PRODUCTION OF SOUND EFFECTS OVER THE AIR

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 42, 17 January 1949, Page 5

PRODUCTION OF SOUND EFFECTS OVER THE AIR

A man in a broadcasting studio holds a halfpenny between two pennies, and, one eye on the script, pulls it out quickly and millions of listeners hear the convincing click of an electric light being switched off. A few moments later he manipulates his fiddle queerly, and to listeners a door has creaked, realistically. Then when the action of the play calls for the pitter-patter of rain, he holds his hand a foot above a sheet of brown paper and sprinkles rice on it. For the microphone, a faithful picker-up of all sounds produced near it, unfortunately, does not transmit them all realistically, and must be assisted by a team of sound effects men and women. Few programmes go on the air without one, and ingenious is the only werd that describes some of the dodges they employ. Real bacon, for example, if actually sizzling over a stove in the studio, would not sound convincing over the air, but a ball of tissue paper rolled between the palms of the hands sounds just right. Someitmes blank cartridges are discharged at appropriate moments, but more often a cane brought down sharply on a leather-covered stool becomes a pistol shot through the “mike.”

Water is a particularly treacherous broadcaster, but the sound effects department is never at a loss, though shortage of rice has recently meant recording the sprinkling act and using the recording time and time again. Water, dripping from roofs or from stalactites in caverns, gives# too soft a note for the “mike” to register, but a pencil plunged vertically into a glass of water gives the desired effect. Nor does the sound of surf on the beach sound like the real thing in a broadcast, but small lead shot rolled round a one-sided drum would convince anyone. For sounds that can be transmitted without loss of effectiveness, most studios rely on the remarkably comprehensive range of recordings available. The differing whistle of British and foreign trains, the thousand-and-one station noises, the myriad noises of the countryside and farmyard can all be used at short notice.