Tommy Kramer Coaching Tip #396 – Production tip: Avoid Dead Silence

The digital Production world is so much fun. I first went headlong into it with Pro Tools, Adobe Audition, Next Gen, and now Logic Pro X. More tools now than ever before. (I also have Twisted Wave and Garage Band in my phone and iPad.)

Then I turn on the radio, and I hear a commercial or a station promo where it’s edited too tightly. No breaths; the pauses not quite long enough. Probably one of those 63-second “sixties” sped up or read at blinding speed to barely make it. “Avoiding silence” gone mad.

And the other side of the coin is where the spacing is right, but there’s this totally empty silence between sentences. That’s where a flub happened, or something was pasted together, and the resulting eerie, totally dead silence is noticed by the brain.

So here’s the overview: By all means, use the incredible Production tools that we have available. But remember that it still has to have an ‘organic’ factor to actually work.