Audio guides, listening stations and sound installations, from the spoken script through the direction to delivery in whatever formats the guide system of the house requires. Most recently five audio tours for the permanent exhibition at the Nietzsche-Haus in Naumburg: German, English, and a separate track for children.
Text on a screen reaches whoever can read and feels like it. A voice reaches children from the age of three, visitors with impaired sight, guests in their own language, and everyone who has stopped wanting to read by the third panel.
Sound also has a practical advantage that rarely turns up in tenders: it works in the cold, in a crowd and in the dark. Displays fog up, batteries give out in frost, and gloves do not operate touchscreens.
Direction is what decides an audio guide. Pace, emphasis, attitude: they determine whether someone listens or walks on after twenty seconds. That is why I sit in on every recording.
Audio guide production
Advice on the dramaturgy and length of individual stations, the spoken script agreed with the curatorial team, a production schedule.
Casting to suit the subject and the house, samples to choose from, foreign-language versions with native speakers.
Recorded in my own studio, always with direction. Everything else follows from that.
Editing, sound design and atmospheres, a music bed or an original composition, one consistent level across every station and language.
In the formats and naming conventions of the guide system, with a file list and a check report. Coordinated with the media technicians.
Audio description, plain language, sound track for sign language videos.
Listening stations in the room, mixed for loudspeakers rather than headphones.
Sound and spatial installations, multichannel, immersive if you want it.
Exhibition films, voice, music, mix.
On usage rights: museum tenders almost always ask for rights unlimited in time, territory and purpose. That is priced into original music and voice contracts from the start, not negotiated afterwards.
A short call or an email describing the project is enough. If you want, a sound concept with an audio sample comes back before anyone talks numbers.
info@pangramaudio.com