What's Goin' On This Week?

The past week has been an exciting one in the studio. Almost every day it has been bustling with clients from all over the place!

Tapeworks fosters such care for their clients, and I definitely saw that reflected in Ernie Sabella's and Brian Dennehy's faces when they came in to record voiceover tracks. In the midst of their sparkling acting careers, both men have been working with Tapeworks for a multitude of projects. They come back for the quality of work, but also because of the friendship.

In addition to these sessions, we've been hard at work on spots for Hartford Health Care and Mascola Group. The projects have ranged from radio spots to national TV spots. For each one, Tapeworks gathered audition tracks from their database of voice actors, chose the finalists alongside the team at Hartford Health Care and Mascola Group, and finally recorded the tracks in a session. It's inspiring to see these teams of people come together to complete projects with swift determination. I got to meet not only the people in charge of advertising at Hartford Health Care, but also the scriptwriter and talent! It certainly takes many more people that I was expecting to create an advertisement, and Tapeworks is an integral part of the process.

A Day With Daym

If you haven't heard of Daymon Patterson, otherwise known as Daym Drops, then you are missing out on a significant piece of entertainment. We got the opportunity this month to work on voiceovers with him for his new show, "Baby Got Snack," on the Cooking Channel.

I'm talking about a big man with a big personality. In the few hours before his arrival at the studio, I learned about his history from managing retail at WalMart and Carmax to making videos reviewing fast food restaurants. The Internet was taken with his review for Five Guys Burgers and Fries. This was when a world of opportunity opened up for Daym. He has come a long way and is now working hard for the Cooking Channel with his enthusiastic, playful and exciting food reviews.

On the day of his session, the studio was buzzing with excitement. Soon enough, Daym and his co-host Chris Clarke, otherwise known as "C-Snacks," entered the building. When Daym enters a room, the atmosphere becomes electrified. He speaks with a booming fervor that puts a smile on your face and a laugh in your belly. There's no question about why Damn is as successful as he is, especially after seeing him work with his producer while Bill recorded their voiceovers. Daym experiments with phrasing and accentuation, all the while maintaining a flow that is unique to him.

What I really took away, though, was the lesson that anything is possible with hard work. Daym and Chris have both travelled down a long road that has brought them to extraordinary places. They are absolutely charming and inspirational.

I hope I've caught your attention, because they are working on a project that is definitely worth your attention and time. If you want to learn about food and laugh along the way, be sure to check out, "Baby Got Snack" on the Cooking Channel!

The new intern steps in through the buzzing doors at Tapeworks Inc for her first day in the studio. 

I'm Therese Masotta, twenty-two years old, fresh out of UConn with an English degree/concentration in creative writing/Psychology minor, and I have been granted with the opportunity of interning with a uniquely talented audio produce: Bill Ahearn.

Join me in a grand adventure to discover what it truly means to work at Tapeworks Inc in this eclectic town of Hartford, CT. From what I can tell already, we'll meet people from all walks of life: stars, musicians, voice over artists, radio announcers - all brimming with determination and enthusiasm for the craft. And the entire way will be lead by the ever talented, never boring, Bill.

I'll be posting throughout the summer of 2016 to keep you updated on all the hard work happening here at Tapeworks. I sure do hope you find joy in following along!

Signed,

Therese M (TM)

Anatomy of Radio Spot Production, P.1

A little while back, our friends over at the Mascola Group came to us with a cool new idea for their Big E campaign.  They wanted an upbeat, gospel music-driven music track that reflected the fun and excitement that people feel when they go to the Big E every fall, but it needed to be tailor-made for the voiceover (or VO) content of the spot.   

Once we had cast our VO talent, it was time to start on the music.  First, a chord progression was created at a pace that would fit enough instrumental & vocal elements to keep the music interesting, for not only 30-second radio spots but also 15-second TV commercials.  Engineers/"Music Bed Extraordinaires" Bill Ahearn and Chris Lennie played & recorded all of the instruments on a music bed that features drums, bass, piano, tambourine, and a little B-3 organ for good measure... and then the fun really began!

After putting together a music mix, we brought in 4 amazing singers to be our "Gospel Chorus" and bring the spot to life. Our singers - accustomed to performing live and singing within the genre - absolutely nailed it in a couple of takes, and the music (with vocals) was ready to be laid back against the VO audio. 

Recording and mixing voiceover audio with pre-existing music and vocals can be tricky.  The music needs to have time to "breathe", and the VO needs to sound natural; not choppy (like it was over-edited or altered in post-production just to fit within a music bed).  Chief Engineer Bill Ahearn found a perfect balance between the different elements though, and the end result was a catchy, high-energy, joyful "call & response" dynamic that features some shout outs to some of our favorite aspects of the Big E: the rides, the games, the Llamas, and of course the donut-bacon-cheeseburger. 

Seeing our work show up on TV is always cool, but this one was extra special for us because of our involvement with the campaign's production from several different angles. 

The Big E runs September 13-29.  We can't wait to "Take a ride on the magic slide" and party it up at the Mardi Gras parade... hopefully we'll see you all there!        

Steph's Summer Intern Blog Week 4

Week 4:  Things have been busy here at Tapeworks Recording Studio throughout the month of July! Here are some of the highlights of the past month:

     For the past two weeks or so, we have been working on audio for the Lego Galaxy Squad mini movie, which will make its grand appearance online sometime in the near future! Check back soon to find where and when you can view for yourself this epic bug battle! I was able to do some hands on work with this project, helping with sound design, or adding in sound effects. After watching Bill and Chris do this on other projects, it was fun to finally get a chance to try it for myself! Most of what I worked on was in the "bug battle scene," adding in explosion sounds, laser gunshots, and more, which was not as simple as it may seem. First, I had to identify where a sound was needed, then audition multiple sounds that could fit the scene. After selecting the perfect sound, I positioned and edited it in Pro Tools to synchronize with the video play back. However, not every explosion sounds the same, or lasts for equal amounts of time. So through the use of pitch/time shifting, EQ, and gain, I created multiple different versions of each sound file to develop a unique sound for each occasion, while still maintaining a sense of unity through all. All of us here at Tapeworks spent a great deal of time working on this awesome project! Who knew that Bill could speak bug along with bringing to life a world of creepy crawlies and massive aircrafts, tanks, and machines through sound design?! Meanwhile, Chris spent long hours hard at work composing the orchestral score that highlights the intense bug battle. It was a big undertaking, as it was an involved project with a very limited time frame, but it all was completed on schedule!

     There were several radio commercials that were recorded recently, including one for Lockheed Martin and one for Hartford Hospital. Most people do not realize the amount of time and work that goes into recording a radio commercial. There could be twenty different takes for a thirty second commercial, with the difference between each take amounting to a one word change, or a slightly different emphasis on a phrase. It all pays off when the final, perfect take is captured! (Or cut up and edited in Pro Tools later.)

      The next big upcoming project will be for the Big E. There are two different radio commercials that need to be recorded, along with a few different TV spots. The difficulty with this task is that each commercial involves voice actors, an original musical composition, plus the fact that each spot varies a bit from the last. So we shall see how this unfolds over the next couple weeks. This will be a really fun project, which you just may hear on your favorite radio station soon!

Featured Artist: Jason Roberts

      Famed organist Jason Roberts is a man of few words, preferring to let his extraordinary musical talent do the speaking for him. That being said, I was able to get Mr. Roberts divulge some information to me about his recent performance at St. Joseph's Cathedral in Hartford, CT, which was recorded by Tapeworks Inc.

       Mr. Roberts got his start playing piano as a child, which eventually led to organ lessons in high school. He recalled hearing the organ played in church his entire life and falling in love with the sound. The concert was sponsored by the Hartford AGO, an organization of organists which Mr. Roberts is a member of, that organizes conventions and concerts every year. The AGO selected Mr. Roberts to be a featured performer this year and on Tuesday, July 2^nd, he gave a spectacular concert to the packed cathedral. When asked how he went about selecting the material he performed, Mr. Roberts informed me that he wanted to perform a "variety of different things," which included a wide range of "dynamics [to] showed off the space." The vastness of the cathedral proved somewhat of a challenge when mixing the recording, when the engineers had to deal with incorporating the natural reverb of the space, while still preserving the clarity of the organ. Mr. Roberts said that the organizers had asked him to improvise which he did as well.

      As for future performances, Mr. Roberts will be a featured recitalist at the East Texas Pipe Organ Festival this November, before recording music for silent films in January and February 2014.

By: Stephanie Vaughan

Steph's Summer Intern Blog Day 3

Day 3: This morning I got the abridged experience of life as a secretary at a recording studio, an important step in any internship. As I turned on the computer at my new workstation, I was greeted by a somewhat disturbing desktop background of what appeared to be an image of a shark-bear creature jumping out of the ocean, left by the previous intern. Needless to say that was quickly changed. I was set up with my own email, Stephanie@tapeworksinc.com, and was shown how to access the online studio calendar so I would be up to date on all the sessions taking place here at Tapeworks.

            After a couple hours getting acquainted with the computer set up, I went into Studio A and sat in while Chris was recording a radio spot, with client Doug Bennett for Westchester Medical Center. Once the recording was completed, lunch commenced which consisted of chicken salad for the guys, while again I brought my own.

            Following lunch, I went back into Studio A with Chris and Doug while they finished producing the radio spot. The big discussion was what sound effect, if any to add to the spots involving a trip to the mall and golfing. After some deliberation, no sound effect was added to those commercials.

            A little while later, Bill came in and said he had a little project for me. We went into Studio B and he opened up a session he had done with a singer-songwriter from Pennsylvania a short time ago. He gave me the task of mixing the fully recorded and edited song as an exercise in mixing. I love mixing so I was really excited! It was a simple tune, clocking in at just over two minutes, with the instrumentation consisting of piano, acoustic guitar, and voice. I experimented with different reverb, delay, EQ, and compression plug-ins, since they have some different plug-ins here than I never tried before. One helpful tip Bill gave me was to try to use different reverbs and delays on each different instrumentation group, to give each its own color and sound. Bill also showed me the PAZ Analyzer plug-in, which when inserted on the Master track, analyzes the frequency range of the entire song, showing precisely where it would be best to boost and cut certain frequencies.

            I have learning quite a bit about radio commercials in the past couple weeks. While I was driving to Tapeworks this morning, I listened close to each radio commercial and tried to imagine what the recording session for that spot went like. Also, learning those mixing techniques I know will greatly help and improve my mixes in the future!