The Story of Digital Voice: Andy Ludbrook
Over the fifteen years we’ve been in existence we’ve collected a rather wonderful group of people who bring their skills and experience to our projects. Our freelance team is one of the aspects that make Digital Voice stand out from the crowd.
This week we caught up with Andy Ludbrook and talked to him about the work he’s made with Digital Voice and the ‘glamorous’ world of sound.
Andy is an award-winning sound recordist, sound designer, musician, and dubbing mixer, as well as a general electronic technician for the media world. He has a degree in Electrical Engineering but would say that most of his skills in the world of sound have been self-taught.
“Part of the role of an engineer is to keep on the cutting edge of equipment and techniques, so I have always learnt from manuals and experience, usually before specialist courses have been written.”
Andy’s work can involve working on dramas like The Dumping Ground, corporate training videos or sound design on feature films (Neil Marshall’s Dog Soldiers) and brings all of these skills to the Digital Voice projects he’s involved in.
“I go out and record sound on interviews and documentary shoots, and edit and mix the recordings with sound effects, sound design, and music to make a program that sounds as good as possible. I also give advice during the planning stages of projects to make sure the sound and tech things run smoothly.”
The draw for Andy is that the stories that Digital Voice focuses on are those that are important to the people and communities they serve:
“Digital Voice has a relaxed, friendly, but professional way of working, most suited to the modern real world of people's lives. It provides a bridge to reality from the crazy world of media.”
Having worked for the organisation since the beginning, it’s hard for Andy to pick a favourite project but when pushed …
“The Norman Cornish Audio tour was an interesting recording session where we heard the reminiscences and experiences of local people from Spennymoor. We then edited this mass of memories into stories about the subject of each painting, and I created soundscapes to underscore them. It was rewarding to capture a little part of local history.”
And a career highlight? Surely the work on Dog Soldiers was up there?
“Although doing the sound design for “Dog Soldiers” comes close, it only involved sitting in Westgate Road for many days, whereas one week in July 1986 involved filming Queen from a helicopter above Wembley, then recording Eric Clapton for The Tube at the NEC Birmingham... glam or what?”
Here’s some of the projects Andy has worked on with Digital Voice: