Festival Oude Muziek
Voice over recording and post production for the national radio campaign for one of Europe's most important early music festivals.
- Client
- Festival Oude Muziek
- Sector
- Cultural sector
- Year
- jaarlijks / annual
- What we did
- Voice-over recording, post production and radio production
- What it achieved
- National radio campaign for a ten-day festival with repertoire from medieval to baroque
A radio campaign for music that predates radio by centuries
Festival Oude Muziek celebrates early European classical music, repertoire stretching from medieval plainchant to late baroque, performed in the concert halls, churches, and courtyards of Utrecht each August. A national radio campaign for a festival this specific needs audio that respects the tradition without alienating anyone who has never heard a theorbo. The voice over is everything.
Voice first, atmosphere in support
Radio production is the most direct form of audio work: you have a voice, some music, and a listener's imagination. We recorded the voice over with the warmth and authority the festival deserves, then built a post production mix that placed it cleanly in the sonic world of early music, present enough to anchor the spot, restrained enough to let the voice carry.
Radio built to make you want to go
Voice over recording
Recorded to broadcast quality, warm, authoritative, and paced for a listener driving or working, not reading a programme note.
Post production
Full audio post mixing voice, music, and atmosphere into a clean, professional radio spot ready for national broadcast.
Radio production
Structured for maximum impact in a 20 second format: a clear message, an emotional hook, and an invitation that's impossible to ignore.
How do you make radio advertising for music centuries old?
The festival repertoire runs from medieval plainchant to late baroque. The trap is obvious: lay that music under the spot and hope it sounds inviting. In practice it backfires, because it confirms exactly the image that keeps people away.
So the choice was to let the voice do the work and keep the music restrained. The voice-over was recorded with authority but without ceremony, and timed for someone driving or washing up with no programme in front of them.
Twenty seconds is short. Exactly three things fit: a reason to listen, what it is, and when it is. Anything beyond that takes something away.
Thirty seconds, no music budget
Festival Oude Muziek draws audiences from across Europe, and a national radio campaign is part of how it does it. A spot that sounds as good as the festival it advertises is the baseline.
This project is one of seven Studio ZK made for the cultural sector. Audio identity for festivals →