China Stories

Malcolm Torrie

Studio Manager

Job Description

I work as a sound engineer in Glasgow and my job was to record the actors in PQ1, a specially designed radio drama studio. I read the scripts and spoke with Jo before we started recording to find out what she wanted the drama to sound like. Radio Drama can make the actors sound as though they are in different locations, from a room in a house to swimming baths or even a running competition at an outdoor track.

Part of my job is putting actors at their ease, especially if they have not worked on a project such as this before. This may involve showing them how to use a microphone to sound like they are running at night or swimming.

The next stage is editing the dialogue and mixing it with background sound effects to make what you hear sound convincing and make you forget you are listening to a set of loudspeakers. I used "Sadie", audio editing software running on a PC to achieve this. This had 8 tracks of audio for dialogue, sound FX, music and echo.

It took around a day to record the actors for each episode and 3 days to mix it. Irene edited the recorded dialogue down to the best takes and Tanya hunted down the sound FX and music we used.

Key Kit

Anything you can record sound with, from a portable recorder and microphone to a 96 channel mixing desk using dozens of different microphones, each suiting a different purpose from recording a very loud drum kit to a cat quietly purring. A camera is essential for capturing the fun moments. Finally, hot coffee to keep us going when we are tiring and chocolate to relax with.

Work Biography

I started working at the BBC 30 years ago. This initially involved a 3 month residential training course to become a trainee Studio Manager.

Over time, I have worked on Radio and TV on shows as diverse as music programs with live bands, comedy sketch shows and sitcoms and news. My main skill is mixing and editing audio on a Pro-tools or Sadie.