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Tom
Parma on Jingle Production
This article
appeared in FRED magazine in the late 1970s
Jingle
producer Tom. Parma and his wife, Judy, the lead
vocalist you hear on jingles coast to coast, have been
in the Dallas jingle industry for almost twenty years.
As a team, they've created jingles for hundreds of radio
stations in the U.S. and even in many foreign countries.
Recently, after many years with the major production
companies, they have organized Parma Productions, their
new Dallas based firm specializing in radio ID's
produced on a one-to-one basis. Rather than through
in-house or road salesmen, Tom and Judy now work
directly with Program Directors.
FRED accepted the Parma's invitation to attend a jingle
recording session and view, as a Program Director would,
how jingles are recorded. Within minutes after arriving
at DFW airport, we were on our way to the new studio in
North Dallas. I asked Judy what was on the agenda for
today's session.
"Today is a good day for you to follow a jingle package
through to completion, because we've scheduled the vocal
and mixing sessions back to back so that we can
completely finish the package for a station in Michigan
that goes on the air next week. We also plan continuous
sessions for Program Directors who like to come to
Dallas for their sessions. It's rare that they have to
be gone from the station for more than a day or a day
and a half.
This is a huge package, so generally like today, we
start with a morning vocal session. The singing will
take about four hours. When that's done, we mix all the
tracks to mono or stereo masters for the station.
Editing and leadering each cut along with mixing, adds
another six or seven hours. Though it takes time, if the
PD were here today, he'd be on the plane tonight with
his new jingles and could be carting them in the
morning."
When we arrived at the studio, the singers were
already gathered near the coffee machine in the lounge
area. More awake than FRED, Linda Harmon, Frank Bloebaum,
Brian Beck, and Chris Kershaw were introduced as the
singers, who along with Judy, make up the five voice
Parma vocal group.
When the singers assembled in the studio, we joined Tom
in the control room with the recording engineer, Tommy
Loy, who was making preparations to start the session.
Tom explained some of the equipment, but particularly
fascinating, was the 24 track recorder that seemed to be
operating by itself.
"Unlike making records, everything happens much faster
in a jingle session. So in addition to operating the
control board, the engineer who is also like a
co-producer, operates the recorders himself with
remotes. Not only does he have controls for all the
usual recording functions, but with the flick of the
'auto-locate' button, the machine will automatically
return the tape to any desired spot in the jingle,
readying itself for recording again. This allows us to
rapidly repeat the performance until it's the way we
want it. The engineer uses those few seconds to readjust
the controls on the board and whatever else is necessary
to keep the flow of the session going. And of course,
it's much easier for the group to deliver a good
performance when they're not waiting on an engineer to
cue up the tape each time.
"Years
ago, before multi-track recorders were developed, we had
to record the entire orchestra simultaneously. Sometimes
there were clunkers that no one heard until the
orchestra was already gone. Now, we build flawless
jingles track by track, one at a time. Then to mix the
station's master, we reverse the process and equalize,
balance and treat each track separately before all the
instruments are combined. The price of production hasn't
gone up much at all considering the work involved and
the advances we've made. I think this is even more
impressive when you consider the cost of studio
equipment today."
Like a pilot and copilot, FRED watched as Tom read
off settings to Loy who made adjustments to dozens of
sliders, switches and knobs for the first jingle.
Finally, the track was played to the singers. Then both
Tom and the engineer looked to Judy for comment on the
balance of instrumentation in the earphones.
"The
rhythm section can stand to be a bit louder...strings
and brass are O.K. though. (Loy rebalanced the tracks
piped into the singer's earphones, then played the track
several more times as the group warmed up.) Sounds
better... want to start recording? (three more times,
and Tom signaled for a playback over the large speakers
in the studio and control room.) I think we have one...
Let's listen again, (After everyone agreed it was a
take, they overdubbed by singing with the first
recording of their voices. We could hear both sets of
vocal through the monitors and the singers could hear
the same through their earphones.) Another good
one...let's check both layers of the vocal again. (The
jingle began to sound fuller with the additional vocal
overdubbing) O.K., now a third time."
The
group added even more harmony to some of the chords as
they sang the third and final layer of vocal. After a
suspected take, the engineer played a mix of the entire
orchestra along with all three tracks of vocals.
Everyone listened, then Tom said:
Stacking the vocal adds real excitement and life to the
jingle. As a matter of fact, on almost every current
record I can think of, the artist's voice is stacked
somewhere in the song. Overdubbing, or stacking, is used
extensively...especially in groups. For instance, the
Bee Gees stacked their voices like crazy through-out 'Stayin'
Alive'. Can you imagine that song any other way?
Stacking five voices three times (15 voices) doesn't
necessarily make us sound like the Mormon Pumpernickel
Choir either. When you know what you're doing, the
overdubs add enough guts and fullness to make the vocal
sound exciting and confident. It sounds so damned much
better than without, we've been doing it since day
one...even though it's three times the work."
The vote for a take was unanimous after several
checks of the playback mix of all the tracks. Loy played
the jingle one more time at the singer's request, just
for the pleasure of hearing the result. of everyone's
combined efforts. The next jingle went as well as the
first, and FRED observed that everyone else was enjoying
the session too. We asked Torn if this was typical of
their sessions.
"I would
say it is. The production is fun, the studio is very
modern and the combination of talent is damned good
chemistry. And we all enjoy our work. The group puts a
lot of heart into the sessions, and all of them care how
each jingle sounds. Not only are they all
perfectionists, they are all expert musicians, including
our engineer, Tommy Loy. He's so good, he may also be
responsible for the success of the Dallas Cowboys by
playing the National Anthem at all their games...at
least that's what he's been telling us since the Super
Bowl.
"The
studio and equipment have a lot to do with the success
of a session too. You do your best work when everything
is comfortable and all the equipment you need is
dependable. So, yes...we actually have a lot of fun in
our sessions. I think that's important because people
can hear the difference in the jingles when everything
goes smooth. We sure as hell can, so we make a point of
it."
A quick
lunch after the vocal session, and we were back in the
control room to begin the mixing session. FRED asked
about the instrumental tracks we heard the group sing
with in the morning vocal session:
"Well,
this concept began with a notebook full of ideas we'd
collected, and a lot of good suggestions given to us by
Program Directors from all over the country. This is
really necessary when you're spending the kind of money
we do on jingle
production, so we always talk to as many PD's as
possible to find out what the needs and trends are
before we cut a note of any jingle. Anyway, we finally
decided to work the best of all these ideas into the
'You Can Feel It All Over' theme, which we all agreed
had the best latitude for image and station promotion.
We based this on the fact that the 'hook line' doesn't
try to pin down any finite detail. The line leaves that
up to the station. In other words, 'IT' is anything the
PD wants it to mean at any time.
"After
that was decided, it took a couple of months of writing
before we were finally ready to go to Wally Heider's
studio in Hollywood with our mountain of music. We went
there to record the rhythm instruments for the entire
package. Oh, and in addition, we also added all sorts of
percussion toys and keyboard things that filled up a lot
of the 24 tracks we started with.
"Back in
Dallas, we added the brass section, and on another
session, the strings. Finally, the harp, French horn and
other incidental instruments completely filled up the
remaining 24 tracks. So, before we could record the
vocal, we had to do some combining and regrouping to
free up a few tracks. Today, we can do that right on the
master. And with the advent of Dolby, we don't lose any
quality whatsoever.
"Then with
the tracks in perfect shape, we then went to work on the
vocal. That took the longest...two days and nights of
singing and mixing. The time was well spent though,
because of what we do with the vocal, it very much
determines the attitude and emotion of the jingle, and
that's what this particular package is all about.
"After a
couple of weeks, just listening to the jingles and
writing the demo copy to explain the concept, we brought
in WNBC Assistant Program Director Jay Stone to do the
voicing and help with the demo production.
"Then
there was artwork, lyric sheets, printing, and all the
rest. It's a lot of work but worth it when PD's and
their managers tell you they're crazy about the jingles
and that everything sounds as good as we promised it
would."
Again,
Tom read settings. But, this time Loy reset sliders,
switches, and knobs for mixing. This is when the 24
tracks of instruments and vocal are combined and reduced
to a mono or stereo master for the station. Tom told
FRED:
"Radio people have a right to expect their jingles to
sound as good as the demo. It's like ordering from the
Sears catalogue. Whether a particular jingle company
sells good, better or best, you can rest assured clients
want at least the best that can be delivered. That's why
we always use the same singers with the same mikes, and
record and mix with the same balance of instrument, E.Q.
and echo. In other words, when we have what we want on
the demo, we simply duplicate the procedure for each
station thereafter. The settings I read off to Loy, are
the control board levels, et cetera, of the original
jingles on the demo. Twenty-four tracks of information
is still a lot to contend with if you are striving for
perfection, so we always double check our mixes against
the demo to be certain.
"We
usually begin mixing the longest version of a jingle
first to get the balance we want throughout the full
length of the jingle. That done...the shorter versions
are then 'lifted' electronically with the aid of the
mixing console, which is capable of making edited
versions that would be impossible to do with a razor
blade. Acapella versions are simply a matter of turning
off all the instrumental tracks and then balancing the
vocal tracks."
With that, Tom and Loy mixed the sixteen basic
jingles into over fifty different cuts. It began as
blank tape in Hollywood and ended up at the new FM
station in Michigan...several hundred man-hours later. |
