Notes from the Remote Broadcast Q and A Session
5.00 pm – 6.30 pm
23rd April 2020
Tracey Hanby, Alan Byrne, Cathal McCooey, Philip O’Brien, Mary Rose Muckian, Pat Byrne, David Bellew, Sean Callaghan (Marian Del Duca and Padraig Quigley had signed out before we took a class snap). Seoirse McCann was presenting the Drive Time show and unable to attend but we kept an mp3 file for reference. We will run a follow up on Thursday 30th April 2020 at 5.00 pm.
PC/Laptop Microphones
A plug-in mic and headphones are preferable unless you will be on air for just a short interview, then the PC or laptop or phone audio will suffice. A mic or headset in the €5 to €30 range. Gaming mics will also be a step up in the audio quality.
Recording Shows
Sean will record a show each week with David using Zoom. There is a belated birthday present on the way to him from Dundalk FM to help with the next Beaten Tracks show!
Marian and Charles will record the Health and Well Being programme via Zoom as two 22 minute shows and email them to David.
100 Years of Music – 60 names so far, 40 to go…
https://www.dundalkfm.com/about-us/schedule/shows/100-years-of-music/
2000 Tracey
1995 Mary Rose will record links on the phone (say a link, count to five silently, say the next link and so on….) and email them to David along with the list of songs.
1992 Philip
1968 Sean will record this show with David on Zoom.
1955 Pat has this completed and will send it in.
If you know someone who would like to do a show, please let them know, I’d like to have 100 presenters, especially people who would like to join the station as a presenter in the future.
Shows completed so far are available to listen to anytime on our Mixcloud page.
https://www.mixcloud.com/DundalkFMMixcloud/
Spotlight
Pat – one done and will send it in.
Examples where Zoom could be used as part of live programming
The Slane Concerts Show with Cathal in the Studio and Pat on Zoom (or in the Production Studio).
Lion’s Club – the sound quality of the pre-recorded show is very good. The show could be done live via Zoom as is the Brunch.
Joining Paddy to present on Good Morning Dundalk /Tracey
Hosting a panel discussion on Town Talk.
Fadó Fadó is pre-recorded via Zoom.
The Brunch is broadcast live and had 2 guests from the Chamber of Commerce join them last week. One guest used a headset (approx €25 and the audio quality was very high). Some audio is better e.g. where presenters are using USB or plugin Mics.
Sound Desks
A sound desk with faders rather than pots starts around the €80 mark.
Local stores that would source a Sound Desk, recorders, and other audio equipment are B Sharp and Audio Comm.
Audio Editing
Philip recorded an AlphaBeats show on Audacity. This is free to download.
Pat uses Reaper (you can use the full version free, to evaluate it, the cost to buy is €60).
If you want to learn Reaper – see the tutorial on the Dundalk FM youtube channel.
https://www.youtube.com/user/dundalkfmradio
Remote Broadcasting
You would need 1 x laptop to play out your music, ads, news, etc. You can download WinAmp for free. Another Free Radio Playout software used by many CR stations is Zara.
A mic, mic stand and pop shield.
An external sound card.
1 laptop which runs a small encoding programme that you download and type in the details for our server. A member of staff will run a series of tests with a presenter to ensure the audio and music levels are correct and that there is no buffering. A wired Ethernet cable connecting the router and laptop is advisable.
Broadcast Myself is an Android App (€3.09). Alan uses this app at away soccer matches to transmit the commentary and half time ads (saved as one file).
This evening’s chat was a chance for presenters who hadn’t met in person before to say hello. There was a wonderful sense of ‘we’re in this together’ which was demonstrated by being able to help colleagues with technical advice. I hope that you now have the confidence to try out the next step in remote recording and broadcasting – recording to a phone, recording on Zoom, audio editing, acquiring radio equipment and maybe someday – live remote broadcasting. For the kind words of appreciation for the support that you receive from staff, thank you.
Alan
Below you will find tutorials to help you record and edit programming from home.
- How to record Links to your Smart Phone.
- How to Edit a Radio Show at Home.
The first describes how to record links for a show with a Voice Recorder App, your Smart Phone, your script and a room with soft furnishings. You can then share the files to our staff. We will prepare the show for broadcast.
Recorded and edited by David Bellew with thanks to Tara Tine/ March 2020.
The real enjoyment starts when you start to edit, top and tail, fade in and out, normalise, increase and decrease the amplitude, the dynamics processing and filtering. This next tutorial will show you how to combine the links, songs and any intro, outros or stings and render it into an mp3 file.
In the next tutorial, you will learn advanced expert tips on EQ, Noise Removal and Compression using plug-ins.