Recorded 18 November, 2003.

Roger Gregg: When I have been in radio plays in the past they always seem to take a pair of U 87 Neumanns and cross them for a co-incidental stereo field. But you use a single stereo mic.

Paul Deeley: I use the stereo Neumann SM 69 which is the two mono-capsules with switchable polar diaphragm. Which is due I suppose coming partly from a BBC tradition. BBC have used those mics. In fact two of the ones we have here we bought from the BBC. They are a lovely clean microphone and they have a very good frequency response. So those we like.

Roger Gregg: 'The standard BBC approach' - what is that in terms of recording radio drama ?

Paul Deeley: Well I'll have to preface this by saying that I haven't worked for the BBC for a lot of years, but the approach is still to have, if it's a fairly conventional production, is probably to have a stereo microphone which is basically where the cast recording goes on.

And the actor's performing will be choreographed as far as possible to get a sense of movement and perspective in a scene so that it's not just static in front of the mic. And then obviously if you have different areas for different scenes, you'd be miking those separately so that you can cross mix from one physical area to another within the studio space.

Roger Gregg: Tell us about the big studio space that we're using here at the Soundhouse Studios.

Paul Deeley: Well its sort of an all-purpose room which is about 25 feet by 15 feet - I think it is. About 25 by 15-ish. The room also has a small separation booth in one corner so obviously if we're doing treated voices, voices that need separate electronic or digital effects applied to them, then we put those voices into that room. And then we can play those treated voices into the big studio area either by means of an acoustic effects return speaker in the studio area or giving the artists in the main area a feed with that treated voice on headphones.

A pile of video tape for grass sound effect.

'William Franklyn as the voice of the book recorded in a different corner of the studio on a different microphone for a different sound.

Now if during that time if we're able to put in spot fx., any additional fx from the studio, without holding up the voice record process, then we do so. But basically we have to stick to that schedule of recording an episode of dialogue in an 8 hour studio day.

In this scene, while Bob Golding plays an Interstellar Flight controller, Roger Gregg is in the booth performing as Eddie the ship board computer. Both treated voices are recorded in the scene from the receiving walkie talkie and the speaker held by Ken Humphrey who holds them before the stereo microphone. Mark Wing Davey as Zaphod interacts live with both characters.

Roger Gregg: And that's the normal thing.

Paul Deeley: That's the normal thing. That's the way the BBC work and we follow that format because that's how the independent production companies budget their programmes.

Roger Gregg: All of The Soundhouse studios are set up expressly for radio drama?

Paul Deeley: Well, anything and everything really. We do a lot of radio drama because we're one of the few studios outside the BBC that have the capability because: A. We have a room that's big enough to record radio drama and B. We have the technical expertise to handle it.

Roger Gregg: Explain the technical expertise.

Paul Deeley: Well the technical expertise is the understanding of how radio drama programmes are made and the requirements of actually constructing a radio programme in a studio.

Understanding voice positioning, voice miking, how effects can be used while recording, effectively recording as much live as possible and committing that as a straight stereo mix rather than say in a music recording where you'd be multi-tracking, adding tracks and editing.

Roger Gregg: Why is it important to record the actors 'live' and capture live ensemble performance ?

Paul Deeley: Partly for creative and artistic reasons I think. The cast feel comfortable having effects happening as they record because as far as possible we're trying to create a reality and if we can do that by recording live Foley work, live spot fx, as the cast are recording, it helps their performance. It also effects their timing. If a particular effect has to happen at a particular point, if it's not there for some reason, then they have to leave a gap for it, but if it is there, they spark off it, they react to it and it does without question effect the way they deliver their performances.

It's technology serving the actor's performance as Marvin the paranoid android confronts Zem the Mattress in the swamp of Squornshellous Zeta. Stephen Moore Marvin, performs in the seperation booth while Moore's treated robot voice comes out the speaker held and moved around by Ken. Meanwhile, Andy Taylor playing Zem the Mattress converses with 'Marvin' the speaker. The scene is recorded live by the stereo microphone. Levels are set and choreography blocked during the rehearsal of the scene.

Roger Gregg: It is the old time way of doing radio drama.

Paul Deeley: I think it is. I mean interestingly the opposing way of doing this is the way that some of our American clients we have do it. They dry-hire the studios here in London and they bring over their own engineers. They've been coming to us for the past 4 or 5 years to do this. They come over because they want to record English casts.

Now they work on the principle of having a separate microphone per actor. So they set up a horseshoe of maybe 8 or 10 microphones and each actor is positioned in front of their own mic. They record the performance completely dry with no choreography at all.

Afterwards they then construct the programme in post-production entirely. This approach has to be a fantastically time-consuming operation. Technically you have control but also you have to have the budgetary resources to cover that kind of post-production time - which would be huge.

Roger Gregg: If you record all the actors on separate mikes, unless you go to great lengths to multi-track everything as well as stifle the natural interplay of the ensemble, there is a natural overlap in nearly all lines of dialogue.

Paul Deeley: Yes. Of course.

Roger Gregg: This makes treating a voice in isolation immensely problematic.

Paul Deeley: Absolutely.

Roger Gregg: So what do these Americans do ?

Paul Deeley: Well I'm not sure if they're treating the voices very much. Now if you're doing voices for animation, there also you have to record each line completely clean.

Roger Gregg: having voiced several animation series I know you're there all alone. It's like the Beatles last album, the performers never actually meet each other.

Paul Deeley: Yes this is it.

Roger Gregg: So the dialogue director must have a clear idea of what the overall final result should sound like and direct each individual accordingly.

Paul Deeley: We do a lot of voice work for animation and again it depends on the particular director's preference, but certainly over the last few productions, they've certainly been more inclined to bring in as many of their cast as they can. We single mic them but the actor's don't tread on each other's lines. So for that purpose you don't necessarily have to record multi-track.

But quite often it might be that we're recording multi-track as there are slips and things that we need to do and so dedicating a microphone to separate tracks on Pro Tools. But line-treading is a big problem if you have to do any kind of treatments or separate layers or anything of that kind. It has to be avoided so one has to have those things plotted and agreed with the Director before you even start recording.

Roger Gregg: Tell us about the 'Dirk Maggs Method of Directing'.

Paul Deeley: Dirk's great! He is a fantastically creative - and he hasn't paid me to say this - He is a fantastically creative director. He has such a lot of ideas buzzing around in his head, so much so that it would be lovely to have more time to play with them, but sadly because of the constraints of budget and - as I was saying before a half an hour of dialogue a day - we don't have that luxury.

But he's terrific to work with. We've established this working relationship over fair number of major productions. Dirk tends to stay in the studio with the actors because that's where his first strength lies. He works on the floor with the actors, developing ideas and making the whole thing grow and incorporating actor's suggestions. Down a talk back line from outside in the control room you just don't get that chemistry in the same way. I think that's really important.

Roger Gregg: Some Directors never leave the Control Room.

Paul Deeley: Very rarely. They'll be there with their finger on the talk-back and they'll direct down the talk back. This is not to say it's wrong. Some people work more happily that way, they feel more comfortable. But Dirk is very, very hands on as you know.And I think one of his big strengths is that he is so completely involved with his cast that he develops a terrific rapport with them.

Because we've worked a lot together he trusts me to make decisions from the Control Room if technically things are correct, but also if I've got some contributions to make. I certainly don't get in the way of the directing, but if there are occasional proposals that might help a scene, then I'll throw those in too.

Roger Gregg: One last thing: What makes for an exciting Radio Theatre production?

Paul Deeley: I think it's the inventive use of sound. It's not necessarily the amount of sound effects, or the amount of music that is added or the particular acoustics that are applied to the voices, but it's the way that any of those things might be combined to create a reality.

What we are trying to do is convince the listener that what they are hearing is real. And that is a big challenge where you don't have any pictures to follow. And I think - hackneyed phrase I know - but I think that that is the power of radio. You're making people's minds work on a level that they don't have to with television where they are presented with visual images and sound.

In radio you are creating things in this space in the head and if you can make it live and can make it breathe and can get people excited and motivated and moved by it, I think that is a real challenge.