It has come to my attention that I haven't really addressed one of The Creative Cabana's focus areas of Audio Mixing. To be honest, I really haven't had an opportunity to do any kind of audio mixing. I don't possess some of the more advanced and sophisticated programming as I'd like to, but I have a few tools that I can play around with and hopefully I'll bring some of that work to you in the future. Right now, I'd like to talk to you today about the effect sound can have on a person. This idea came to me yesterday while I was decorating my home with Halloween decorations, at which time I was listening to Halloween music on my computer. Specifically, I was listening to the Halloween Show playlist I had created for my radio show I had in college.
Every year I would do a special Spooky show where I'd play music related to Halloween, Scary Stuff, etc. Anyway, while re-listening to my playlist yesterday I came across a sample of old-time radio shows that were focused on suspense, thriller, and supernatural entertainment. For my show I downloaded parts of radio broadcasts from the 1930s-1940s period and played parts of it on my own show to demonstrate what you might've been hearing on the radio at Halloween during that time. It got me thinking about how people, today, get a real thrill of being "scared" or "surprised". They go to Haunted Houses, watch Scary movies, or do something incredibly stupid to satisfy their need for terror. Well, what if I told you people would get scared just by hearing something on the radio?
Before television came along, most households, had a radio in their homes and could tune in for their entertainment. This would range from music, game shows, radio dramas, soap operas, and comedy hours- very much like TV only with no visuals. Of course the challenge here is with no visuals, how can you get people drawn into a story just with sounds? Here lies the answer of clever writing, production of sound effects, voice acting, and my personal favorite, background music. In this game, it's not about what you see, instead it's what you hear. Take a listen for yourself and see what you think of radio's best horror dramas:
See, the trick here is how it's all in the audio production. Because you can't "see" the action, it's up to the producers and actors to help visualize the scenes. The concept is that you'll rely on your imagination to complete the puzzle. For those of you who've seen Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" I think you know what I mean when I say use your imagination where you can't see what's happening. That alone can be twice as terrifying. It's definitely worthy of having a place in the Creative world because of the different elements that come together. Terrifying script-writing, excellent vocal actors, superior sound effects, and imaginative music settings all play a role in creating the perfect broadcast drama.
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