On Friday the 1st of March we gathered in M113 to record the central call-in radio show segments of our radiophonic piece.
There were a number of key technical challenges in effectively and productively recording together. Initially we intended to include a room mic, to metatextually bring the listener into the real-world space of the radio studio, however our available interfaces only had two inputs. We then ran both the vocal track microphones, a Shure SM58 and Neumann TLM 103, into a Mackie mixer. Our Sennheiser condenser was creating piercing feedback, so we reconsidered and removed the room microphone; something we can always re-create with Foley processes afterwards. There were also gain and level settings to make, and creative decisions such as performing in an affected voice, or accent. We selected the Neumann TLM 103 as the host’s microphone for its clarity and professional quality, and the Shure SM58 as the caller’s, to allow us to functionally work with a little more abrasion, lending itself well to be later processed and edited as the caller’s phone signal.
Performing as the host in the Ohio train derailment conspiracy theorist segment, and as the alien caller in the following sequence, I had to experiment with and access different characters’ voices. A crucial aspect to emulate the natural, casually-evolving conversation of talk radio was to follow the detailed script while allowing for deliberate sloppiness and mistakes. The benefit of working from a script ensured an intentional backbone of our work, while freeing us to experiment with the material without losing focus or time.
Playing into the performative conventions of radio hosts and callers was a fun subject to explore, and spoke to the ease and creative rewards this particular collaboration has been in comparison with the previous project. Our efficiency in reaching common ground has proved fruitful in generating immediacy in both our idea-generating process and our acting upon that impetus.