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RADIOPLAY magazineradioplaycontests.com

Magazine StaffProduction Manager - Lee LabitPage Designer and Page Formatter - Alexa ChipmanEditor - Fiona Thraille

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. RADIOPLAYmagazine is (c) 2008 Radioplay Contests. All Rights Reserved.

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January 2009Volume I I I ssue 1

Page 1Cover Art by Lee Labit.

Page 2 Advertisements.

Page 3This is the current page. It lists the Staff who worked on this issue, and the Issue Summary.

Page 4From The Admin’s Desk.

Page 5The Comic Summary, which features the most recent comic strips that were posted at the forum.

Pages 6-7Interviews with Audio Producers.

Pages 8-9Icebox Radio Theater article.

Page 10TEST CENTER.

Page 11Garageband Tutorial.

Page 12January Calendar.

RADIOPLAY magazine January 2009 I I . iradioplaycontests.com

Happy New Year!

Welcome to another issue of RADIOPLAY. Our sixth issue features interviews with a few producers about their

upcoming shows, a review of a program called Narrator, an article about Icebox Radio, and a Garageband tutorial about

one of its nifty plugins.

First up, I’d like to talk a bit about Soundsnap. In case you have not heard about the company before, Soundsnap.com

offers free music and sound effects. It is the largest, not one of the largest, but the largest royalty-free source on the internet

as far as I know. What’s new with them and why do I want to talk about it? Well, the site is no longer offering unlimited

downloads for free. Instead they have various plans that you can purchase to download a limited amount of sound effects.

Those who cannot afford to buy any of their subscription plans can still download, but the number of files per month that

can be downloaded is a measly five.

Second, owing to not getting enough entries for the calendar, I made a different decision about it. Instead of putting them

all in this issue, we will just put in one at a time. Also, starting next issue, we will include some radioplay release dates beside

the calendar dates. More information will be posted on radioplaycontests.com/mag.

My third and final note for this issue is that a change in personal circumstances has meant that our editor has to leave our

staff. So, we’re looking for a replacement. If you are interested, then leave a comment at the RADIOPLAY website along

with a few details about yourself on what projects you have been involved in and why you want to be a part of this magazine

as the new editor. Alternatively, send an email to Fiona at fthraille@googlemail.com and she can answer any questions you

have about the role.

There will be announcement about the February/Valentine issue features on the website so you should check it out.

Thanks for your continued support and good luck in all your projects this year!

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Silly Recording #1 - SnowLee: You can’t really record a snow sound effect right?

SingleAgain: I disagree actually, because I do think that there is a sound to snow fall-but I don’t think that it is anything that can be caught on microphone. Snow fall causes more the absence of other sounds - I guess it just disrupts sound reflections, and so when I am out in heavy snow I had always noticed an eerie silence-like my ears were stuffed with cotton wool.

UltraRob: hahahahahaha. Ahh, the lengths some producers will go to avoid having to mix in ambient noise.

Alexachipman: Yes but wouldn’t that echo? And that is usually the #1 problem with vas’ lines.

Silly Recording #2 - Echo

RADIOPLAY magazine January 2009 I I . iradioplaycontests.com

I N T E R V I E W S By Lee Labit

Interview with Jeffrey BridgesExecutive Producer of Pendant Audiohttp://www.pendantaudio.com

1. First, there was Superman (2005), then Batman and Wonder Woman (2006) and a year later, Supergirl (2007). Last year (2008), a show started starring Catwoman. Will there be a new show this year about another DC character? Maybe Green Lantern? The Flash?

We have Martian Manhunter starting up in March, but right now that’s the only new Earth-P show slated for 2009.

In July we have our third big crossover story, which will be quite a bit different from the previous two. And we do have two more Earth-P show pitches in right now, it’s just a matter of developing them until they’re ready to go.

2. So far, I haven’t noticed any slowdown in the releases since I started following your shows. How easy is it being the executive producer of Pendant Audio and how much time do you spend on a monthly basis to make sure that everything goes well?

Easy is a word that doesn’t really come into play with keeping a group like Pendant running. I easily spend 30-40 hours a week just keeping the group running, talking to our producers and directors and actors and artists, doing my own writing and voice acting, working on putting up new releases, etc etc.

I never expected Pendant to get as big as it did, so I never anticipated it being this much work, but if we keep growing at this rate it must mean we’re doing something right so I can’t really complain.

3. Your website has not changed much. Are there plans to change it this year?

We’re actually on the third version of our website now. I would like to revamp it a bit, but that’s certainly not a vital task compared to putting together all of our shows and getting them out on time, so it’s on the back burner and will stay there until we have the time to get to it.

4. Over 85% of your shows are on-going. Will any of them end this year (2009)?

If they do it won’t be intentionally! “Once Upon a Time in Vegas” and “Star Wars: Blue Harvest” both have finite ends, but both are still a couple years out from reaching their culmination.

We have two new feature (limited run) productions we’re in the planning stages of now, which hopefully will launch in the second half of 2009, as well as another new original show, “The Extraordinary Misadventures of Travis & Dean” launching in March, so it should hopefully be a fruitful year for new shows from Pendant (in addition to our fourteen present shows)!

Interview with Eric BusbyExecutive Producer of Darker Projectshttp://www.darkerprojects.com

1. Are there any new series that will be released this year (2009)?

Not so much new as focusing on what we already have. The goal for the coming year is to make sure series like Byron, Alive Inside, Star Trek The Lost Frontier and so on keep coming out. I also would like to find time to do a few episodes of Far Horizons.

One thing I would like to do around next Halloween is something called DC Zombies.... Which is sort of like Marvel Zombies only with DC characters like Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman instead. But we will have to see how things go before that goes into production.

2. Some of your shows such as Bloodmoon and Tales From the Museum Season 2 have not had episode 2 released yet. Are they scheduled to have a quarterly release, or are the releases just delayed? If delayed, do you, as the executive producer, have any power to make the releases more frequent?

They are released as their creators want them released. I could override them, but I do not feel I have that right. They brought these series to Darker Projects and I feel they have the full run of how they are presented to the world.

A lot of the people at DP have day jobs (myself included) so sometimes some of our shows have to take a back seat to real life problems when they come up. Ideally, we would like to be able to get shows out once a month. But sometimes life makes that impossible.

3. Do you have any specific goals this year to improve Darker Projects?

You mean apart from taking over the world and having everyone worship me as the dark overlord of all life on Earth? Our goals are to keep putting out good quality products, as well as start branching into our media. We are working to release the first novel in the Alive Inside range, which we will do under our own title of Darker Projects Publishing.

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Long term I would like to try my hand at film one day. But that’s down the road some.

Interview with Mrwest16Head of WestSociety studiohttp://dbz2.mypodcast.com

1. Most of the shows that you produce are fan-based productions. Will you produce as many original productions as fan-based productions this year (2009)?

Things will probably remain the same in 2009 as I don’t have have any other fan projects written and will probably just continue working on Sonic the H. and DBZ2. So don’t expect an equal amount of Originals compared to fan plays, but that being said I do have some original material available and in the works.

2. At the moment you don’t have your own domain name. Do you have plans to register your own domain this year?

Actually, at the time I wrote that, I didn’t really know how to use Mypodcast.com, so the whole Podcast area is referred to as dbz2, despite it not being 100 percent DBZ. In other words it was a typo. So I have to live with that as my domain name, unless I can figure a way to change it. And getting a .com costs money, and money I do not wish to spend at this time.

3. How many shows will you produce this year and how long will they be, on average?

I’m not quite sure on how many, depends on what’s available to me. And a good chunk of them will probably average out in the range of 23-34 minutes long. I make some really big radio plays!

4. Are you planning on upgrading your equipment/software this year? If so, then list your current equipment and the equipment that you are looking forward to investing in.

Probably not. As of right now my equipment is still the same, aside from getting Adobe Audition the other day. But everything is still relatively the same. Even with Audition I’ll probably continue to use Audacity. But we’ll see.

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Sites of Radioplay Producers Who Are Active Members of Radioplay Contests

RADIOPLAY magazine January 2009 I I . iradioplaycontests.com

In the world of new audio theater, podcasting is the delivery system of choice. Nothing has done more to deliver content to listeners, and spur the creation of new content, than that magic combination of MP3 files and RSS coding that allows listeners all over the world to get their favorite sounds delivered right to their computers. But one audio theater group in America’s Upper Midwest is banking that though podcasting is here to stay, another Internet technology may soon stand by its side: Online Radio.

The group is the Icebox Radio Theater of International Falls, Minnesota; a remote little town on the US-Canadian border. The region’s temperatures are as frigid as anything that Norway or Russia could offer, earning International Falls the title, ‘Icebox of the Nation’, hence the group’s name. It was founded four years ago by self-professed broadcast geek Jeff Adams, who wanted to add broadcasting to the Icebox Radio Theater’s (or IBRT’s) offerings almost from the beginning.

“What can I say, I love the process of broadcasting,” Adams said. “Originally, I experimented with a tiny AM transmitter that only sent a signal about two blocks. But when you like to broadcast, you broadcast.”

That tiny AM station took a back seat over the years as the IBRT took off. With Adams as its Artistic Director, the IBRT has done live stage shows, live-to-air broadcasts, and operates a successful podcast. Their work has earned them a Silver Mark Time Award, and accolades from such audio theater luminaries as Gregg Taylor and Jack Ward. So it’s not surprising that some people have asked Adams, why online radio? Why not just stick to podcasting like everyone else?

“I think they are two very different kinds of listening,” Adams responds. “A podcast is like picking a CD from your collection. Maybe it’s an episode you’ve heard before, maybe it isn’t. But you pretty much know what you’re getting. You’re already sold on that podcast, or else you wouldn’t have subscribed. But when you tune in to an online radio station, there’s an immediacy and excitement to it based on the fact that you don’t know what’s coming next. It’s more like channel surfing. We’re not expecting to replace podcasting, but to augment it.”

Adams had been intrigued by online radio technology for some time, but producing original work for the IBRT and working several part-time jobs left little time for learning the ins and outs of streaming. Then, a discussion thread on Audio Drama Talk pushed the question up to the front burner. JR Benight, the producer of the soap opera, ‘Eye of the Storm’ asked if maybe new audio wasn’t ready for its own online radio station. Directories such as Winamp’s Shoutcast and the iTunes radio directory listed numerous stations with an old time radio format, but there didn’t seem to be a station specifically for NTR. Adams realized that programming a station with a variety of new podcasts, not just the IBRT, would expand the audience much quicker. So he offered the IBRT’s facilities and his own time to make the station happen. Producers responded positively, and the new station, named ‘Icebox Radio’ was born.

Immediately, several major audio theater producers jumped on board. “I think getting Decoder Ring Theater right out of the gate was huge,” Adams said. “It gave the whole enterprise a kind a legitimacy. Audio might not be much right at the moment, but DRT is by far the most popular and influential program out there.”

Other charter members were Sonic Society, Kung Fu Action Theater, Planet Retcon, Bats in the Belfry, and Brokensea Audio. With a little effort, Adams managed to add several more shows to the fold including Darker Projects and Radio Drama Revival. He’s always looking for a combination of quality and pure bulk. “It’s good to have a lot of content when you work in radio,” Adams said. “The longer we can go without repeating a program, the better.”

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And what does the parent organization, the IBRT get for its efforts? Prime time slots, of course, and many of them. And natural-ly, IBRT promotions are featured prominently. “It does cost us a monthly fee to maintain the stream, so I think it’s only fare the IBRT get some consideration,” Adams said. “Eventually, I hope podcasts, theater companies, and companies that make products podcasters use will be interested in advertising on the station, but we really don’t have the resources to try and exploit that yet.”

For now, many of the ‘commercial slots’ aired on Icebox Radio are public service announcements gleaned from the archives at the radio station where Adams works part time. “PSAs are generally very well made, and have something important to say,” Adams said. “Plus, some of them are pretty good examples of the theater of the imagination.”

On the technical side, Icebox Radio began with a few test broadcasts in the spring of 2008. Adams used a computer at the IBRT’s office at the local community college. The encoding program was Shoutcast, a free plugin for the Winamp audio player, and the programming was provided by a six hour iTunes playlist set to play on a continuous loop.

“It was pretty basic stuff,” Adams said. “We played the Icebox Radio Theater, Decoder Ring, Sonic Society, and every now and again I’d go in and remake the playlist.”

Today, Icebox Radio runs on a donated computer in Adams’ home office where he can keep a closer eye on things. A broadcast automation program allows a set schedule and a much larger variety of programs running on continual playlists, and gives the station the professional polish of regular time announcements and station IDs. More importantly, the program gives Adams both the control to truly program the station, and the freedom to leave it be for long periods when he is needed elsewhere. Icebox Radio’s shows are divided into two groups, the anthologies such as the station’s science fiction program ‘Future Shock’, or ‘The Borrowed Pen’ a program dedicated to airing fan fiction, and hours dedicated to a specific theater or group. The anthology programs Sonic Society and Radio Drama Revival have regular spots to provide variety, and Black Jack Justice and the Red Panda team up twice a day for ‘The Decoder Ring Hour’. Decoder Ring Theatre is the only podcast currently with its own time slot, a tribute, Adams said, to the show’s quality and fan base. The only other show besides the IBRT to receive such an honor is Crazy Dog Audio Theater, again for its overall quality.

Much of Icebox Radio’s schedule is experimental, and thus far, only two periods of the day are designed to appeal to a specific audience. From six to ten AM each day, the station airs a block of Decoder Ring, IBRT and Crazy Dog Audio designed to appeal to working people sitting down in front of their computers for the day. The same block is repeated at Midnight central time, which is six AM Greenwich Mean.

“Part of the challenge of programming an online station is remembering that our community is global, Adams said. “I can’t just think Minneapolis, I also have to figure out when they’ll be listening in Sydney and London.”

But Adams makes it clear that online radio is not just another way to listen to MP3 files. It has something to offer that podcasting, or even CDs and online MP3 sales can’t touch: The ability to present audio theater live.

The IBRT recently completed a week-long live event titled ‘Calls to Santa’ where kids in International Falls called in and talked to Santa Claus live, on the radio. The event was simulcast on Icebox Radio and local terrestrial station KXBR. It was a great success, partially because of phone calls from outside the local area, and the fact that the hosts of the program had real-time access to the online stream’s listener map, allowing them to see who in the globe was listening at that moment. Bogotá, Seoul, London, Guatemala as well as many spots all around the US and Canada tuned in, giving the show’s hosts more than a little to talk about.

More live programming is planned for the future, including a call-in talk show and live theatrical events. Adams has also sent out a general call on Audio Drama Talk to any theater group interested in having their event broadcast live, and this goes for in-studio, as well as theatrical, presentations. “All they need is a computer with an Internet connection, and Skype,” Adams said. “They can present their show live to the world.” Adams has even proposed a kind of experimental theater that could utilize online phone programs such as Skype to allow actors in distant locations to rehearse and perform together live. That, however, remains in the future.

Icebox Radio is available at the http://www.iceboxradio.org, and in the iTunes radio directory listed under Talk/Spoken Word.

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You can save your text files as plain files, rtf files, or Narrator files. If you choose to save it as an rtf file, it will save the color-coded script, which is useful since you can send them to your voice actors so they can easily spot where their lines are.

The program is easy to use and the price seems reasonable. Plus, you could also use the software as a resource to create and record a robotic voice.

Note: This software is only available for Mac OS X users. If you are using Tiger or an older operating system, you must download version 1.1.4 instead of 2.0.3 since the later version can only run in Leopard.

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An artist can make sketches before making a final artwork. A 3D modeler can view his or her model in polygons and/or with low resolution textures before rendering his or her image or animation. Can a producer or writer have a tool to see how his or her radio play would turn out without voice actors? Well, kind of...with the help of a program called Narrator.

This program uses computer-generated voices. In the version that I tested, it has 23 voices. There are normal voices but they also have “special/unique” voices such as a singing voice and a laughing voice.

As you can see on the right side, there are four parameters that you can use to tweak each of the voices. Rate refers to how fast they are talking. Pitch is whether you want the voice to sound deep or high. Inflection is how robotic they sound. The further it is set to the left, the more they sound robotic. The parameter volume is self-explanatory. You can press the ‘standard settings’ button to go back to the default state of the actors.

To assign a voice to a text, first, you must highlight the text. Then, click on the Character/Actor box to choose which voice that you want to hear for the highlighted text. Finally, click the ‘Apply’ button.

To test how useful it is on a script, I copied-and-pasted one of my projects into it. Then, I choose the Casting Assistant option under the Director menu. Voila! The software created a color-coded script with a different voice assigned to each of my characters. Very cool!

1. You can see that there is a box on the right side of each parameter. You can write whatever number that you want in those boxes. However, they must be between the minimum or maximum number of the parameter’s setting. Dry/wet mix is between 0 and 100%. Others do not have percentages, such as the small size parameter which is between 0.0001 and .05 but you would not notice any difference if you type a number that is outside the range of a parameter. Therefore, if you write more than 100% in dry/wet mix such as 500% or 1000%, you would still get a 100% effect.

2. In Garageband 3, there is a bug that creates a noise when you have at least two tracks that have the AuMatrix Reverb turned on. So, the only way to hear what the effect actually sounds like is to export your file.

RADIOPLAY magazine January 2009 I I . iradioplaycontests.com

AuMATRIxREvERB TuToRIAL

We’re back this month with a Garageband tutorial. In this issue, I will go over a plugin called AuMatrixReverb with you.

This plugin creates a “room effect”. It can make your characters talk as if they are in a Cathedral, a small room, a hall, and other types of rooms. There are a total of 12 pre-configured settings. Just like the other plugins in Garageband, it has many options/pa-rameters that you can control to help you get the effect that you want for your scenes.

Look at the screen shot. You can see that there are 17 different parameters.

First is the dry/wet mix parameter. This parameter can make your character speak as if he or she is far away from a scene which takes place indoors by setting it to the right.

The second one, small/large mix, creates a “room size effect”. If it is all the way to the right, it makes your voice as if you are inside a tall and big room such as a Cathedral.

Small size makes your character voice as if it is coming out of a speaker. The more it it set to the right, the more that it seems as if the speaker is placed on top and inside a big building.

Large size is like the reverb effect in Garageband except it cannot create a strong reverb effect.

That is it for this month’s tutorial. I have not played with the other parameters yet so maybe I will do a tutorial in the future once I learn how they work.

Here are a couple of side notes when using AuMatrixReverb:

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RADIOPLAY magazine

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January 2009 I I . iradioplaycontests.com