11:30 hrs. The office is suffused by engine sounds. Not from outside, the Western Port Area, but from Producer’s Mac.  “Vrooom!” A little longer; “VROOOOOOM!” – followed by an indistinct murmur, the sound of someone putting head phones on – and silence. radio commercial – voice over

Preparations have been made. A delicate operation is underway, featuring several specialists: a copy writer, a voice-over and an editor. A 30 second radio commercial with a tag on is on the books, to be delivered to BNR before the end of the afternoon. It’s noon. “Vrooom”. radio commercial – voice over

The text is too long. The music samples don’t mesh, and the engine component of a car tearing off doesn’t meet the expectations. So picking up the pace a bit, sliding and fading the music and adding a silence where the sound of the car is supposed to be – that way at least the “tag on” or “call to action” can be timed. That’s too long as well. “Vrooom”.

12:30 hrs. Shifting. Calling the client. Client agrees to remove a sentence from the script. Tag on can be half a second longer. Tailoring the music; recording, implementing, editing and converting. “Vrooom”.

13:30 hrs. The commercial is complete. Smooth music (minor, major) with a rapid, clearly audible voice-over and 30 seconds long. The tag on is 5.5 seconds. There we go – two seconds front and rear with a 44.1 kHz format to meet with the airwave specifications and the productions can be loaded onto the server.

Manager saves the day, he found the definitive engine element. Not “vroom”, but the sound of a red Formula 1 car shifting up.