Careers in audio and other media are virtually limitless. At a typical radio station, broadcast or online, those with audio knowledge are employed as board operators, air personalities, production personnel, news and sports anchors, producers, and podcasters. Ideas can come from anywhere – a book, a dream, a conversation with a friend, or an internet site. One of the most common sources for ideas that end up on radio is the news of the day. In the modern world, where many media programs are niche-oriented, it is important to determine who the people expect to listen to their production. The most expensive part of audio production is often the salaries of the people involved. Many audio programs, however, are the result of team-work. Quiz and variety show on public radio employ more than 20 people per program. Organizational skills are needed in order to proceed from idea to completion.

Starting with various sound sources, such as a microphone or an audio recorder, it shows the route or signal path that sound takes to ultimately be broadcast or recorded. Much of what happens in the production studio has to do with manipulating sound, whether it involves a sound signal or an audio signal. In audio production, when that sound signal is then manipulated electronically, it is called an audio signal. The high-pressure area reaches receptors in ears and the people hear the vibrations as sound, or pressure waves strike the diaphragm of a microphone, beginning the process of converting a sound signal into an audio signal. There are four key characteristics of sound that help determine why one sound is different from another: amplitude, frequency, timbre, and the sound envelope. Broadcast equipment is designed to pick up all frequencies equally well, so its response curve is considered to be flat, although few components have a truly flat frequency response curve.

Digital technologies have revolutionized how a person can record and edit an audio sound signal. From creating a music bed to adding sound effects and editing out vocal mistakes, editing is a day-to-day part of audio production work, and it's one of the most important skills a production person needs to know. This chapter introduces concepts and practices of digital audio production. It looks at digital audio editing and multitrack production. The final component of a digital audio editing system is a software program to perform the actual recording and editing of the audio. Although there are many different systems available, to gain an understanding of digital audio editing, the chapter looks specifically at Adobe Audition. Even though some procedures and terminology may be different, many of the basic principles presented would apply to any equipment that's capable of digital audio editing.

Dynamic microphones can handle extremely high sound levels, which makes it almost impossible to overload them, and they are not usually affected by temperature or humidity extremes. Dynamic microphones also can lose some light, delicate sounds, because the mass of the diaphragm requires a fairly high level of sound to move it. Even though dynamic microphones are fairly rugged, like all microphones, they are fragile to some extent and should be handled with care, just like any other piece of audio production equipment. Some condenser microphones are able to utilize small internal power supplies or phantom power rather than a battery. Built-in microphones on many portable audio recorders and smartphones are often condenser microphones and they provide fairly good quality for both consumer and professional needs. Although different sensitivity-rating systems can be employed, condenser microphones generally have high-sensitivity specifications, and dynamic microphones have medium sensitivity.

In the modern audio studio, the spotlight is often on computer editing rather than the control board; however, the audio console is still a primary piece of equipment in most production facilities. Most digital boards also have the capability to handle both analog and digital inputs. Any control board has three primary functions: mix, amplify, and route audio. The most common arrangement for the output selectors on an audio board is a bank of three buttons for program, audition, and auxiliary outputs. Many sound boards include simple equalizers. A few boards have a talk-back switch, which is a simple intercom system consisting of a built-in microphone and a pushbutton control that turns the microphone on or off. The signal from the talk-back microphone is sent to a speaker or headphones in another studio – for example, a performance studio – which would allow the operator at the audio console to communicate with the announcer in a studio at separate location.

Digital audio recording equipment and the production practices that emerged from them long ago replaced conventional analog technology and practices in the audio production studio. This chapter provides an introduction to podcasting and considers its technical requirements as well as producing high-quality content. Podcasting relies on RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds with a recorded audio file in the enclosure tag for playback on a computer or mobile device. It is not intended to be a comprehensive survey, most of the processes and equipment mentioned have a role in using digital playback and recording equipment to produce high-quality content for podcasts and broadcast. One way digital technology and the internet have affected both production and the distribution of content within the industry is the ability to deliver CD-quality audio to radio stations using digital distribution networks that link radio stations with ad agencies, production houses, and record companies through an online network.

A greater concern with monitor speaker placement, especially in studios that employ near-field monitoring, has to do with the increased use of computer equipment in the studio. Unless the monitor speakers are magnetically shielded, they must be positioned far enough away from computer screens to avoid distorting their pictures. Headphones are necessary in broadcast situations where, for example, studio monitor speakers are muted when a microphone is turned on, and the operator must be able to hear audio sources. Headphones are also portable, so sounds can be monitored when a standard monitor speaker might not be available. Like regular monitor speakers, headphones come in a variety of designs and styles. On-ear headphones are also less likely to leak sound into the studio, however they can be heavier and more cumbersome than other styles.

This chapter focuses on the capability of audio editing software to process signals and also looks at other commonly used electronic audio processors. The two main kinds of equalizers found in audio production are the graphic equalizer and the parametric equalizer. In other words, the parametric equalizer is used for finer control of the frequencies within a sound than the broad control offered by graphic equalizers. Audio editing software often includes some type of dynamics processor that can emulate stand-alone compressors, limiters, expanders, and noise gates. In addition to offering improved editing capabilities, most workstations or software programs (or plugins) have provisions for adding special effects to the audio signal. It is not intended to be a complete guide to signal-processing equipment – there are other units in use in production facilities, and there are other effects available through audio editing software programs and plugins.

People who work for advertising agencies and radio stations are likely to be involved with producing commercials. At some stations, dealing with commercials is a full-time position, and at many stations the disc jockeys spend a portion of their workday doing commercial production work. Reading over sound effects is similar to reading over music, in that the sound should fade up and down. For radio spots that consist of a mixture of the announcer’s voice and a background music bed, the voice should be dominant, because it conveys the important information of the spot. Music constitutes the largest percentage of radio station programming and is usually introduced and coordinated by a disc jockey. Recording music is a fairly complicated form of audio production that often involves numerous microphones and long hours of recording. Sports announcers need to know about sports in general, as well as the particulars of the sports for the area in which they are reporting.

Radio networks, news agencies, all-news radio stations, and many other radio stations have reporters in the field interviewing newsmakers and members of the public, and reporting on what is happening locally, nationally, and internationally. Concerts and other live events are often recorded in the field at the same time that they are being performed in front of an audience. There are many other types of location situations. The main sound problems the people are likely to encounter when the people are on location are those that come from everything else that is happening at the location. Some of the problems common to location sound recording can be solved by surveying the location ahead of time. The main recorders used for location work are the small portable ones that record on hard drive or memory cards. More complicated mixers are used for club performances and mixing band or orchestra music.

Audio adds a great deal to any visual production. In video production, for example, some have estimated that audio supplies 80 percent of the information and that the video image supplies only 20 percent. Audio recordists who are preparing material to be used with images need to take the picture into account. The most common type of microphone holder used for visual media production is one that is hardly ever used for radio or other audio-only productions. Some large-scale productions, such as musical reviews, use perambulator booms, which are movable platforms that can move the mic in, out, up, down, and various other directions. Continuity and perspective are two concepts that play a larger role in visual productions than in audio-only productions. The simplest way to record sound for video is to plug the end of the microphone cable into the camera and record the sound on the tape or hard drive that is part of the camera assembly.

This chapter looks at the techniques the people should consider for creating an internet radio station, podcast, or production service, as well as several online and over-the-air radio distribution methods. It focuses on what the people need to consider in order to create audio content for online distribution. The good news is that many people have modems that operate from 1.5 to 12 Mb per second, so streaming live audio or downloading audio files is not that much of a problem. Updated encoding and playback software is often very appealing to content providers, in that it often provides better-quality sound with smaller file sizes, and allows more simultaneous outgoing streams. In fact, with just a computer, a microphone and appropriate audio editing software, the people could record productions for internet radio stations, podcasting, and other internet applications. Copyright in relation to online content and distribution has become a major concern.

Conflict can take a variety of forms, including arguments, disagreeable communication, hostile episodes, and pervasive tension, with each type of conflict taking on different characteristics. The tenor of a conflict is shaped by the communication strategies and tactics that are used during the interaction, as well as the conflict styles of the people involved. Conflict dynamics are shaped by the attributions people make for the conflict, as well as the degree of power partners have in their relationship, and can be enacted through a variety of conversational patterns. This chapter focuses on strategies for managing goals during conflict, adopting constructive conflict styles, and de-escalating interpersonal tensions.