Production Facilities
In order to create a commercial suitable for radio there are
a few things needed or you need to consider and take into account while making
the advert so it is up to professional standards.
Firstly you need to think about where or how you will be
creating your advert, radio stations have the ability to create adverts in
house (e.g: Key 103 and Capital) and they will have all the equipment and
facilities that will be needed. They will have their own production studios and
therefore will be able to produce adverts independently.
Alternatively, you can make an ad through a production house.
For example, there are a few production houses in the UK like SP Media,
SpotWorks and RPC Audio. These are all production houses that will help to
create a radio ad; they have specific equipment that is needed for a
professional standard advert.
To create an advert, equipment is key. To create an advert up
to radio standards you will need equipment such as:
Mixing Desk/Console – This an electronic board used to
combine sounds, routing and changing audio levels and changing the pitch of the
audio. These can also be used to change the volume and insert jingles to your
advert and had many other uses and techniques.
Soundproof Recording Booth – This is a generally small sized
room which is completely sound proof to eliminate any external sounds and keep
the internal sounds clear and crisp. Radio presenters along with the use of
microphones are isolated in these rooms as it means no external, not needed
sounds from outside the room will be included, which the audience will not want
to hear. This also means the presenter or person speaking won’t be interrupted
whilst talking with any background noise whilst on air. 
Digital work station including a computer with correct
software/programmes – A digital work station is designed specifically for
recording, playing back audio and editing your clips. There are many different
programmes available, however at college we use the programme Reaper, audacity
or adobe audition. AVID Pro Tools is an extremely well known professional
program that has many features. This programme is widely used in professional
areas because it has a huge variety of important features and effects. However,
AVID pro tools is not completely essential, its very high end and can only be
run on certain systems. This is why we use the programme Reaper at college to
edit. Reaper is very similar to Pro Tools, as they both have the ability to do
multitask editing and importing sound effects. Reaper give us the intended
effect and wanted result which is suitable for the work we do in college.
Another option would be to use the programme Audacity, this
is free, very simple and easy to use, has multitrack audio editor which can be
used for systems such as, Windows, Mac OS X and other operating systems making
this programme widely suitable. This can be used for:- · Recording live audio
- · Editing different sound files (e.g: WAV, MP2, MP3…)
- · Cut, copy and mix sound files together
- · Change the speed and pitch of audio recordings
- · Add sound effects
However, I have not used this programme for my college work
so far
Another option is Adobe Audition, this is another digital
audio workstation from Adobe systems. This programme has many different helpful
features such as:
- · Advanced Sound Design
- · Audio Finesse
- · Sound Remover
- · Preview Editor
- · Enhanced Multitrack Editing
Unfortunately, although this programme is available, I
haven’t used this programme for my college work.