Imaging Finland – Meet Heikki Wichmann RAP Awards 2nd Runner Up

Finland, the land of polar bears, wodka, ice and snow :)…and excellent radio imaging.

This year’s 24th “Radio and Production Awards” were announced at the end of march and as always a lot of talented people took the challenge and participated. I am very happy to share an interview with one of the contestants and 2nd Runner Up for Large Market Promo : Heikki Wichman from Finland. Heikki is a great guy who has been doing radio imaging for commercial radio in Finland since 1997. He has been working for many stations like U103, Sävelradio, Radio Nova, Nostalgia and NRJ. For the work below on the “Energy Extravadance Show” in 2013, he earned the 2nd runner-up in the category  “Large Market Promo” on this year’s “Radio and Production Awards” and I am thrilled he took some time to answer my questions.

Rock IMAGING feat. Kiwi, Burgers and Sauerkraut or meet Chris Davis

Turbulence is the most powerful Imaging library for Rock and Alternative and it is created by a killer combo of the 3 most rocking countries in the world… The United States of Rock’n’Roll, the Republic of Rammstein and The HOME of the KIWI… yes, Chris Davis is from New Zealand, he lives in New Zealand and works for the iconic 2day FM in Sydney and of course for the most bad ass imaging library in the world – TURBULENCE. I love Chris style and how he interprets the Rock/Alternative Formats… his work for  2day is also impressive. Check his audio, steal some of his presets and enjoy the dirty side of IMAGING. Enter Chris Davis….

How to image Capital and Capital Xtra – Meet Ashley Bard

Lately I discovered Ashley’s work on Daryl’s blog and I knew right away this guys needs to be interviewed. Especially his work for Capital Xtra  blew me away – I love how he uses Filters, Stutters and rhythmic in general to create a new world of sound attached to the regular Capital brand, but far away enough to keep an own character. Check Ashley’s audio, hsi screen caps, read about his tips and tricks and enjoy one of the UK’s rising Imaging stars.

AVALANCHE rocks or THE BRIT Invasion by James Stodd

Enough said about James. He is one of the most talented and experienced Imagers I know and I am proud to host a panel with him at Radiodays Europe in Dublin. In his career he worked for iconic stations like Capital in London and now oversees the legendary Jack brand in Southampton. I am proud to have him on board as part of the benztown brigade and as Format Director for Avalanche he creates world class Classic Rock IMAGING on a weekly basis. Check the screen caps from James’ session and listen to his incredible work.

Justin CASE doing it right – CLIQUE Library BEST OF….

Everybody loves to do CHR Imaging. Why? Big FX, big processing, crazy VO treatment, bad ass beats….
I love Justin’s approach in our CLIQUE library, as it is kind of fresh and very fast paced. The VO is Mikey Muscatello. Check also some of Justin’s screen caps….Enjoy! (Side Note Andy: Check Justin on Ryan’s Podcast)

Gear Porn or what an awesome mic sounds like :)… The legendary U47 vs Laetitia Dana!

There have been various discussions on facebook about mics, preamps etc. and I always told my opinion loud and clear. There is nothing as important as good gear and to know what to do with it…
Recently we had the luck to use a Neumann/Telefunken from the 50s. Check the difference with a Rode K2 450 US$ vs. 10.000US$. We used the Manley Voxbox as PreAMP for both recordings. Vocals by the amazing Laetitia Dana performing a snippet of “Lay Down” from here album Iboga!

The difference is massive, but check it out yourself – the Rode sounds like “a mic” and the U47 sounds like Laetitia would stand next to you! INCREDIBLE!!!

Meet David Tyler or the Man behind “Radio IMAGING and PRODUCTION” on facebook!

Nothings better then getting connected and David Tyler made it happen for all of us: nearly 1.300 imaging directors, producers and VO talents joined the “radio imaging and production” facebook group since he started it a few months ago. He created an additional place where we all can learn from each other, share tips and give and get feedback.  We can’t thank him enough for that and it’s time to take a look at the man behind this group.

David calls himself “Canada’s hardest working voice actor” and no one can deny it. Starting from radio (FM96, MIX 96, Q92) and TV (The Weather Network) he went on and on. For  20 years he is doing radio imaging and TV promos, commercials, corporate teaching, e-learning, content marketing and even video games. He lives with his wife and two sons in Montreal, the city he really fell in love to and work’s out of his home studio.

So let’s check out David’s work, tips, ideas and inspiration…

Imaging from around world – Matt Innes’ VO layering and panning tricks will get you!

Remember Matt Innes? The Globe Trotter of Imaging. He is back in Oz since a few weeks and signed up at Nova. Check his recent work and how he uses  VO layering and panning, mostly done with speaker phone, his favourite plug-in at the moment…

“I’m playing around with Layering voices at the moment. Layering then panning and using different settings in speakerphone. Within speakerphone, im using the ‘radio tuning’ bit down the bottom…really gives the layered VO a nice higher or lower frequency sound.”

Thanks to Matt for sharing his work and production tip with us!

The right dose of effects to make your VO stand out

Hey guys, it’s Andre.

Playing around with voices is one of the coolest things you can do in radio imaging and we’re always experimenting with various plugin chains and settings to create some unique and hot effects on our VO. Especially when it comes to hotter formats, the effects get pretty crazy.

But I’m here to warn you: Don’t overdo it!

I know, how fun it is to impress everybody else with your stunning VO effects, but if every line in your promo is done with another crazy effect, the listener will get an effects overkill. Remember what a promo is about — delivering a message. Effects should help delivering that message and not distract from it. Make one or two important lines in your promo stand out with VO effects and they will be recognized.

Here are some examples from Benztown’s CHR library. Listen to the VO and how the effects are used.

The VO and the effects are pretty hot, but only a few lines have these effects to make them stand out.

I still encourage you to try out new VO effects, but use them wisely, because sometimes less is more.

If everything’s special, nothing will be special.

Cheers and have a great weekend.

VO SUPERSTAR Joe Cipriano answers YOUR questions!

Our buddies @ benztownvoiceover.wordpress.com did it again! They managed to get the legendary Joe Cipriano for an interview and YOU are going to be part of it!

Ask Joe Cipriano, one of the most successful Voice Over Artists of all times, about his secrets, his tricks and discover how he made it! All you have to do:

Send a mail to VOblog@benztown.com with your thoughts and questions or just enter a comment below this post. This is your chance to ask him anything you ever wanted about voice-over, production, networking, broadcasting or anything  else.

About Joe Cipriano:

Most of you US located guys might know him as the voice of the FOX-TV network, but Joe’s pretty been around. Live announcer of the 57th, 59th and 60th annual Grammy awards, one of the signature voices of CBS and NBC, producer and host of various internationally syndicated radio shows and even acting in Hollywood movies. Check his full bio here.