AudioBook Production 101… Goes To The Dogs!

June 20, 2017 Micheal 2 Comments

SeanOsheaRecordsAudioBookAirliftProductionsNOLA — Sean O’Shea, the dude who’s got Los Angeles on a leash, records his New AudioBook “The Good Dog Way” at Airlift Productions New Orleans

The email came into the Airlift Productions Studios, innocently enough, from Los Angeles in mid-Spring, it was Sean O’Shea, looking to make the AUDIO version of his new book, “The Good Dog Way”, a reality.

Having worked with Sean a year and a half ago, recording VoiceOver tracks for his DVD series, I knew what I was working with.

And how.

With tens of thousands of followers on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram, Sean’s like-ability factor, as well as his talent, is more “off the chain” than many of the dogs he’s tamed and trained.

But, he confessed, he was an “AudioBook Virgin”.

Knowing it was his first time, I committed to being gentle.

MichealZiantsSeanOSheaAirliftProductionsAudiobookWork — Micheal Ziants & Sean O’Shea, navigating the twists & turns of AudioBook production, Airlift Productions New Orleans, June 2017

Our pre-production meeting included tips on studio mic technique, definite ‘Dos and Do-Nots’ – no dairy products the day of recording (audible phlegm), petroleum jelly on lips to limit vocal artifacts, etc. – and I taught him how to “punch & roll”.

We edited his AudioBook masterpiece AS WE RECORDED IT!

Mistakes were fixed right then and there – on the fly. No tedious post-recording editing sessions here. No. We got it right – right there!

MichealZiantsSeanOSheaTheShadeauxAirliftProductionsNOLAJune2017 — Ziants & O’Shea applying “The Good Dog Way” with Airlift Mascot ‘The Shadeaux”

And roll, we did, through six days of recording, every afternoon, Monday-through-Saturday, teaching America – and the world – a more human, and humane, approach to LOVING our favorite, four-footed, furry friends by LEADING them.

As the sessions progressed, Sean’s confidence and studio savvy grew, as we plowed through chapter after chapter… “Dismantling Dogs”, “The Drug that is You”, “Arousal is the Enemy”, “What you Pet is what you Get”….

Sample just a taste of “The Good Dog Way”, with this one track that Sean calls, “Bar or Therapist”, here…

By Saturday, all 1.73 gigabytes of edited material were ready to be normalized, properly mastered, and prepared for AudioBook internet consumption.

I saved all the edited wave files for future use to create CDs down the road, and crunched the entire project into 192 kilobyte-per-second mp3 files for quicker internet downloading purposes.

What a week. What a project. What an AudioBook!

Andy Rooney once opined, “The average dog is a nicer human than the average human”.

And, no doubt, you’ll put your nicer human’s best paw forward by putting “The Good Dog Way” through your earbuds today.

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“Mike was a saint, and ridiculously patient and supportive (and helpful!!) for this audio book virgin. In another environment, without the support, and with pressure to perform “right”, I probably would have completely fallen apart. So the MVP for this getting done goes 100% to Mike and the chilled out environment he’s cultivated…personally and within his studio.

A big heartfelt thanks to Mike Ziants and the years of expertise he brought to this project to ensure I sounded my very best. If you’re ever in Nola and need the best audio dude, and the best dude dude, holler at my man Mike with www.airliftproductions.com

Thanks for the great week my friend! :)” ~ Sean O’Shea

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Airlift Productions ~ Audio Alchemy & Digital Magic from New Orleans since 1984

The Radio Days/Daze

McCann, Walton & Johnson On-Air At Q93-WQUE, 1984

June 5, 2017 Micheal Leave a comment

AirliftProductionsWalton-Johnson-McCannWQUE1983 — Times-Picayune Pic featuring WQUE Radio’s new hires – **Walton & Johnson** … oh, and that Mike McCann dude (**Airlift proprietor Micheal Ziants** ) during the radio days/daze)

The world sure was a different place in 1984.

Ronald Reagan sat in the White House, America was watching ‘Cosby’ & ‘Family Ties’ on cathode ray tubes, Wendy’s was asking “Where’s the Beef?” …

Videotape & VCRs were state of the art, ‘Romancing the Stone’ was huge at the box office, Los Angeles hosted the Olympic Games, the NFL had competition with the USFL – and Cut Off, LA native Bobby Hebert was QB for it’s Michigan Panthers …

Closer to home, ‘Dutch’ Morial reigned as Mayor of New Orleans, K&B Drugstores were on every corner, Maison Blanche still sat on Canal Street … and the Crescent City opened it’s doors and welcomed the world with the 1984 World’s Fair!

And the day it opened – May 12th, 1984 – yours truly, as Mike McCann, was wrapping up my first year on Q-93 as afternoon air personality.

My weekend gig was doing mid-days on-air every Saturday and, as fate would have it, the day the World’s Fair was unveiled, I was doing the duty – with Walton & Johnson as co-stars.

Really.

John & Steve had a remote broadcast on this Saturday from the remodeled Maison Blanche department store on Canal Street – and dropped in from time to time on the broadcast. Oh boy!

Hard to believe that this aircheck is now thirty-three years old! Although the station positioning statement “30 minutes of non-stop music IN STEREO!” is for sure a giveaway.

And the music? Cindy Lauper, Van Halen, Rod Stewart, Culture Club, Madonna …and Prince Rogers Nelson danced in the ‘Purple Rain’.

Give a listen to New Orleans radio in 1984 – in this newly unearthed, never-before-heard gem. It’s WQUE-FM broadcasting from the top of the Tidewater Place building in the 1400 block of Canal Street on May 12th, 1984 – LIVE with Mike McCann —-

Man, it was so hard to find good part-time help in those days. 🙂

MichealZiantsAkaMikeMcCannWQUE — a full-page ad in Sunday’s Times-Picayune promoting WQUE’s Mike McCann

Interestingly – and not so coincidentally – 1984 was also the year that I decided to prepare my exit from the radio days and create Airlift Productions! As to Walton & Johnson? Well, John & Steve are still today in 2017 plying their trade in syndication on some of America’s finest radio stations…mgz

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“When I need BIG ‘I-know-that-guy’s-voice!’ sound for any production I am working on, the first call I make is to Airlift Mike. Micheal’s penetrating vocals and second-to-none production quality give my movie & audio feature projects the instant respectability they need. If you want to sound like a pro, meaning no one gives a second thought to your audio because it is so well executed, you want to call Airlift!”

— MIKE CHURCH, World-Famous Sirius/XM Talk Show Host, Founding Father Film Maker, Writer & Producer of ‘The Spirit of ’76’ and ‘The Road to Independence’ & Creator of the Veritas Network/Crusade Channel

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Airlift Productions ~ Audio Alchemy & Digital Magic from NOLA since 1984!