Talk Digi To Me 101: All Things Audio

We’re back on the topic of Audio Production! And this episode is really all things audio. Now in the early years of running the recording studio, we really focused on radio with commercials and jingles. 

But over time…we recognised that basic 30 second commercial radio production really wasn’t enough to keep the lights on. So we diversified our products to include podcasts, which we heard about last week, long format radio, audiobooks and multimedia books, and IVR.

Long format radio refers to 5 to 15 minute programs, in the style of what you’re listening to now, which carry more production elements like intros, outros, sound effects, theme music and tend to be more like a talk show or for informational purposes. 

Outside of radio, there are many more applications of audio that we’ve tapped into.

VOX: IVR

The temperature of 2025 is very much centred around digitisation and customer self service. Making processes more automated and efficient by giving customers the ability to serve themselves, in some cases using a telephone menu.

We fit into that with IVR which stands for Interactive Voice Response. It’s the phone on hold messaging you hear when you call a business and the voice tells you to:

Press one for customer service 

Businesses use customer self service in this way to reduce foot traffic to branches and retail stores and reduce call volumes to their call centre, both of which save money. Customers can perform tasks such as checking their account or bill balances, tracking the status of an order, or reporting a fault from a telephone menu.

We also had the pleasure of working on a Smart ABM project, where we recorded the voice of an Automated Banking Machine, that interacts with customers when they make deposits, withdrawals and other queries. You might have come into contact with one of these in Barbados or elsewhere in the Caribbean!

VOX: Audiobooks

 To talk a bit more about Audiobooks, I’m pleased to introduce Graham Johnson, the audio engineer at producer at Robinson Creative and Ayesha Gibson-Gill, writer, producer and voice actress. Ayesha has produced audio for multimedia book projects, the In Time of Need Audiobook by Shakirah Bourne and voiced Let me Liberate You by Andie Davis.  

Before we close this program, I want to mention another project we recently completed for the Bridgetown Literary Bus Tours.

Co-founded by the Honourable Esther Philips, Linda M. Dean “The Summer Storyteller”, and Robert Edison Sandiford, the project allows you to be immersed in Barbadian history and culture in a 2-hour tour through Bridgetown and the Historic Garrison. Barbadian literature is brought to life through readings, performance, and audio recordings of iconic writings by George Lamming, Kamau Brathwaite, Austin “Tom” Clarke and others.

Here, Linda joins Graham in a phone conversation to tell us more:

Thanks to everyone who joined in this special episode on audio production. I’m your host Carlie Robinson from Robinson Creative, and that’s a wrap on Talk Digi To Me 101: All things audio.

Transcript

We’re back on the topic of Audio Production! And this episode is really all things audio. Now in the early years of running the recording studio, we really focused on radio with commercials and jingles. 

But over time…we recognised that basic 30 second commercial radio production really wasn’t enough to keep the lights on. So we diversified our products to include podcasts, which we heard about last week, long format radio, audiobooks and multimedia books, and IVR.

 Long format radio refers to 5 to 15 minute programs, in the style of what you’re listening to now, which carry more production elements like intros, outros, sound effects, theme music and tend to be more like a talk show or for informational purposes. 

Outside of radio, there are many more applications of audio that we’ve tapped into.

VOX: IVR

The temperature of 2025 is very much centred around digitisation and customer self service. Making processes more automated and efficient by giving customers the ability to serve themselves, in some cases using a telephone menu.

We fit into that with IVR which stands for Interactive Voice Response. It’s the phone on hold messaging you hear when you call a business and the voice tells you to:

Press one for customer service 

Businesses use customer self service in this way to reduce foot traffic to branches and retail stores and reduce call volumes to their call centre, both of which save money. Customers can perform tasks such as checking their account or bill balances, tracking the status of an order, or reporting a fault from a telephone menu.

We also had the pleasure of working on a Smart ABM project, where we recorded the voice of an Automated Banking Machine, that interacts with customers when they make deposits, withdrawals and other queries. You might have come into contact with one of these in Barbados or elsewhere in the Caribbean!

VOX: Audiobooks

To talk a bit more about Audiobooks, I’m pleased to introduce Graham Johnson, the audio engineer at producer at Robinson Creative and Ayesha Gibson-Gill, writer, producer and voice actress. Ayesha has produced audio for multimedia book projects, the In Time of Need Audiobook by Shakirah Bourne and voiced Let me Liberate You by Andie Davis.  

Graham: Thank you Carlie! Ayesha, recently in studio you managed the audio direction for a multimedia book project. Why don’t you share a bit about that experience?

Before we close this program, I want to mention another project we recently completed for the Bridgetown Literary Bus Tours.

Co-founded by the Honourable Esther Philips, Linda M. Dean “The Summer Storyteller”, and Robert Edison Sandiford, the project allows you to be immersed in Barbadian history and culture in a 2-hour tour through Bridgetown and the Historic Garrison. Barbadian literature is brought to life through readings, performance, and audio recordings of iconic writings by George Lamming, Kamau Brathwaite, Austin “Tom” Clarke and others.

Here, Linda joins Graham in a phone conversation to tell us more:

Thanks to everyone who joined in this special episode on audio production. I’m your host Carlie Robinson from Robinson Creative, and that’s a wrap on Talk Digi To Me 101: All things audio.