I believe the point of the sound effects production on PHC is not to be
"realistic" -- who would really be fooled anyway? C'mon! -- but to amuse. If
you've ever been in the audience, or watched a TV presentation, you'll see
they have a great deal of fun with it. The rapport between Garrison and
Tom/Keith is beautiful to behold.

What it harks back to, is not radio but the era when half the kids on the
playground would be making such noises in joyous imitation of what they
heard on the radio; it was, and is, a form of acting.

Use recordings? Lord, no, please! This is a totally live show and therein
lies one of its pleasures.

By the way, it originates live from Tanglewood tomorrow. You can probably
catch it on FM, or streaming. Here in Boston it may even be telecast.

clark
On Fri, Jun 26, 2009 at 12:28 AM, Sammy Jones <[log in to unmask]>wrote:

> Not to knock A Prairie Home Companion (which I love), but their sound
> effects are more of a parody of classic era radio sound effects rather than
> a true representation.  Generally I find the only effects which sound
> realistic are the footsteps.  Everything else is made by either Tom Keith's
> or Fred Newman's voices.  It's funny, but hardly realistic or
> representative
> of the best that OTR had to offer.  I often wish they would use real sound
> effects (even recorded!); OTR comedy and variety shows (think Jack Benny)
> always used real telephone rings and automobile sounds unless there was a
> particular comic reason to do them unrealistically.
>
> A Prairie Home Companion's soundscapes can't hold a candle to modern BBC
> Radio drama productions or the best of OTR.
>
> Sammy Jones
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Lou Judson [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> > Sent: Wednesday, June 24, 2009 9:00 PM
> > Subject: Re: Recording Innovations
> >
> > Prairie Home Companion is keeping this tradition alive - I got to sit
> > onstage for one of their programs last year and their SFX guys are
> > amazing - all live! They make phone calls sounds by talking into a
> > paper cup...
> >
> > Other companies do it in various locations, too.
> >
> > <L>
> > Lou Judson . Intuitive Audio
> > 415-883-2689
> >
> >
> > On Jun 24, 2009, at 5:14 PM, Tom Fine wrote:
> >
> > > The same can be said for the radio-drama sound guys of that era.
> > > Material like the Lux Radio Theatre and the Mercury Theatre on the
> > > Air/Campbell Playhouse often had complex SFX sequences and music as
> > > well as multi-voiced dialog. Sterling's The Radio Manual lays out
> > > CBS's custom mixing board for one of their large radio studios,
> > > circa early 1940's. It was quite impressive. The amazing thing
> > > about the radio guys is that this happened live over the air in
> > > many cases, so not only did the sound elements need to go off at
> > > the right time and flawlessly, the mix needed to be spot-on as well.
> > >
> > > -- Tom Fine
>