Most of you guys sure remember Brionne Olsen – Imaging youngster from South Africa, Blog Contest Finalist and lucky winner of an exclusive Skype Q&A with David Konsky.
After learning from the master himself, he’s back with a new piece.
Check out the audio and pics of Brionne’s VO chain. Read the rest of this entry »
Hi guys, it’s Andre.
It’s the 52nd issue of my production diary and once again I’m sharing the things I learn at Benztown about radio imaging and production with you on this blog.
Creating imaging and work parts for various formats and stations at one time isn’t an easy task. It’s about getting the sound that the music you work with has. Nobody would purchase a CHR library that sounds like the CHR music ten years ago. You’ve got to keep up with your formats and their sound.
That’s why we’re working with reference tracks. We always want to sound a bit hotter than the others, so we’re checking out the newest innovators of their format. Check out the key artists of your format or your station and analyze their songs. You’ll soon hear all the characteristic sounds of your specific format.
Now, try to emulate that sound. Get one or two reference tracks into your session and try to make your work parts fit the reference tracks. Recreate certain sounds until you’re close to the original.
Especially when it comes to create drum loops, synths or during mastering – reference tracks help you finding the right sound that makes your imaging fit your format or station.
If you want to know more about the music you’re working with, use some analyzer tools to get an exact image of how it sounds and works.
Below are some work parts created from reference tracks for various Benztown formats. Maybe you can guess some of them 
Cheers and have a nice weekend.
We’re taking leave of one of the world’s greatest female singers of our time. Soul and Pop diva Whitney Houston died at the age of 48.
She was one of the biggest stars in music history having a lot of No 1 albums and hits in the 80′s and 90′s. During her unbelievable career she sold 170 million records and won six Grammys. Whitney is one of the biggest female artists and a source of inspiration for following generations.
Although she had a problematic private life, her music will never be forgotten, so we took our time to honor this great lady with the following Promo and Sweeper and remembering a fantastic career. Thank you Whitney!
Hi guys, it’s Andre.
It’s time for another issue of my production diary and I’m still learning everything about radio imaging and production from the Benztown Crew.
Every producer has his own preferences in working with Pro Tools and also the included tool bar. Today I’m going to show you how to create clarity in your tool bar and increase your workflow by customizing it for your own needs.
Click the arrow in the upper corner on the right to enable and disable certain elements of your tool bar. (click the images for full size)
In the pop up menu you can choose which elements will be visible and which not.
Click to see how to customize your tool bar any further. Read the rest of this entry »
Most of you guys heard his name already: Jeff Schmidt – he is the guy behind all the Alien Imaging stuff. His libraries like Fuse Reloader or Warp are legendary and sold all over the place. As a FX creator on my own, who loves making Noizes and Sounds Jeff is an unbelievable talent and I am so happy we got him on board to create custom FX for all the Benztown libraries. Jeff is also a very talented imaging director and an electric bass guitar player.
I love his work and by listening to new his new package I go nuts. Jeff is this guy you ask yourself, how did he fu***** do it + he inspires me to start a second episode of FAME FX just so I can prove myself against his great products.
If YOU want to learn how to create the best IMAGING FX…..Enter Jeff:
Hi guys, it’s Andre.
It’s the 50th issue of my production diary an I’m still sharing all the thing, I learn at the Benztown studios.
Today’s music is mostly heavily compressed with a lot of loudness. You will see this, when you’re working with a lot of music in your promos. Music combined with FX, VO and vocal samples, then mastered again in your own master channel… Sometimes, that’s just too much and you’ll have clipping on your master.
There’s a simple way to avoid this without a lot of work – the Music Bus
Sunday, February 5th – a fix date in the schedule of every sport fan. the Patriots versus the Giants and over 800 Million people are watching it.
It’s a mass event for all fans and broadcasters – across all media!
But how to set up your station for this upcoming major event? At Benztown, we prepared a full football imaging package for each format containing basic stuff like samples, music beds, looped intros of american football related songs, soundtracks, movie samples, listener reactions, sfx, scenes, stagers, promos and sweepers. You can do this for every format. No matter if you are an informative sports radio or if you take football serious more or less! There’s always a way to make your station sound football and up to speed with this event.
Check this selection of imaging pieces + the greatest speech ever from a football movie and use it as inspiration for your station.
Hi guys it’s Andre,
it’s the 49th issue of my production diary and I’m still sharing all the tricks and techniques I learn at the Benztown Studios.
To get full accuracy while editing, Pro Tools offers a feature called nudging. With nudging you can place your audio or MIDI files exactly in grid, in time or time code or other parameters like Feet + Frames or samples.
First you need to set your nudge value. You can do this in the tool bar at the top of your edit window.
This was the first step. Click to see the rest…
Welcome to the most inspiring job post in the world. It’s not to be a greenkeeper at the Playboy mansion, but for a hungry, motivated imaging pro, we think it will be far better.
Our vision is for YOU to join the team at the Benztown Studios in Stuttgart. Working alongside some of the best composers, VO talents, and radio people in the world, you will be creating unbelievable, world-class imaging and sound design for a brand new Benztown Library. We see the following taking place:
1. You develop into one of the worlds leading and most innovative imaging professionals by delivering unmatched quality and sound for Benztown clients.
2. You transform your skill-set and reputation to reach beyond radio imaging, to include composing, writing, VO, etc. If you’re talented, you’ll be learning it.
3. You work as part of a great team composed of different expertise and massive talent.
4. You contribute your own weekly blog post on Benztown Branding’s blog, and share ideas with a forum of more than 2000 radio and imaging people each week.
To sum it up in one sentence….Benztown Branding wants a hungry, motivated, rising star in the world of radio imaging to grab his/her once in a lifetime opportunity to build a new project from the ground up, and make it one of the most successful radio imaging products in the world.
Desired qualities:
- Extremely motivated and unafraid to take on a massive task
- You eat, sleep, and breathe radio imaging
- Creative, dynamic thinker
- Able to grasp and apply new techniques and concepts quickly
- Have a background in radio
- You are able to work collaboratively in a team environment
- Native English Speaker
Please send to as@benztown.com
- Your bio
- A demo of your best imaging work, no longer than 2:30 minutes. Please include the most creative imaging script you’ve written as well.
- A short essay about why you think you’re THE guy for this opportunity
- Feel free to create a custom audio demo about why you want the job, or anything you think will place you above the competition
Today, I’m going to start a little series of posts called Imaging World Wide. In every episode, I will interview a very talented imaging director from another continent showing the unique cultural background, the specifics, but also the techy stuff you all enjoy so much like plugIN combos, Session Setup, Audio Examples and more
Let’s start with episode 1…..South Africa and someone, most of you guys might still know – Brionne Olsen.
After taking part in our Benztown Xmas Contest 2012 it’s time for him to represent South Africa in our series. Check out Brionne’s screen shots, his audio and learn everything about IMAGING SOUTH AFRICA! Enter Brionne Read the rest of this entry »
