Production Details

How is 'The Scottish Connection' created?

Programme material for the 'The Scottish Connection' is generally recorded on location on minidisc. A selection of microphones are available, including

• Sennheiser ME 64 cardioid for interviews, fitted with Rycote Softie for outside work
• Sennhesier ME66 for noisier backgrounds, fitted with Rycote Softie for outside work
• Audio Technica, AT 822 for stereo, fitted with Rycote Baby Ball Gag for outside work
• Audio Technica radio mike system for mobile situations where cables are not useable
• Sennheiser MD421 for studio use, with pop filter
• Marshall MXL2000 for studio use, with pop filter

Most often recordings are made straight into the handheld minidisc machine, but a PASS professional housing is used where phantom power is required, or where longer XLR cable runs are needed, or for a longer recording session where the extra battery life is useful.

Location monitoring is done on either

• a pair of Sony folding headphones, which are small and portable and have a high output
• Sennhesier 280s for noisier environments, but also fold down a little
• Sennheiser 480s for quieter environments

Back at base, recordings are run into an Apple computer via an Egosys U2A A/D convertor. The USB output is usually fed into Coaster which creates AIFF files direct to disc. Amadeus can also be used for creating AIFF files, but is more usually the editor. Amadeus allows for normalising and some basic noise removal, but if filtering or EQ is needed, Sound Studio is used instead.

Occasionally a more complex piece requires Protools Free. Usually this is four or six track operation, where for example a background music track is required to underlie an interview.

Once location recordings are edited down, the voice links are scripted and recorded. Sometimes this is done on mindisc first, but more usually it goes straight into the computer. The studio mike drives a Behringer mixer which feeds a compressor, which in turn feeds into the U2A, and either Coaster or Amadeus. Compression is used sparingly.

Music for 'The Scottish Connection' is fed into the Apple and stored as an AIFF file. Amadeus is usually used to trim the file so that there are no long silences at either end. No other processing is done,

'The Scottish Connection' is assembled from the various files using Roxio Jam, which allows for precisely tailored crossfades. Sometimes it is easier to assemble a piece by linking them in Jam than by editing and joining them in Amadeus or Sound Studio. Jam also allows the entire program to be normalised.

From Jam, a disc image of the entire program is created, and this is then burned to CD using Toast. An archive copy is also made.

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