Sound people recognise the right take on first instance

Cars screeching, birds squawking, waves breaking, drums beating - all at the press of a button. Cathal McLysaght works in a radio station using sounds to create aural images.

It is sound design rather than engineering, he explains. His job as production engineer at Today FM involves using sound creatively, backed-up with a high degree of technical know-how.

His job involves making ads, inserts, promos, which all help to give the radio station an identity. He picks different pieces of audio to create an ad as he sits at his desk in front of a PC using a multi-track editor to mix and edit.

"We'd make about 40 per cent of the commercials that come into the station. There would be 60 per cent that would come in from the ad agencies."

Creating the ad can include writing the script for the ad, says McLysaght. "The best fun is when we make our own stuff," he says. "Making promos, you have more control over what you are doing. I'd be more on the creative side of production," he says.

To create an ad, he says, "you have to create the illusion," such as an ad recently which featured Roy Keane on a tropical island. The aim of this was to promote the fact that a big match was coming up. This involved putting a person in a setting to create an illusion and then "you mix it all together".

He was awarded the European Promax Award last year for creating a series of promos for the station's Friday Night Eighties programme. To do this "imagining" or "branding", he says, "you cut up old clips from movies and TV shows - the internet is great for getting clips - and mix them up in a humorous way to identify the station and the show. You get a way of branding the show and try and make it interesting, but still tell people what they're listening to.

"The downside of working in the audio industry is that I probably don't get as much out of listening to music, television and films because I'm listening to audio the whole time. You're too conscious of what's going on." His ear is constantly listening to sounds.

His interest started at school when he had an idea that he wanted to go into recording. At the time, he says, he aimed for electronics. Originally from Tuamgraney in east Co Clare, he headed for Cork to begin an electronics course after his Leaving Cert in 1986 to the city's regional college, which later became Cork Institute of Technology.

But when he heard that one of the State's first recording courses was being set up, he left for Dublin and joined the first group of students at the Sound Training Centre in Temple Lane Studios. The four-month course was great. "It gave us a great grounding. I really liked it. The course was split with 60 per cent practical and 40 per cent theory.

"The theory side was finding out how microphones worked, learning the difference between analogue and digital - there was an element of physics, the physics of sound." As to the practical side, they were all given the chance to work in a studio. "There were bands and we recorded them."

Next he registered at Ballyfermot Senior College to study for a one-year certificate in sound. When he left, he got a job in Clare FM, which was being set up at the time. He was the station's first head of engineering and production. "I got to do loads of stuff," he says. The fact that Clare FM was starting up was crucial because the opportunities to do all kinds of work were limitless," he recalls. "You wouldn't get the same opportunities in another station." Outside broadcasts were part and parcel of the job, such as going to the Willie Clancy School of Music. He worked in the station for seven years until the work finally became "predictable" and he applied to Today FM to work as a studio engineer.

"The format of the station was more talk-orientated. As the format changed, I moved into production," he says.

The audio industry is still quiet new in Ireland, which is why he welcomes interest in an interactive website, such as www.txireland.com. This recently established website is available to individuals who work in different parts of the industry - film, music and radio. It describes their jobs and offers information and advice on a range of issues, which are important to them.

It's important to "recognise a good take" when an actor does a line 10 times. Experience means he can " pick out the right one".