I have always wanted to do this.
When I was in my teens and figuring out what to do with my time on the planet, I had one eye on a career in television broadcasting and the other on radio. I thought that being an announcer, sitting on a stool behind a microphone and talking might be a great way to make a living, but I had no interest in being a deejay. Television, on the other hand, seemed more exciting and dynamic and promised greater opportunities. So, off I went toward the bright lights of television and eventually spent several decades in television sound and engineering, working sound at the Barcelona Olympics and Commonwealth Games, among other things, and working in production sound for movies as well, as both recordist and boom operator.
In those decades, I was able to pack a varied audio skillset into my toolbox, working thousands of hours of live broadcast, mobile productions and, most enjoyably, post production. I moved from cutting actual audio tape with a sharp razor, taping sections back together again, hitting ‘play’ and hoping for the best to rudimentary analogue multi-track production, to digital audio workstations. I massaged copy, recorded many announcers, and occasionally got to sit behind the mic myself.
Times changed, as they do, and modern technology has provided the opportunity to fulfill what was once a distant ambition. I work from a small home studio in beautiful Victoria, BC, equipped with a MicroTech Gefell M930 condenser through a UA Apollo Twin preamp/AD and recording in Logic ProX on a Mac mini.
I can connect with anyone, anywhere on the planet, and deliver professional audio in a matter of minutes. I remain amazed by that.
