Audio Engineering Society Singapore Section

On Friday, 9 April 1999 at 7.00pm, 10 members and 34 guests of the AES Singapore Section gathered at the Television Corporation of Singapore (TCS) for a visit to TCS' Audio Post Production Suites. Mr Tan Chin Boo, Head of Audio Post at TCS, hosted the event. 

In the opening address by Mr Jibby Jacob, the Chairman of the AES Singapore Section welcomed all attendees. He noted that the response to this event was overwhelming and is yet another encouraging sign for the AES Singapore Section. 

At 7.30pm, Mr Tan Chin Boo began the tour by giving a brief talk about the background of audio post production work at TCS. TCS, being Singapore's largest terrestrial broadcaster, provides about 6000 hours worth of productions a year on its Channels 5 & 8 alone, not yet including the recently launched Channel News Asia. Mr Tan said that the department takes charge of all audio post production work in TCS, which include music, sound effects, as well as dialogue dubbing. He explained the nature of work that each job entailed, transforming the raw audio tracks obtained from the video shoots to the finished product, complete with music, sound effects, and good clean voices. 
 

In the tour, a total of four post production studios were visited. This included sound effects, music, and the dialogue dubbing studios. In the sound effects studio, which included a recording room where foley can be recorded, the visitors saw how effects were inserted into a TV show. This basically involved the use of a digital audio workstation (DAW) coupled with a midi keyboard and a host of audio compact discs as a source for a good variety of sounds. In the music studios, which included one studio that had a stereo channel capability and another with only a mono channel capability, appropriate music was mixed into the tracks to suit the mood and create a correct ambience for the movie scene. 

The audio engineers showed how the raw tracks they had to work with sounded like, compared to the finished product they have produced. What a difference! The last studio of the visit was the dialogue dubbing suite, where visitors got an idea of how dubbing artistes work to record and synchronise their voices to the soundtrack. This process is also done when translation of a certain show is required. This particular studio can also perform recording of music of mini orchestras, which play TCS' original compositions to complement the audio CD library resource. Visitors also got to see the actual audio post production of a popular local game show, the pyramid game. 
 

The meeting ended with a round of refreshments, where much interaction among the guests was observed. Visibly, the tour generated much interest in audio post production work among the attendees. The AES Singapore Section would like to thank Mr Tan Chin Boo and his colleagues at TCS for the informative tour and their kind hospitality during the meeting. 

Copyright 1999 AES Singapore Section