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
Every August, Festival Oude Muziek fills Utrecht's concert halls, churches and courtyards with early music, from medieval plainchant to late baroque. That's a pretty niche thing to advertise on national radio. The spot had to take the music seriously, but also not scare off someone who's never heard of a theorbo (most people!). Which meant the voice over was everything.
Voice first, atmosphere in support
Radio is about as direct as audio gets. A voice, a bit of music and whatever the listener pictures in their head. We recorded the voice over warm, but sure of itself. In the post production mix the early music sits underneath, close enough to set the scene and quiet enough that the voice does the talking.
Radio built to make you want to go
Voice over recording
Broadcast quality, and paced for someone in the car or at work. Not for someone reading the programme.
Post production
Voice, music and atmosphere mixed into one radio spot, ready for national broadcast.
Radio production
Written for a 20 second slot, so every word in it has a job.
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
People travel from all over Europe for this festival, and national radio is one of the ways they hear about it. The least a spot can do is sound as good as the concerts.
This project is one of seven Studio ZK made for the cultural sector. Audio identity for festivals →