Nov 2005
Pat Hand - Boone Plays The Island
11/20/05 04:37 PM

However, Pat Boone will be at Treasure Island Resort and Casino this December and it'll be a rare chance to catch a true Rock n Roll legend.
Really.
While many of us know him only as a Sinatraesque crooner of pillowy pop and gospel, 50 years ago he was Elvis' rival on the charts. Before the Fab Four, this guy defined Eisenhower Era shizzle.
50's rocker, 70's gospel man, 90's Metal Head, and now a Country radio host.
Pat lacked the sneer, overt sexuality and hip swivel of The King - but that was his hook. With his neat hair, cheshire cat smile and gleaming white buck shoes, he performed R&B hits in a way that made rock n' roll as safe as Jell-O and McCarthyism for white audiences. In fact, his '55 version of "Ain't That A Shame" outsold Fat's Domino's original. To his credit, he was gracious enough to give props to the artists he was covering - which led Little Richard to once quip,"Pat Boone is the man who made me a millionaire."
We got the chance to record the voice-over, slash and loop the music tracks, and create the sound-design and audio post production for the radio spot promoting this event. Brad Gilmore, the writer from Minneapolis advertising agency Periscope, had written the ad to represent a gentle walk down memory lane (hey, this ain't Outkast after all). He hired some of the best Twin Cities voice-over talent to get the job done; the rubber voiced Tim Russell and Shirley Venard nailed down the older couple, while honey-toned Tracey Maloney was our announcer. After a few passes at the dialogue, Shirley mentioned that the feel of the scene reminded her of one of her first TV acting jobs with fellow voice-over actor and Guthrie Theater veteran, Allen Hamilton - she had us in stitches with this story.

Prairie Home's Tim Russell. Masters of deadpan, Shirley Venard & Allen Hamilton. Tracy Maloney at Babble-On
All the music that we mixed into the radio spot is stuff from Pat's early years - tunes his core audience will know, love and appreciate. Personally, I would've enjoyed throwing in some of the tunes he did on 1997's, "In a Metal Mood" - an album of heavy metal songs recorded with big band jazz arrangements sung in Pat's sweet style. Depending on your perspective, it was either one of the greatest comedy albums ever, or ...an act of blasphemy. Just read some of the finger wagging comments that came from this coalition of the strange - evangelical christians and heavy metal heads.
Sorry, no Myers-Briggs typology can explain that relationship.
Sadly, most of his devoted fans failed to get Pat's tongue-cheek joke and, after he showed up at the American Music Awards that year decked out in black leather and temporary tattoos, he was sacked from his Trinity Broadcasting Network program Gospel America. However, once the controversy subsided and he explained that he was merely being a "parody of himself" he was re-hired. Talk about a Greek Tragedy.
Here's Pat covering "Crazy Train" from Ozzie Osbourne, Alice Cooper's, "No More Mr. Nice Guy", Deep Purple's, "Smoke On The Water", Van Halen's "Panama", and the topper - Led Zeppelin's "Stairway To Heaven".
And, for more of a taste of what you'll hear in December, here's the radio spot for Pat Boone's concert at Treasure Island.
Tim Russell can be booked through his Twin Cities voice-over agent, Wehmann Models and Talent, inc. You can also check out his website, prairiehomevoices, to find out more about his lenghty repertoire. Shirley Venard, Allen Hamilton and Tracy Maloney can all be booked through their Minneapolis voice-over agent, Lipservice Talent Guild.
Gotta comment? Feel free to click below and let us know....
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As Seen On TV! - High Noon passes some time
at Babble-On
11/19/05 07:06 AM

With this crew's schedule being fairly tight (and with most TV budgets being the same these days) we ditched any idea of an ISDN Digital Patch or Source-Connect for these recording sessions. Keeping it simple, we just rigged up a phone patch and had High Noon listen in and direct Tony that way.
Tony, in from California, was understandably a bit wigged by the huge temperature drop that clubbed us this week - we went from 60+º on Saturday to 30º with a -4º wind chill and 45 mph winds on Tuesday. Thank (insert your favorite Higher Power here) for our Downtown Minneapolis Skyway System. Without it, we'd be just a cold Omaha with pro sports. Like Green Bay.
Congenial host and all around nice guy, Tony Frassrand.
When Tony arrived at Babble-On the windows outside studio A were gripped in a branching frost and freezing steam was floating off the corner of Hennepin & 6th. Might've been pretty with a little snow, holiday lights and a hot toddy in hand - but, as it was, it was just an excuse to pile on the wool and grumble a bit.
Tony had been filming in this weather at locations in Duluth and Saint Paul and was soon to be on his way to New Ulm to finish up this episode. At the moment, we don't have any info on when this particular show will air.
Tony's Show takes a distinctly different arc than most of the Extreme Makeover shows that are swamping the levees of televisionland these days. reZONED looks in on homes that have been created from peculiar or interesting spaces. The show has featured a High School that became a bachelor pad, an old dam and power station that morphed into a rustic family home, and a commercial ferry that became a waterfront home in San Francisco. The show takes particular favor on properties where many aspects of the original structure and its purpose are preserved and maintained. Here in the TwinCities you can catch reZONED Sunday nights at 8:30 Central Time on HGTV.
Gotta thought you want to share? - please click the comments and let us know....
More than Just Recording....
11/13/05 06:30 PM

While recording, sound-design and audio post production are things we love and for which we are known - people tell us that what they dig about coming here is that, while we're sticklers for detail, we don't take ourselves too seriously.
As a very good friend and fellow engineer once told me, "gear is gear, man" - and "Y'know, it looks like ya got mustard on your shirt"
Joe Weismann, John Neerland, the Kolars Marketing girls, "Voice God" John Wehrman.
In a nutshell, the point he was making is that, for a recording studio, people and atmosphere make the difference. And he was right. That's why if (and or when) you stop by our joint you'll find things like Tab next to the Stella Artois in the fridge, you'll be regaled by impossibly funny stories from Amelia, that (on occasion) you'll find Greg's kids at the studio, you'll no doubt hear a cutting edge one-liner uttered from John, catch something outrageous spewing from our IT guy Martin or meet our dog, Douce, on the weekends.
So, along with the usual stuff that we've been sharing here on the Babble-blog, we'll make an effort to show more of the lighthearted and ridiculous moments that occur.
Gotta comment, thought, or insight? lay it on us by clicking the comments down below....
Riders Wanted - Periscope & Metro Transit
Hose The Pump
11/12/05 11:43 AM

We're either talking Terrell Owens...or Gas Prices. Most of us have had it with both of them. Given the chance we'd do to O.P.E.C. what the Eagles did with their star receiver - put'em over a barrel and cut'em loose. Gas prices around the Twin Cities have been yo-yo'ing for months but have yet to creep below that coveted two bucks a gallon figure.
The Hiawatha Light Rail pulling in to Government Center.
Trying to find that extra dough each week to throw in the tank has become a bit like shoehorning yourself into a pair of old jeans - a Herculean struggle that ultimately just blows out the seams of the family budget.
With bus fares anywhere from 50¢ to $2.75 it doesn't take long to figure out that, for most us, the SUV is D.O.A. - better to put a toe tag on the Hummer and hop on one of Metro Transit's buses or the Hiawatha Light Rail Line to get where you're going.
Periscope, the Minneapolis advertising agency for Metro Transit, was here at the studio last week recording and producing some radio ads for their client. These radio spots were about how much money you could save by riding the bus or train, and what you might do with that money.
Chris Wareham, the writer for these radio spots, came up with a scenario that guys will completely get; two buddies get to watch the big game on a 97 inch flat screen TV that serves them cold beer and nachos. If that weren't already straight off the pages of Maxim, this would be - The television also projects one of the guys images out the window to make it appear that he's mowing the lawn.
Can you say Testosterone Nirvana?
Minneapolis voice-over talent Ulysses Zackery and the ever present Kevin Dewey got to play the buddies in this radio ad while Eden Bodnar was the announcer. It's really great to have local actors in the recording booth like this because it allows us to pick up directly on their energy and help guide the chemistry. As much as we like using ISDN and Source-Connect for recording voice-over talent from around the world, there really is nothing like hammering out a radio spot with live actors in front of you.

"Super TV" Owner - Kevin Dewey | Nachos Buddy - Ulysses Zackery | Our Announcer - Eden Bodnar
Poor Ulysses had to try and balance getting his performance and timing right while grabbing and eating nacho chips from a bag we put in the studio. While it was trickier to record this way, the feel is much more real than if we had simply asked him to fake as if he were eating and then we added stock sound effects later.
Getting the sound design and audio post production right was more challenging than we had anticipated due to some last minute changes at the recording session. The self destruct sequence at the end replaced an idea in the original script that the client felt may not work. Chris and I riffed on a couple of ideas and created a computer voice from scratch with the help of some EQ, a flange and multiple chorus effects. Who needs George Lucas?
Click on the link to hear Metro Transit's "Big Screen" radio ad.
Ulysses Zackery and Eden Bodnar can be booked through their Minneapolis voice-over agent, Moore Creative Talent, Inc. Kevin Dewey is represented in the Twin Cities by Wehmann Models and Talent, Inc.
Gotta thought you want to share? - please feel free to do so by clicking on the comments button.
North Country - Twin Cities Actors Make The
Scene
11/06/05 01:03 PM

JC says that Theron gives yet another academy award-winning performance, and he credits the director, Niki Caro (acclaimed Director of Whale Rider) for her adeptness at being able to tell real stories, about real people, without “rushing” through them.
Minneapolis actor and voice-over talent JC Cutler at Babble-On.
J.C. isn't the only Minneapolis actor with a role in this film either. Sally Wingert, Gus Lynch, Catherine Campion, Catherine Ferrand, Raye Birk, Sage Coy, Jim Cada, Bruce Bohne, and Chris Mulckey all got screen time too.
We're lucky to have these folks in the recording studio fairly often at Babble-On. Jim Cada was in recently working on Metro Sales radio ads for Carmichael Lynch. We’ve seen Sally Wingert fairly frequently for Marshall Fields and Gus Lynch added some really nice touches to a Minnesota State Lottery radio spot we mentioned in our April Babble-Blog.
North Country is the story of a single mother working in the iron mines "on da range" in northern Minnesota at a time when many women didn't have those kinds of jobs - and very few people wanted them to.
An important movie with powerful social messages, we're glad to see film work like this coming back in to the Twin Cities. Its our hope that with the movie's success the Minneapolis acting pool will get more of the exposure we feel it deserves.
Busch Numbers Rise - Martin Williams and
Michelob avoid The Draft
11/01/05 05:21 AM

However, for some inexplicable reason, in utter defiance of national trends, Minnesotan's have been loving, supporting and going for it like nobody else.
Hmm, reminds me of this.
Furthering this anomaly is the fact that Mich Golden, even in limited distribution, has been and continues to be the the number one selling beer in the state.
With all this info in their arsenal the brass at Annheuser Busch decided that we in the upper midwest knew more about this beer than anyone else. So, five years ago, they hired Minneapolis advertising agency Martin Williams to keep that trend going.
A couple of weeks back, Vince Beggin, the writer on this account, tapped us to record a new campaign of radio spots designed to introduce the brand to Iowa and Nebraska.
Mary Lucia, local radio celeb, on mic at Babble-On
This new campaign would also mean a name change. With the whole "draft" beer kick now over - that piece of the moniker would be dropped. Additionally, Annheuser Busch wanted something very introductory in nature. Thus, the idea: Of all the new things you could try today, Mich Golden is by far the best.

Vince Beggin and Greg editing in "C" - Yours truly with "The Drill" - Joanna Jahn & Dan Armstrong
These radio spots, with their bits about home dentistry, dodge-ball and kitten juggling were ripe for a lot of audio post production and sound-design. Greg decided that his cat wouldn't cotton to the idea of being pitched about so, (sigh) we decided to augment stock sound effects to get that mix together - you folks from PETA can call off your dogs. However, we did do a lot of other interesting foley effects using the official Martin Williams dodge-ball and three separate drills that we all brought in from home. The drills were necessary to get the right sound of a 3/8th's inch drill bit diving down into someone's fat maw. Yes, we were careful. Yes, we have workman's comp.
While most of the voiceover talent we recorded was from the Twin Cities, we did record our announcer, Andy Milder, from Outlaw Sound in L.A. via Digital Patch using our new Source-Connect software - which, by the way, rocks.
Pop a cold one and have a listen. Here are "Speed Dating", "Dodge Ball", and "Rollerblading",
Mary Lucia, Joe Weismann, Joanna Jahn, & Dan Armstrong can be booked through their Minneapolis voice-over talent agency, Wehmann Models and Talent, Inc. Colleen McClellan can be auditioned and scheduled through her voice-over agent, Moore Creative Talent, Inc. Special kudos go to Dave Hepp of Martin Williams who helped to concept this whole campaign.
Lobbying for an Award - Ready4K Wins At The
Show
11/01/05 03:51 AM

Cleverly named, "The Show", it's a singular evening to be seen and obscene; to drink, feign, fawn and fall over. A frat party with pretense and better hors d'oeuvres. At the culmination of the evening a glossy book of great ads gets tucked under your arm that'll spend the next year displayed on your coffee table - prominently so if your name is anywhere in it. Thus allowing, "Oh really? I didn't notice..." to become the follow-up response to every, "Hey, I think I saw your name in The Show book."
Jennifer Edwards-Hughes records in Babble-On's new lobby.
Love it, loathe it, or some combination thereof - it's always fun, (well, we think so) and one can't argue with the effort made to elevate the quality of ads we produce here in Minneapolis.
One local agency with whom we do a lot of work, Colle+McVoy, won some hardware for a radio spot produced here at Babble-On. What makes this all the more sweet is that the client, Ready4K, is an organization worthy of some attention and praise. Its campaign is to get kids from all walks of life ready for kindergarten so that they aren't left in the dark that first day of school. Downright noble.
Eric Husband and Dave Keepper, the copywriters for this session, were hoping to create a classroom ambience with a teacher welcoming kids to their first day of classes. The hook in this radio spot was the carefully timed reveal of this teacher's monologue - slowly telling the truth about the situation some of these kids will face. It works especially well because the teacher keeps the steady soothing tone of a kindly mentor, but the message is chilling.
Minneapolis voice-over talent Jennifer Edwards-Hughes (other work of hers is here on the Babble-Blog) was hired to portray the teacher. In a strange twist of fate, the record date for this spot happened during the recent construction of our new lobby here at Babble-On - it became the perfect setting for a "classroom" recording.
To record her voice-over we strung up a Neumann RSM-191 stereo mic that we normally only use for recording ambience. The effect was great - as much as we like plug-in's for faking a reverb there's nothing like grabbing the real thing when you can. Of course, to pull this off, we had to try to make sure everyone was quiet around the recording studio (not easy) and during the voice-over recording we did get a few phone rings, door opens and large guffaws from Amelia.
Once Jen was recorded, the audio post production and sound design began in earnest. As anyone who does sound-design for a living will attest, one of the hardest "feels" to get is that of a quiet room with just a few people in it. Cloth movements, air-conditioning, chairs and breathing just don't make a lot of noise, so sneaking those sounds in becomes a delicate game. They aren't sounds that you hear and are aware of in the traditional sense - they're sounds that form a natural background that you take for granted. Basically, you only notice them when they're not in the final mix of a radio spot.
The meat of the ad now in the bag, we brought in voice-over talent Bob Davis to record the announcer section. We had to laugh a bit because we realized, once we recorded his section, that the web address when spoken - doesn't state the number "4" in it - people would have gone to readyfork.org - not ideal. So, we hastily re-edited the top of the spot to accommodate a longer announcer section, Dave and Eric rewrote the copy to "explain" the url and the mix was done and out the door.
Here's the award winning "Scared" from Colle+McVoy
Our friend Katie Lynch was the producer on this spot and Mike Fetrow was the Creative Director. Jennifer Edwards Hughes can be booked through her Twin Cities voice-over agent, Wehmann Models and Talent, Inc. Bob Davis can be scheduled through his agent, Moore Creative Talent, Inc.