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Last week I was busy working on a very interesting documentary on independent DIY bands in Ireland. The hour long documentary entitled “A Joyful Slog” featured many Irish bands such as Redneck Manifesto, Adebisi Shank, Jape and Halves.
A lot of the dialogue and music that came in on the OMF was distorted. Using the Waves plugins (x crackle and x click mainly) I managed to clean it up somewhat. Its not perfect by any means but a whole lot better.
We have a number of good microphones at Egoboo recording studio in Dublin. Among those mics we have got a Neumann U87, A Neumann TLM 103 and a Peluso LE 2247 tube mic. I’m leaning towards the Peluso for most recording sessions. Especially with male voiceover artists it really sounds great in the low end. I’m using the peluso with a great river ME1NV pre-amp and Slate Pro Audio Dragon compressor. Turning “Boom” and “Bite” switches on really gives back a professional voiceover recording. The Peluso is quite bright so sibilance can be an issue especially with female artists so I’d turn to either of the Neumanns in that scenario. But overall I am delighted with the results I am getting with the Peluso LE2247 which is based on the legendary Telefunken/Neumann U47 Tube.
I found this handy website where you can estimate the length of reads or the amount of words that will be in a script. This is very useful for when a client asks how much a voiceover recording is going to cost. Its very useful and has proven quite accurate too.
http://www.edgestudio.com/production/words-to-time-calculator
Here is a song co-written/produced at Egoboo Recording Studios.
Video produced by Collin Gillen of www.Framelight.ie
I had a productive day in the studio yesterday working with Dave McSavage and John Colleary. We were recording songs for the new Savage Eye Series 3 which will be aired in March/April on RTE Television. The guys also joined the tree of fame by engraving their names on the tree in the smoking area!
I’m currently working with piehole.ie to incorporate the piehole search engine into the egoboo site. It will offer my customers an easy to use search engine where the user can select multiple criteria and narrow down their search to find the best voice over artist for the job. The customer can then choose the voice over artist and then book a session at Egoboo recording studios in Dublin. This feature should be available in the next weeks.
Production music is licensed on a non-exclusive basis and therefore others may come across that track and find it suitable for their production too. If you require something exclusive, then we can compose something for you, I added in my response. It will be, of course, a bit more expensive, however it will be unique to your campaign and it can be tailored to fit the visuals or existing audio.
So, the following are points in favor of each path; choosing production music and going for a specially composed track:
Production or Library Music:
Though you will get good deals from composers in this economy, production tracks are less expensive. The price will depend basically on the size of your audience – not too much for corporate or online video, but usually a decent jump up to advertising use.
There is always a good selection of library music available and there are many ways to search. If you are willing to put some time in you should find a track that will fit. Library composers are filling every possible gap of required styles and genres of music these days.
Help is at hand – Many libraries give good assistance in finding the right tracks for clients. They are familiar with their music and can get suitable tracks quickly.
You can browse music with no commitment to buy. Often libraries will offer clients a downloadable low res file for previewing tracks with a video.
The music will not be unique to your production, but with the large amount of tracks on offer, the chances of it being picked up for, say a similar ad campaign, are slim.
Hire a Composer:
The obvious thing is that you are working with a composer to try to get exactly what you want. You might be able to supply them with a video to work to so the music can be punctuated to what is happening visually. The piece of music can be written to finish perfectly with the end of a commercial for example. It does help, however to have a trusted relationship with your composer and to know that they understand your brief.
Talk to your composer. Some are very well experienced and can often help in the overall creativity of a commercial, even down to the concept of the ad itself.
Composers know that need to be on hand to make last minute changes when they are needed and they can do this easily enough with today’s music creation tools.
Other versions and edits can also be made down the line, e.g., a Christmas version, shorter versions etc.
Hopefully this has helped to discover the advantages of each road when choosing which source of music to choose. Whatever road you opt for, there is a lot of good quality music out there and it is often as good and attention grabbing as fully commercial tracks.
January is busy producing radio ads for businesses. With the price of advertising dropping in recent months its opening up ways for small businesses to get more business in. Egoboo can fully produce quality radio ads with composed music for very competitive prices. It’s important to pick the right voice over actor for the job. He/she needs to connect with the target audience and deliver the message. Hiring a music composer to record a jingle or custom music piece gives the client more lead.
Glenn has been making a few visits to Egoboo from Sligo in preparation for his support slot with the Westlife UK & Ireland tour 2012. We have written and recorded an upbeat song entitled “Temperature Rising” which he plans to release some weeks before the tour.
