Duff Endings

[John In Brum]

I am doing the sound for a 'Farndale' production. For those who dont know this is a comedy where everything goes wrong on stage. Severe Amateur!!

So there are various places where duff sound cue ends are needed for link music.

Anybody got any ideas??

So far I have;-

Dead stop with record needle lifted

Scrape of needle to jump between tracks.

Tape wind sound and stop.

Speed ramps down and stop. (Sounds great on bagpipes)

 

I could do with at least one more and prefer not to repeat

 

Any thoughts????? :D

[pete10uk]

massive echo or reverb?

[Oldradiohand]

Sticking record/CD? Skipping CD? Playing backwards? Change (half or double) of speed? A few seconds of something obviously inappropriate followed by the "right" track? Feedback? Severe wow? Taxi induction? "Hello, Bob. Got a pickup for you at 11 Acacia Avenue" .

Of course, these have never happened to me.........

[Stuart91]

For those who dont know this is a comedy where everything goes wrong on stage.

 

In that case, the fire alarm has to go off at least once.

[Bobbsy]

Intercom getting into the main mix...bonus points for it to include swearing or a dirty joke then yelling "play be b****y link music".

 

Throw in feedback any time you feel the need.

 

Late mic openings coupled with mics staying on as actors go off stage and start gossiping.

 

Hmmm...this is getting too real!

 

...and I know it's moved off the specific query but it was fun to think about!

[PeterT]

Intercom getting into the main mix...bonus points for it to include swearing or a dirty joke then yelling "play be b****y link music".

 

 

To run with Bobbsy's joke, you could pick up the intercom on the punch-line of said dirty joke or indeed a smutty anecdote

 

'...and the Vicar was there with his trousers 'round his ankles holding the pug with a sheepish grin on his face'

or some-such

[the kid]

Massive EQ sweeps where it is really high end, then yelling that it sounds crap and "fixed" by sweeping back to heavy bass.

 

You could have the music stop / run out and seconds later have someone humming/singing the rest of it, maybe including some really bad working mans club mc (think jeremy lions ramped up)

[paulears]

I think some of those would be mistaken for real mistakes and I'd suggest sticking with the more comedic. Pitch changes up and down can sound silly. The missing word crackly mic cable, think normal collier, the sudden backwards then forwards again stuff, the odd toilet flush??.

[Junior8]

Nothing beats the wrong grams fx church bells for car arriving, gun shot for doorbell etc. Best if these are genuine cues that match the plot but come in at the wrong places. Could be mixed with spot along similar lines. I like the taxi induction having spent many an hour in Portsmouth Guildhall back in the eighties - but that isn't really down to tech incompetence.

[kerry davies]

Roger has it. The "greenhouse smash" instead of a water splash or catastrophic clatter ending with bells, horns and slide whistles instead of a car crash always works once, but not twice.

 

Recorded announcements in the wrong place, inappropriate music, cut-offs, as Bobbsy suggests, and the "dropping of the mic" thing usually add to the effects.

 

I think that "less is more" with these sort of things and overdoing it ruins the surprise element. Timing is more important than actual sounds and "bad" timing can be "good" timing when done well.

[John In Brum]

Brilliant!!

New this was worth posting!!

CD skiping is the one I am going for, (Cant think how I had forgotten that joy.) only cus most of the rest are already in, as part of the script!!

 

Wrong cues, Taxi's, police, and a radio phone in program, all with various crackles whistles distortion and even a raspberry!!

Even got tea lady and the vicar talking "off Mic".

 

Whoever wrote the script must have been a sound man in a previous life. :** laughs out loud **:

 

Cant do the Crap / ....b****y hell ones cus lady director protests!! (Thats her face)

 

Fire alarm - Wow brings back memories. Stourbridge town hall has (had?) a fire alarm that went off during a musical I was doing sound for.

Just to make sure you knew it was a fire there were also several revolving light beacons hidden above the cornice.

Still everyone sat tight and we carried on!!

 

Any other takers??

[J Pearce]

You could work with the actors on timing, so for instance they pause on stage waiting for the doorbell, ham it up, move on, then mid conversation the doorbell rings out at a deafening volume, with glares from the cast before they carry on.

As ever don't overuse a joke, it needs to be part of a whole picture.

[Bobbsy]

True story...in the early 1970s I worked for a very small town TV station in Canada (CKRD Red Deer if that means anything to anybody).

 

A friend of mine working in Master Control (what would be called Presentation in the UK) got a much better job in a much bigger city and decided he wanted to leave with a bang. He was working the 6PM until sign off shift on his last day and this involved running a film after the late news. For the fortnight before his departure he collected dozens of sound effects on the quarter inch continuous loop cart tapes we used back then for audio stings and so on.

 

The late film on his last day was a drama called "Shoes of the Fisherman" which is about Papal politics. Never has it been so enhanced in audio terms...it included:

 

-multiple instances of machine gun fire as various characters entered rooms

 

-loud Chinese market effects over quiet scenes in the Sistine Chapel

 

-an intermittent barking dog turning up everywhere

 

-lots of thunder

 

-country and western music any time an orchestra or organ was seen

 

-& etc.

 

All his friends (including me) were alerted to watch the film--which we did with lots of beer at what would turn into his going away party.

 

Disappointingly, there was not one single viewer complaint.

[Gerry]

I am doing the sound for a 'Farndale' production. For those who dont know this is a comedy where everything goes wrong on stage. Severe Amateur!!

Hi John

Why don't you operate the sound as you usually do?

Then there will be plenty of mistimings, wrong effects etc.

Cheers

Gerry

 

 

 

Only joking, honest

[Junior8]

It must have been hard in the old panotrope days. I have a couple of ex broadcaster library music 78s (Conroys I think - those with about thirty mood cues on each side) here with chinagraph marks on the grooves to be hit. Bad enough for a music cue but for the rest it's small wonder they did as much spot as they could. When you listen to a Goon Show with the grams cues coming thick and fast you simply marvel at the skill of the operators.