Video: Watch How We Turn Clatter and Din into Sweet Audio for Our New TV Shows

I’m really looking forward to the debut next month of Season 9 of Rick Steves’ Europe on public television stations across the USA. (To find out when you can you watch our 10 new shows, ranging from Hamburg to Romania and Cornwall to Bulgaria, contact your local public television station.)

There’s a lot more to producing each half-hour episode than the six days we spend in Europe filming it — and that includes about four hours in a recording booth for each show. Here’s a candid look at the process: I read the script one paragraph at a time trying to get just the right inflection and tone for the images. Eric Johnson, our sound editor at Clatter&Din recording studio in Seattle, cuts my audio into the video of the show (replacing the “scratch track” audio). And then he and producer Simon Griffith make sure it is a snug and tidy fit with the images. I’m so impressed with the technical ability we have now (with Eric and the gear at Clatter&Din) to get the sound just right. It seems like just a few years ago we recorded the soundtracks for the shows with me standing in the closets of European hotel rooms.

I say this with the release of every new series (every two years) but it’s never been more true: This new series gives you more travel thrills than ever. Stay tuned!