Left to right: David Couch, Chris Nicoll, Joe Thomas, Jonathan from Hobsons, James Stodd, James Cridland and Donna from Hobsons.

In December’s hot-rocking, flame-throwing podcast, some of the loveliest people in UK radio production play their favourite audio of the year. Now that’s a format.

They are: David Couch of Maple Street Studios, Chris Nicoll of WizzFX, Joe Thomas from Absolute Radio, James Cridland of Media UK, James Stodd from the BBC, and Jonathan of our sponsor, Hobsons.

You’ll also hear audio from BBC Radio 7 and BBC Suffolk and we predict the major radio events of 2011. Yes, all of them.

Play the audio here: Duration 53’03”

[audio:eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/earshot/podcast/ecr_december10.mp3|titles=”Earshot">http://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/earshot/podcast/ecr_december10.mp3|titles=”Earshot Creative Review for December 2010.”]

eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/earshot/podcast/ecr_december10.mp3">Download the audio (128kb/s mp3, 49.9M) eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/earshot/podcast/ecr_december10.mp4"> Download in HD Sound (192kb/s AAC, 73.9M)

Subscribe via iTunes.

HD Sound – how HD is it?

It’s better* than the normal file in three ways:

1. It has more data in it… 192kb/s rather than 128kb/s. 2. It’s encoded with a super-efficient codec… AAC-HE rather than mp3. 3. It has around 10dB more dynamic range and virtually no peak limiting.

*yes, it’s subjective – you might quite like the sound of multiband compression.

Credits

Imaging by Chris Nicol at WizzFX using the voices of international.com/voices/31/elly_fairman">Elly Fairman and international.com/voices/4/andrew_burt">Andrew Burt. Thanks to radiobeds.co.uk for the music beds and Session Singer Online for the vocal cut. Also, the Strand Palace Hotel kindly allowed us to put some money behind their bar.

The Earshot Creative Review is sponsored by Hobsons. Find out more on their Hello Hobsons blog.

Next Month

Your chance to win a session with a Hobsons voiceover. Meanwhile, I do hope you have a decent festive break.

Views expressed are those of the contributors and not of Global Radio, the BBC, Hobsons, Absolute Radio, Maple Street Studios, Media UK, Wizz FX or their clients. We acknowledge all rights held by the owners, creators and performers of the recorded works which are included solely for the purposes of education and review. Merry Christmas to all lawyers everywhere.

Comments

• Wednesday 22 December, 2010, Tweets that mention Creative Review of 2010 | Earshot -- Topsy.com writes: [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by James Cridland. James Cridland said: RT @smartin: the new Earshot Creative Review is out today http://bit.ly/hutUKw with @wizzFX @jamescridland @jamesstodd @producerjoe and ... [...]
• Sunday 23 January, 2011, Jonathan Marks writes: Earshot has turned into a monthly festival of superb ideas, celebrating all that's great about sound design. What's more it showcases work that has been done under pressure, to a deadline, but with passion. I really like the way Steve drives the conversation.

  Yes it's a niche area of radio. But the context in which we listen to great audio is so important. Building creative signposts to great stuff are as vital as trailers in the movie industry. I notice that creative filmmakers are making great "insiders guides" on vimeo. I think of Earshots as radio's equivalent.

  Which brings me to a couple of suggestions.

  1. A making of video ( curious to know what equipment is used to record the show).

  2. a trailer for the podcast that's designed to be stolen and plastered all over the place...

  More ears need to discover Earshot.

From Earshot where views are personal and original writing is licensed under Creative Commons. Follow @earshotcreative and send story ideas and examples of great creative work to the editor @smartin