is a recording sound engineer and producer. He's worked with loads of top musicians, and he’s written and produced music for TV and other media. He's still got his own studio and continues to work in the industry writing, producing and performing. What a cool guy!

Hi AD…Hey, Cool. Nice. Safe. Sorted Right-on.
You what?

Anyway, so tell me about a typical day in your work.
Well, I would start a typical session in the morning by replaying the recordings that were made the night before, checking for mistakes and errors that can creep in especially if you have worked a long day and finished very late - tiredness can play tricks on your ears sometimes - and generally getting back into the vibe of the previous nights work!

Yeah…Vibe! Cool man….whoa.
Pardon?

Sorry, continue please.
If I’m working with a producer, a band and a record company for instance, then the producer and myself would listen to the recordings and make a collective decision to plan the rest of the day. Generally speaking, most bands prefer to work later in the day, it’s only the engineer that gets the short straw and has to be in the session all the time!

I usually work till 1.30, meet up with the band and the producer and plan the rest of the day. Sometimes the evening session can go on until the early hours of the morning depending on the creative juices flowing!

What does that button do?
Don’t touch that please.

OK
Or that one.

Sorry…So what happens when a band come in to record a song?
They’ll sit into the studio - the room with all the microphones, whilst the producer and me sit in here - the control room – with the mixing desk and recording equipment and we’ll be able to see each other through a soundproof glass window.

So tell me something about the equipment?
Most recordings these days is done using digital hard disc recording with multitrack sequencing.

Multitrack sequencing?
Each instrument or voice can be recorded separately as a ‘track’ onto the hard disk. This allows for layering down many audio tracks. Think of it as lots of railway tracks lying next to each other with a different instrument or voice on each and when played you hear them all together. This means, for example, that if one of the instruments isn’t quite right, then we can remove the track or just record that one instrument again without having to re-record everything.

And what programme is on that cool looking computer there, which I’ll just...
No you won’t. I use a professional software package called Emagic's 'Logic audio', which has 'plug in' effects (so I can add reverb to a voice or instrument for example), as well as editing facilities. I use this software with a G5 Macintosh computer and a digital mixer to make sure that the volume or level of each sound is correct.

Do you always use digital equipment then?
Not always, to record non-digital instruments such as ' the voice', I sometimes use more traditional analogue mixers which often give a richer, warmer sound.

Why’s that little light flashing? I’ll just press it shall I….
No.

How did you get to be doing your job?
I started off making music with friends at school, practicing in my friends’ garage, annoying the neighbours (and parents!) As I got more involved with songwriting, I decided to save up and buy a 'four track cassette machine’ making my own demos (which were pretty awful). As time progressed, I started to be interested in the production techniques and soon got involved in a local recording studio, this is where I met many people in the recording business, and developed my engineering skills.

Who have you worked with?
I’ve worked with hundreds of different artists, producers and record companies, I guess the better known ones would be Peter Gabriel, Midge Ure, Brian Eno, and many world music artists.

I think my parents liked them! What’s this knob do?
Leave it alone.

Ouch.
I’ll fetch a plaster later.

So AD, what makes a good recording studio engineer?
Someone who doesn’t fiddle with the equipment.

Oh… sorry…What else?
Enormous amounts of patience, being methodical, fastidious, organised, calm, reliable, punctual, must be able to communicate and get on with other people, must be able to take criticism from time to time (especially by egocentric producers), willing to work very long and unsociable hours, ...oh and clean!

What’s the best thing about the job?
Meeting some very interesting, creative people.

Any tips for getting into this as a career?
Record as much as possible, your own material, record your mates’ bands, go and do some voluntary work at a local studio, even if it’s making the tea, opportunities arise if you are in the right place at the right time and of course, go and do some formal training, exams etc, ......but you still have to get through the door!

Thanks AD. You’ve been really great. I wonder if I can just…
OK go on then…press that button on there on the wall.

The lights have gone out! AD … AD …are you still there …Hello …anyone?


PS: Want to find out about where you could do a course?
There are loads of Music Technology and Sound Recording courses available, both fulltime courses, evening classes, and summer schools. Check out what’s available near you on the internet!

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