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Radio spot production: 30-second spots for CASTILIAN CONSPIRACY books

Allan Tépper
Radio spot production: 30-second spots for CASTILIAN CONSPIRACY books 16

I just produced two 30-second audio spots for playback on over-the-air radio, as well as podcasts. Although I wrote and produced them, my voice and studio were not used at all in this production. Instead, one female and three male local voice talent were used, as well as the highest grade audio production equipment I’ve ever seen. Listen to the spots, and learn the who, the how and the why, ahead…

Writing

I wrote the script for both 30-second spots in Castilian, directly on the Spanish ISO keyboard of my 11″ MacBook Air (photo above), using a table in GoogleDocs. (Chapter 13 of my books The Castilian Conspiracy/La conspiración del castellano covers when it is appropriate to classify a keyboard as Spanish ISO, when as Latin American, when as Castilian, and why.) The goal of both audio spots is to peak listeners’ interest and entice them to search for and read a bit more about the books. The first spot is a dramatic a capella presentation by the narrator (without background music or effects). The second spot is much more complex, since it involves dialog between two actors, sound effects, and a tagline by a different professional narrator. Copywriter Tanya Castañeda helped me polish the first draft of each script.

Recording of spot 1

The first spot was performed and recorded by Memo Sauceda (multiple Emmy award winner) using his Neumann 103 microphone (shown above, current street price about US$1,100 plus mounting hardware and pop filter), Universal Audio LA–610 preamp (shown below, street price about US$1,600), and double-walled Whisper Room 4 x 4, at 48 kHz, in neutral Castilian for the Americas (which is the case with all of the other voices in both spots). Memo recorded several takes with a variety of styles, and sent me the uncompressed 48 kHz WAVE file for me to pick my preferred delivery.

Characters/actors involved in spot 2

Spot 2 involves two characters I created, “Eddy” and “Ana”, who are both college students and have a brief conversation just after the bell rings after class. I specifically chose names that would be appropriate both among Hispanics in the US, and in other parts of the Americas, with only two syllables to economize on time in the short 30-second duration.

The Eddy character is played by Humberto Rossenfeld (photo above, ACCA and ACRIN award winner), while the Ana character is played by Marie Colom (right), who makes her voice talent debut with this spot, and quite convincingly corrects Eddy’s inappropriate use of the term “español” (“Spanish”), which is a primary theme of the books being promoted.

Recording of spot 2

All of the voice recordings for spot 2 were recorded in VoiceOverMart’s booth in its studio, located in Coral Gables (Miami), Florida, US. Directed by Víctor Martorella (President of VoiceOverMart) via foldback, the two voice actors involved recorded using VoiceOverMart’s Neumann U87Ai microphone (shown above, current street price, approximately US$3,200 plus hardware mounting and pop filter) via a Focusrite Red 7 preamp/compressor/limiter/de-esser/exciter (not currently available, originally US$4,700 per Víctor Martorella) which sends line-level analog signal to the Avid HD I/O interface (street price US$3,995) which digitizes the audio at 48 kHz and sends it to his Mac Pro tower, using his recently upgraded Pro Tools 11 (see related article here). The Neumann U87Ai microphone is contained within VoiceOverMart’s Acoustic Systems sound booth. Víctor Martorella (with credits such as AT&T, Carvel, Disney, ESPN2, Mercedes-Benz, Microsoft, and Visa) recorded the tag in the same booth with the same equipment.

Post-production of spot 2

Based on my script, Víctor Martorella picked the necessary sound effects (school bell and ambience) from his library and edited them with the three voices using his new Pro Tools 11. After finishing, he sent me the uncompressed stereo 48 kHz WAVE file (for me to distribute to radio stations and podcasters), along with an MP3 version for standalone Internet uses. (The reason for the stereo master is because the ambience is in stereo.)

Listen to the spots

Below you can listen to the spots via the streamed MP3 files (which were encoded by SoundCloud from the original WAVE files), or even download the original WAVE files.

Final delivery

Both spots are currently running on Freddy Castro’s Ideal Radio International (Radio Ideal Internacional) programs over Miami’s Actualidad Radio 1020/1040 AM, where I recently began doing a bi-monthly tech segment. The same two spots will also be run on my upcoming Capicúa FM programs, and probably on others.

Upcoming articles, reviews, and books

Stand by for upcoming articles, reviews, and books. Sign up to my free mailing list by clicking here.

Si deseas suscribirte a mi lista en castellano, visita aquí. Si prefieres, puedes suscribirte a ambas listas (castellano e inglés).

My latest book (paperback + ebook)

My most recent book is available in two languages, and in paperback as well as an ebook. The ebook format is Kindle, but even if you don’t have a Kindle device, you can read Kindle books on many other devices using a free Kindle app. That includes iPad, Android tablets, Mac computers, and Windows computers. Although generally speaking, Kindle books are readable on smartphones like Androids and iPhones, I don’t recommend it for this particular book since it contains both color photos and color comparison charts. The ebook is also DRM-free.

In English:

In English, it is currently available in the following Amazon stores, depending upon your region:

 

Or in your favorite bookstore by requesting ISBN–10: 1456310232 or ISBN–13: 978–1456310233.

En castellano:

En castellano, está disponible actualmente en las siguientes tiendas Amazon, según tu región:

o en tu librería preferida al solicitar el ISBN–10: 1492783390 ó el ISBN–13: 978–1492783398.

Allan Tépper’s other books, consulting, articles, seminars & audio programs

Contact Allan Tépper for consulting, or find a full listing of his books, articles and upcoming seminars and webinars at AllanTepper.com. Listen to his TecnoTur program, which is now available both in Castilian (aka “Spanish”) and in English, free of charge. Search for TecnoTur in iTunes or visit TecnoTur.us for more information.

FTC disclosure

No manufacturer is specifically paying Allan Tépper or TecnoTur LLC to write this article or the mentioned books. Some of the other manufacturers listed above have contracted Tépper and/or TecnoTur LLC to carry out consulting and/or translations/localizations/transcreations. Many of the manufacturers listed above have sent Allan Tépper review units. So far, none of the manufacturers listed above is/are sponsors of the TecnoTur programs, although they are welcome to do so, and some are, may be (or may have been) sponsors of ProVideo Coalition magazine. Some links to third parties listed in this article and/or on this web page may indirectly benefit TecnoTur LLC via affiliate programs.

Copyright and use of this article

The articles contained in the TecnoTur channel in ProVideo Coalition magazine are copyright Allan Tépper/TecnoTur LLC, except where otherwise attributed. Unauthorized use is prohibited without prior approval, except for short quotes which link back to this page, which are encouraged!

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