Production

Babble-On's studios were designed by Dave Ahl, one of the best acoustic architects in the audio recording biz. Our voice-over recording booths have walls that are half-a-foot thick, floating floors, inclined ceilings, and more sound insulation than is, well, responsible.

Right. So, what's this to you?

Simply put, when you come in to Babble-On, we’ll ensure that you get the best quality sound. Period. Ultimately, we understand that you may not know the reasons why (or how) something sounds better, but we're pretty sure you'll hear a difference.

Of course, all that effort to get our rooms to sound so good would mean nothing if we were using consumer grade, run-of-the-mill microphones to record your voice-over talent. So, at Babble-On, we've made sure our array of microphones is nothing short of ridiculously good.

Aren't all microphones the same? Actually, Virginia, no. And, depending on their sound characteristics, they can make a significant difference in what eventually hits the air. Also, all of Babble-On's microphones are on quick-release mounts. This allows us to swap mics quickly, hear what sounds best, and still keep your recording session moving along in a timely manner.

One of the things for which Babble-On has become quite well known is our talent for on-location recording. Truthfully, as much as we love our digs, sometimes there's just nothing like fresh air and unfamiliar surroundings to inject some unique color into your audio production and enhance your creative insight.

Whether it's capturing natural sound at Afton State Park in the middle of winter, gathering customer comments at a local grocery store, recording "upstairs/downstairs dialogue" in a Minneapolis bungalow, or even getting strapped into the passenger seat of a Porsche 911, racing along at 120+ m.p.h., we've got the gear, expertise and sense of adventure that makes this type of recording cool, distinct, inventive and worthwhile. It helps that we keep our insurance up-to-date, too.

To hear some of our on-location handiwork, check out the samples on this page.

At Babble-On, we're always willing to explore, find and record the best raw material for your session. Quite often we'll head right into the voice-over booth to create sound effects that set the scene, tell your story, or add that extra bit of dimension that will make the final mix of your audio production sound "spot on". The same applies to getting our butts out of the recording studio to gather sound that is distinct - from pubs in England, to grain bins in Iowa, to race tracks in Birmingham, to the North Shore of Minnesota - even to the point of recording someone belting out a tune in our own bathroom. (Yes, we actually did that.) We're into the challenge, because we know how it can completely transform the final production.

Babble-On records ISDN voice-over sessions (a.k.a. digital patch) all the time with our apt-X Milano and our Telos Zephyr Xstream. We can connect to any other digital ISDN-equipped studio in the world through our EDNet (Entertainment Digital Network) telecommunications network. Because of the volume of work that we do, we have great working relationships with a host of ISDN voice-over recording studios worldwide. The best part is, you can hand off the administrative nuisance to us. We're happy to book the connecting ISDN recording studio for you and handle all the billing so that you conveniently receive all of your audio production costs on one invoice.

Source-Connect, like digital ISDN, allows us to record voice-over talent from recording studios anywhere in the world in real-time. The difference is that Source-Connect uses T1, cable, or DSL Internet connections instead of ISDN.

A phone patch (using plain old telephone lines) is a great way to direct or listen to voice-over talent, or give feedback on voice-over selects, if one of your agency folks can't make it to Babble-On for the recording session.

When it comes time to approve a mix, however, we encourage the use of Source-Live streaming audio technology. Clients can listen in via their Web browser or directly within QuickTime. The greatest benefit comes when you have headphones or good speakers connected to your computer. Because of the 4 to 5 second latency from transmission to reception, though, we don’t recommend Source-Live for directing during a talent record.

All of Babble-On's mixing and editing is done using Digidesign's Pro Tools. In addition, we have an extensive list of software plug-ins and outboard gear that allow us to bend, fold, spindle, mutilate and otherwise transform your audio production in almost any way imaginable. Uh-huh, even THAT way. These creative tools allow us to do highly stylized sound design that can add breadth and depth to your final mix - be it a radio spot, TV mix, business podcast or corporate audio video production.

Babble-On's Studio C is fully equipped to do surround sound mixing up to full 5.1.

The engineers at Babble-On Recording Studios have worked on ADR for television shows, pilots, movie trailers and films. Our ADR clients include:

• Bruckheimer Films
• Buena Vista Pictures
• Paramount Classics
• Sony Pictures
• Universal Studios
• Walt Disney Studios
• Warner Bros.
• Wolf Pictures

Babble-On represents and licenses production music from hundreds of different production music libraries, covering an inordinate amount of themes and styles. We're constantly receiving shipments of new discs and libraries to keep things current and interesting. If there's a musical genre you can think of, or an artist you need to match, it's a pretty safe bet that we'll have more than a few choices for you to sample. Many of our production music libraries are in our Soundminer audio file database - so, with the simple troll and click of a trackball, we can get you achingly close to that Yanni/Oasis/Jay-Z mash-up your bank client just "has to have."

Want to hear what's new? We typically post a sampling of newly arrived production music on our Babble-Blog. Look for the posts called “Dropping In.”

Babble-On has hundreds of thousands of sound effects in stock. All of them are at our fingertips and electronically accessible through our Soundminer sound effects server. We're constantly updating our sound effects database with material that we've recorded ourselves as well as with cool, unique and esoteric libraries that you may not find anywhere else. However, if you feel that what we've found is only “sorta-kinda” what you're looking for, we'll find a way to get the sound that's in your head. Surgery extra.