A sound engineer is someone whom the radio audience is not necessarily aware of. The man or woman behind the audio console is a key member of the crew in charge of a radio broadcast. Today we introduce to you our colleague, sound engineer at the Bulgarian National Radio Dimitar Palashev. He rightfully calls himself a dinosaur having dedicated to radio listeners forty years of his life. During that time he worked as sound technician, editor, sound engineer and wrote a series of

Palashev performing the part of a friend of composer Sergei Rachmaninoff from the movie André Mathieu

“A sound engineer takes his or her seat behind the audio console. He or she makes sound checks and when needed, certain corrections. Various creative methods are used by sound engineers - especially when working for radio theater. There are various techniques to modify actors' voices. In the past we had to think of ways to create sound effects. We had a huge piece of sheet iron. This was used to create the sound of wind. The sound engineer processes sound with the audio console to come up with the end-product.”

When Dimitar Palashev joined the Bulgarian National Radio back in 1962, he was fascinated by the wonderful working environment:

„The equipment was top level - German, Swiss and Russian tape recorders and consoles, and the colleagues were polite and friendly. At the start I was a sound technician and was in charge of handling the audio tapes and doing the editing. All this requires tight team work with the sound engineer”, Dimitar Palashev goes back in time.

Behind the sound director's desk in studio 7 of BNR in the 1970s

He went on studying and ten years later was already a sound engineer:

“Gradually things were changing. New audio consoles were introduced, as well as tape recorders and we had to learn to operate them. In 1999 computer equipment was introduced to Radio Bulgaria (the International Service of the Bulgarian National Radio). Now it is so easy to work. In the past, handling tapes was tricky. When the tape was finished and you had to record more, we glued extra tape using an acetone glue and fine glass sticks. Now computer technology provides for faster and higher quality work. Challenges are not absent though - the sound engineer should learn quickly to operate new equipment, and now it changes once 2 to 3 years.Constant learning on the job is the way to deliver to listeners an up-to-date quality sound. When I have trained younger colleagues I have told them that excellence is not enough for radio - here excellence plus is the rule.”

During his long career Dimitar Palashev has worked with great Bulgarian musicians and actors including jazz pianist and composer Milcho Leviev and celebrity actors Tanya Masalitinova and Apostol Karamitev. He still keeps memories of their great professionalism and easy-going communication. Many of their recordings are kept at the Bulgarian National Radio Golden Audio Archives.

Dimitar Palashev (left) with conductor Maestro Emil Tabakov (right) in the foyer of Concert Studio 1 of BNR

Finally, we asked about funny on-air gaffes:

“I remember a live broadcast with folk music. Host Slaveiko Slavchev was about to announce the following song saying: 'And now 'Todora lied down on the bed' for everyone who wants her.'Well, Todora is a female name, and what he meant was that some listeners had called to ask the song to be played. The audience though took it for a sexual hint, and some even called the radio, sayingangrily that this was sheer pornography”, Dimitar Palashev smiles in conclusion. 

English Daniela Konstantinova