PRE-RECORD A SHOW
We know you can’t always make the show, but it’s important for your listeners to have consistency. In order to do this we’ve developed step-by-step instructions to pre-record your show and submit to us to schedule with our playout system. These steps will detail how to do this with our own computers but you can also do the same with your own at home if you have a microphone.
We use Blackhole Audio to get browser-based audio into a digital audio workstation (DAW, such as Garageband, Audacity, Logic, Protools, etc). It can be found here:
https://existential.audio/blackhole/
Once downloaded and installed you can move to the next step of recording audio into your DAW. It’s important to note that it’s a 2 step process: recording the music first and then resetting the system preferences to record your voice pieces.
To record music in your DAW after you’ve downloaded and installed Blackhole Audio:
Go to the black apple logo in the top left of your screen.
Select System Preference>>Sound>>Output>>Blackhole Audio & then Input>>Blackhole Audio
This routes all your computer audio through to your DAW. You won’t be able to hear anything unless you select “Monitor” in your DAW. In GarageBand, the monitor is the “sideways wifi” symbol.
Open Garageband
Go to the Menu in the top left.
Select Preferences…>>Audio/Midi>>Input Device>>Blackhole Audio Output & then select Device>>Built-in Output (or Macbook Speakers or System Default).
Now create a new “audio” track.
NOTE: Be sure that your ‘Recording Settings” in the bottom left have Input assigned as “1-2 Blackhole Audio” and there are two circles (not one) next to that. Also: To hear the music you need to select “Monitoring” below that.
Next you’ll simply press the big red circle recording button at the top and then press “Play” on your music player.
Once you’ve recorded all of your music you can now reset all of the above settings to system defaults, edit the musical bits and add your voice as desired.
It’s very important to note that submitted shows should be less than 60 minutes. 59 minutes and 58 seconds is fine. 60 minutes and 30 seconds is not. Our system will cut off your show at 1 hour indiscriminately.
Something to note is that the default audio levels as set should be fine for us. You should not need to increase the volume in the music track or the master. Use this as the standard and adjust your microphones levels to fit the music.
Once you’re put it together you’ll now need to export the show. Use the orange “cycle range” bar in the top ruler to delineate the section of the project that is to be exported. Once you have that adjusted go to Share>>Export Song to Disk>>Name your file (so we can tell what it is)>>mp3 (256kbits/sec).
Always double check the exported file to make sure it starts and finishes as it should and that the levels are good.
You’ll then need to get it to us. Either send it to use by wetransfer.com or upload to our Airtime Pro platform.
