We’re really excited to announce that our partnership with Radio WorkFlow has officially launched!

Radio WorkFlow is revolutionary new software, designed in Australia, that connects all departments of a radio station together and makes it much easier to do what a radio station does; but with less fuss and MUCH less paperwork.

Now any user of WorkFlow can, with just one click, send their scripts straight to us for voicing and production. There’s no need to generate an email, remember to write a deadline, type any production and voice instructions, send that email, and then re-send it a minute later when you realise you’ve forgotten to attach the script!

With one click, (yes, just one teeny-tiny little finger movement), your scripts are sent directly into our systems, ready for voicing and production. All behind the scenes.

We’re always looking for ways to make things easier and improve quality. And if we can help take some of the ‘boring bits’ out of the day-to-day, there’s more time for the ‘art’ of making great radio.

Radio WorkFlow and Abe’s Audio. It really is a match made in radio heaven!

We’ve just added hundreds of new tracks to our production music library, and they’re making a huge difference already! It really is amazing the difference great music makes when added to a voice over. Often, I think, music can just be added as an ‘afterthought’. Here, the boys do their best to carefully select music that really sits with the voice, suits the product, and gives lift to the whole sound.

There’s just so much dross and really poorly produced, cheesy production music being peddled as ‘cutting edge’ around the place. Believe me, we’ve spent hours and hours sorting through thousands of tracks to bring you the best. And, we own the rights to use all of them, so you won’t pay a cent in licensing fees.

Our complete production library is online for you to audition – go to www.abesaudio.com.au/music
Just let us know if you’d like login details.

Here are just three of our newest tracks:

Looking for some Christmas music without a hint of cheese? This track was recorded especially for us by one of our talented young music producers in Port Lincoln.

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This is a great, national-sounding medium tempo bed. Would sit very nicely on a branding ad for a car manufacturer.

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Classy, modern & corporate. From high end accommodation, to hi tech. This is a fantastic track.

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From mid December, you may just see another name on the bottom of an email, or talk to another voice on the phone.

Paul joins us with 10 years of radio production experience behind him – and we’re excited to welcome him to the Abe’s Audio family!

His appointment couldn’t have come at a better time. We want to make sure our level of service and turnaround remains of the highest standard and we need good people to help us make that happen.

Welcome to the Abe’s Audio family, mate.

Get to know Paul in 30 seconds

1. He plays keyboard and sings in a Beach Boys tribute band. (All together now… A Baa Baa Baa, Baa Barbara Ann)
2. He has MUCH longer hair than Pete.
3. He’s a Mac man. (PCs… bah humbug)
4. On the weekend Paul watches the AFL – Go The Bulldogs!! Also, he loves to spend quality time with his wife and 2 kids… (as long as the Footy’s not on!!!)
5. All time favourite song is ‘Your Song’ by.. um… Elton John. (If you had mentioned that BEFORE the job interview Paul, there may have been a different outcome!)
6. When he was a kid, all he wanted to do when he grew up was to find out the recipe for Red Roosters’ chicken salt.

Daylight saving. Don’t you just love the extra long days, the clear sunny afternoons and evenings that seem to go on forever? Of course you do. Unless you live in QLD, the NT or WA – and you don’t have that extra hour of daylight to fade your curtains! In the eastern states, daylight saving has kicked in, meaning there are now five different timezones in Australia. And because we have voice talent and producers working in most states of the country, it can take the brain power of Einstein to calculate the time differences when scheduling deadlines!

Until now.

We’ve just implemented a brand new feature in our production management system that knows the timezone that you’re in, the timezone the voice-over artist is in, the timezone that the producer is in, and then calculates all production deadlines for each link in the chain in their local time.

Now, just tell us in your local time when your deadline is and our system will do the rest. There’s no need to calculate what the Australian Eastern Daylight Saving Time is; just let us know your deadline in your local time. Simple.

What does all this mean for you? More reliability and continued commitment that we will endeavour to never miss your deadlines. We’re committed to finding ways of improving our service for you, and this feature will help us to provide that.

So just remember, always quote your deadline for each job you send in your local time.

The clock is ticking!

We’ve added an amazing new voice to our line-up this week! Robert is fantastic talent, ideal for anything from ballsy promo and hard sell styles, to no-nonsense, serious reads.

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We’re committed to finding the best voices for you and we’re very excited to welcome Robert to the Abe’s Audio family.

We all want our ads to stand out on air. But although the ‘client is always right’, sometimes it’s up to us to show them that what they want included in a script may not always achieve the best results.

Here are a few ideas we’ve been thinking about over the past few weeks. Clearly written scripts, not overfilled to the point of absurdity will get the best results for clients. It’s up to us all to slowly educate them that we’re on their side. We want to help them make ads that work, and get results. So, the next time your client waves a 95 word novel and asks you to make it into a great ad, you might like to work through these tips with them.

A good word count guide: 75 words for 30 seconds of copy, 36 for a 15 second script.
Contrary to popular opinion, yelling more doesn’t always sell more, more shout isn’t always more clout! For a voice to put expression, passion and ’sell’ in a read, a few less words are often better than a script that is jammed full. Before sending for production, read the script aloud with a stopwatch running (if you don’t have one – we’d be happy to send you a very cool Abe’s Audio stopwatch with built in radio, torch and compass) to make sure the style of read you’re after fits into the duration. That’s always the best way!

Turn the caps lock button off! Scripts written in all capitals are quite hard to read. Put words you want EMPHASISED in caps – and the voice will get a clearer picture of the sound you have in your head.

Watch you have line breaks in the correct places, and you’re not unnecessarily splitting sentences over lines in the copy. This helps the voice to grasp how you want the phrasing.

Check that your spelling,  grammar and punctuation is correct – and any brand or place names are written phonetically at the top of the script so the voice will know the correct pronunciation.

Write numbers as numerals, not words. Numbers written as words can be tricky to read – the brain deals with numerals far better, particularly if there are more than two strung together.
eg: ‘1.25 litre coke’ not one point two five litre coke, or ‘86 7364 5821′ not eight six seven three six four. (You get the picture)

Lose the “www.” from web site addresses. It’s generally not needed. If a site does not load without it, its webmaster could configure it to do so. Either way, people should be able to work it out – and it will save you valuable time.

Standard fonts are best – such as Helvetica or Arial. 12 or 14 point size is ideal.

Clearly written scripts go a long way to helping a voice-over to deliver the best read in the quickest possible time. The end product will be better, your client will be happier, and you’ll be a legend.

Feel free to drop us a line if you have some tips to share, or you’d like a free stopwatch!

Here’s to some great ads.

We can take your existing jingle package and remix it into something completely new. Have a listen to a project we worked on this week.

Original:

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Remixed:

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If you’ve ever had a client, or made a commercial, you MUST see this! Hillarious.

After receiving a number of requests, we’ve made a couple of improvements to our file exchange server.

1. You can now sort by date, or by filename, ideal when you’re looking for a particular file, or for the most recent file uploaded.

2. You can request an FTP login by clicking here, giving you access to our server with your preferred FTP client, if you’d rather FTP access.

If you have any feedback, or suggestions for future updates or improvements, please let us know.

We often get asked ‘how many words fit in a 30 second ad?’

Well, nothing beats reading the script aloud with a stopwatch and seeing the duration it runs, but here’s a rough guide that may help.

Medium/bright sell reads.

60 seconds: approx 150 words
30 seconds: approx 75 words
15 seconds: approx 36 words

And if you’d like a free Abe’s Audio stopwatch (complete with FM radio, ear buds, compass and LED torch) please email us! Batteries ARE included.