Work is the pledge of youth. Conversation with Latvian Radio sound engineer Augustīna Delli / Article / LSM.lv

Latvian Radio will celebrate its 95th birthday on November 1. In its anniversary week, the radio introduces people behind the scenes, without whom the radio would not be a radio, but whose work most only notices if something is wrong. As the protagonist of this story – the experienced sound engineer Augustīns Delle – in ancient times, in a rather stiff concert of the Latvian Radio anniversary, the main fun was caused by his clutter with microphones on the stage. But on a daily basis, no one doubts Gusta’s professionalism – he has been providing the technical quality of music recordings to Latvijas Radio for more than half a century.

On the “quiet” side of the microphone

Augustine Dell, a colleague called Gusta, can most often be seen at the legendary first studio of Latvian Radio, where all major music recordings and concerts take place. He adapts all the microphones, wires and other equipment to them: “One of the laws: alive or dead, but everything has to work! That’s the way it is on the radio. There are places where everything is ready – just come, push a button and go, and there are places where you have to build it all every day. In some studios, nothing is rebuilt for several years, but we have to reload everything for each record! ”

Gust admits that the feeling on the other side of the microphone is good:

Of course, there is a little stress that you are technically responsible for how it all sounds – whether the wind will not blow there, the fly will not sit on the microphone or the bird will not squirm.

But there is a greater responsibility for who speaks into that microphone. ”

Augustine Delle has been on the “quiet” side of the microphone for almost fifty-two years: “Those who sit on the other side of the microphone do not speak, because they simply cannot speak. They hear “cus, cus, cus” so often that they stop talking. They think but do not speak. ”

Gusts remembers that he once discussed with his fellow students – there can be nothing worse than working on a conveyor belt. The work must be interesting: “You could not be abroad, you had to find something interesting here in Latvia. So I worked as a sound operator at the Riga Film Studio for half a year, until a friend went to the army and said – do not want to come to the radio? Will be closer! I was living in Āgenskalns at that time, and it was a terrible piece until the Film Studio ”.

Our times are better

How has Gusta’s work changed during these 52 years? “It simply came to our notice then. There was a time when you could not approach microphones at all. There were times when I went into the studio to ask the announcer for something and the administration ran in: you can’t go in those rooms! Let me not say something that should not be said into the microphone from an ideological point of view. The work itself has not changed much, but I definitely feel better in our times than in those times. Of course, technology has changed, but it’s already everything – you can’t compare my first mosquito with the current car, which has ABS and such things! ”

The sound engineer works in tandem with the sound director on a daily basis, because the technical and creative side of the recording cannot be separated. “The sound director can ask me – do you think that the piano is clear enough here, or does it disappear somewhere inside? Usually, a sound engineer – it is all over the world – also participates in creative work. And that’s where “it should sound,” says the engineer.

You can’t learn the “it should sound that way” standard at school – you just have to listen to a lot and learn from the best, says Augustine Delle.

“The poet would read poems, the playwright – Shakespeare, we would listen to music again. If I have students on excursions now and ask, “Well, how can I become an engineer who makes a sound?”, I say – I have to start by starting to listen! Preferably, Latvian Radio, ”admits Gusts.

And he has also taught his family to listen, because Gusta’s daughters Kristīne and Katrīna and grandson Krišjānis also work with Latvian Radio. But you can still meet Gusta himself every day, taking a quick step through the center of Riga on the radio.

The engineer admits that work is a pledge of his youth:

If I take a week off and sit somewhere at work for several days, I feel sicker than when I run to work in the morning!

I live a mile and a half away and walk every morning on the radio and back on foot. Sometimes – twice if there is a big break and you can get in the middle to go home for lunch. In general, modern city life is very still, but man was not created for it! As soon as you don’t move, your thoughts start to slow down. That’s one of the selfish reasons I still work. “

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