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RADIOPLAY magazine radioplaycontests.com
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Cover Art by Lee Labit.
Page 2 Advertisements.
February 2009
Vo l u m e I I I s s u e 2
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This is the current page. It lists the Staff who worked on this issue, and the Issue Summary.
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From The Admin’s Desk.
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The Comic Summary, which features the most recent comic strips that were posted at the forum.
Pages 6-7 Serendipity by Brendan O’Reilly
Pages 8 Wave Editor Review by Lee Labit.
Page 9 Garageband Tutorial by Lee Labit.
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Matching Game.
Page 12 February Calendar.
Magazine Staff
Production Manager - Lee Labit Page Designer and Page Formatter - Alexa Chipman Editor - Fiona Thraille Contributor - Brendan O’Reilly
What Is A Radioplay? A radioplay is a form of play in audio format. The first radio plays were broadcast in the 1920s. These days, amateur producers produce radioplays (or audio dramas) but they are rarely broadcast on radio stations. All articles are copyrighted by their respective authors. RADIOPLAY magazine is (c) 2009 Radioplay Contests. All Rights Reserved.
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Welcome everyone to the February/Valentine issue of RADIOPLAY. This month, we have an interview with writer/ director Kim West about her show ‘Serendipity’, a review of Wave Editor, a tutorial about editing in Garageband and one matching game. This is the last month that our editor Fiona edits our magazine articles and we are still looking for a replacement. One piece of very good news is that we now have a new person on our staff. Brendan O’Reilly, a reporter for The Southampton Press, plans to contribute articles starting with this issue. I have been very busy for the past couple of months so there are only two comic strips that I created last month (January) and the month before (December). Hopefully, I’ll have time soon to go back to producing 4-comic strips per month. One final note, in the forum, Fiona posted a tip that when listening to new producers’ work, you can use software such as Audacity to check for volume levels. By doing this, you can prevent yourself from getting a shock in case from any sudden increase in volume in a radio play that you are listening to.
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Unexpected Voice Quality Result
Hudson: Alternatively, if they’re really late, make them sound like Mickey Mouse Alexachipman: What I find irritating are the VA’s that insist their voice was “just fine” when the audio quality was terrible, then blame the producer for it. http://www.radioplaycontests.com/index.php/topic,1610.0.html
Too Good To Be True
Lee: Is this funny? UltraRob: I think it is. Good one, Lee! http://www.radioplaycontests.com/index.php/topic,1626.0.html
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With sci-fi, fantasy, horror, superheroes and action-adventure dominating the field of web-based audio serials, shows about ordinary people that sometimes take a romantic tack are few and far between. But one new show, “Serendipity,” promises to be different—that is to say, normal. “I just thought it would be a change from the norm to actually have a somewhat normal show!” says writer/director Kim West. “That’s actually what motivated me. I wanted to try something different and see how people would respond to it.” “Serendipity” follows the lives of four siblings who share a townhouse and that of their cousin Jo. But they’re not just family. They’re best friends. “The whole idea was to show how family can be your best friends too and that there doesn’t always have to be all this crazy, unrealistic drama going on,” West explains. “Also, that the smallest, or even biggest in some cases, of incidents that happen could alter a person’s future. Not everything happens for a reason or is destined. It’s the weird, crazy small things that occur everyday that no one really notices or seem to be bothersome, or even tragic at first, but are really cause for the great life they lead today.” The middle children, Taylor and Chloee, are sisters who are as same as they are different, according to the series synopsis. Their eccentric grandmother gave them her café, which specializes in hot chocolate, before leaving the country a year ago. The sisters run things the best they can at the café, though their good nature has them hiring a less-than-enthusiastic staff that nearly drives away the customers. Church, the youngest, is an angry teen who doesn’t quite see the world like others do. The eldest sibling, Jonny, hates his job and tries to find solace at the bottom of a bottle. And their cousin/attorney Jo is constantly finding herself in between the bickering siblings. The “fortunate accidents” that have kept the family together will all be explained as the show goes on, West promises. Taylor, who is highlighted in the pilot episode, is notorious among her friends and family for giving people a hard time. But a regular customer may be melting her heart. “It’s that guy,” Chloee deduces. “That really cute, mysterious one that always comes in on Monday mornings and orders the same thing every time.” And Taylor always repeats his order—”the Wintergreen, minus the whipped topping and with extra spearmint”—before he has the chance to say it, Chloee points out. “Get real,” Taylor protests. “You have no idea what you’re talking about. I know all the regulars’ orders.” But Taylor’s excuses don’t hold up under scrutiny. Continued on next page—
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—Continued from previous page Whether she will take server-client relationship to the next step with her wintergreen-sipping mystery beau, is still unclear as of the first episode. And West says her mind isn’t made up about that yet either. “There’s a part in the second episode that may destroy Taylor’s crush, but I haven’t quite decided that yet,” West says. And Taylor is not the only sibling with romance, one way or another, in her future. “There will definitely be some other guys coming in and out of their lives,” according to West. Chloee will probably be the next in line for a romance of her own, and Jo’s love interest, Matt, will likely make an appearance, West says. “As for the guys, Jonny’s not real outspoken when it comes to dating, so you may hear talk of girls, but there may never be any around while the other siblings are there,” she says. “Church, ehh, he has no interest in the opposite sex right now. “There actually will be a Valentine’s Day episode. Unfortunately it won’t be as romantic as one might think...” “Serendipity” is the first original audio drama by West, 22, a sports medicine student at Eastern Michigan University. West, known as KimiLynn at the Voice Acting Alliance, released the premiere episode on the first of the year. “The show actually is based on real life, or well, loosely based,” she says. “I created these characters around the personalities of my own siblings and our cousin.” Some of the events in the show took place in real life, like certain conversations and outings, she added. “Or at least, these are things that would normally occur in our everyday lives. That’s where I take a lot of my ideas from.” And the townhouse the “Serendipity” characters share is based on a real house. “Of course, the café doesn’t really exist, and the eccentric grandmother doesn’t,” West notes, joking, “more like the crazy grandma does.” West’s also recently started production on a radio play based on youth fiction author K. A. Applegate’s “Everworld” series. “Everworld” is probably the exact opposite of “Serendipity,” which is why I started it, to have a show on both extremes,” West says. West is working on the forthcoming show with MrWest16, to be released under their production company, WestSociety, at dbz2.mypodcast. com. Like many others amateur audio drama writers and directors, she also tries her hand at voice acting. “I’m still fairly new at this,” she admits. “So I don’t go overboard with the auditioning.” Nonetheless, her voice can be heard in “Twilight of the Twins” and upcoming “Resident Evil” and “Sailor Moon” projects. West also keeps busy working customer service at the only IKEA in the state of Michigan, “which happens to be freezing right now,” she says. “I’d say being the shape of a mitten is rather appropriate.” “Serendipity” Can be found at SoundLantern or Mypodcast.com. The release date of episode 2 is TBD.
Sites of Radioplay Producers Who Are Active Members of Radioplay Contests
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This month’s review is about a program called Wave Editor. Although it is called Wave Editor, you can also edit other audio formats beside .wav files such as .mp3s and .m4as. The program opens up with three tabs. They are the Inspector, Keyboard Shortcuts, and Processor. Each of them is a floating tab, so you can arrange them to wherever you want them to be in your desktop. You can also hide the tabs if you are not working with them. To start working on this software, you can either import a file (File->Import...), record a sound (Window->Recorder), or open up a previously saved project (File->Open...). Once you have an audio track, you can add effects to it using either the Process tab or some effects that are built-in your Apple Mac OS X (Layer->Add Effect->Audio Unit->Apple). The process tab includes the basic effects such as changing the pitch or the speed and gives you the ability to normalize the file. One of the effects that I haven’t seen in any of the software that I have used is the ‘Reverse Audio’ effect. I guess that one does not need to be explained as to what it does. The built-in effects that you can use are the same ones that are present in Garageband - that start with AU such as A UMatrixReverb and AUPitch. A neat feature in Wave Editor is working with layers. For example, if you are recording many lines and some of them need an effect where your character is located in a different environment such as a large room with your voice echoing, then you can create a separate layer for those lines. So you can have your normal lines on one layer and your echoey lines on a different layer. They are like separate tracks except that the interface does not separate them into different rows. Once you’ve finished recording your lines, you can export them to a variety of formats such as MP3s, AACs, and Ogg Vorbis. If you want to import the audio as an mp3 file, you can choose from 16 different bit rate settings, ranging from 16 to 320 kbps. Exporting the audio as AAC would also be within that range. To try out the software for 15 days, visit http://www.audiofile-engineering.com/waveeditor/.
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Garageband Editing Tips This month’s Garageband tutorial is about editing. These are some handy tips that can help producers who are just starting to use or do not have experience of using the program. The first is about snapping tracks. When you open up Garageband, you will notice that your tracks will snap at a position after you import them. To remove the snapping effect, simply click on the ‘Control’ option in the menu and choose ‘Snap to Grid’. The ‘Snap to Grid’ option is useful when arranging music tracks. Sometimes, it is also useful when you want to arrange voice tracks or sounds that occur at the same moment. However, when arranging character dialogues, this should be turned off. You have an option to choose how precise the snapping effect is. Click on the upper right button in the timeline that looks like a diagonal ruler to see the different settings. The default setting is 1/4 Note. My second tip is zooming in on a track. Suppose that you have files that do not start at the same millisecond and you want them all to start at the same time. You may have to use this tip to accomplish your task. Check the image on right. You may notice that the sounds after the fifth second are arranged well and conclude that both will start at exactly the same time. However, will they really start at the same time? To be sure, you can zoom in on those tracks using a zoom feature in Garageband. The zoom setting is located below the track list. Check the image on the left for a reference. After adjusting the zoom function, we find out that they do not start at the same time. The second track starts just before the first track. That is it for this month. I hope you learned a thing or two from this tutorial.
Note: This tutorial is designed for Garageband 3, which may not apply to future versions of the software.
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When listening to shows, you probably remember the character names more than the voice actors. Do you think you know which of these voice actors are paired up for which show (without including the character names they are voicing?) Note: There are only four males and females butone of them is also paired up with a different VA in a different show. Female VAs Melissa D. Johnson Sophie L. Sophie Neveu M Sieiro Garcia
Male VAs David Ault PhaeThorn Albert Tysen Alex Gilmour
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Darker Projects’ Doctor Who: Series 3 -and-
Lady From Day -and-
Snape’s Diaries -and-
Twin Stars -and-
The Byron Chronicles -and-
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