Pre-recording your show in the Digital Media Room is made very easy.
First you will want to book the Digital Media Room at https://www.chmafm.com/welcome/studios/ Please reach out to station@chmafm.com for the most recent password to the booking calendar.
The goal of pre-recording your show is to make it sound live. The main difference between live and pre-recorded shows is simply your word choice. Do your best to avoid saying anything too specific about a given day. Avoid things like the weather and events going on in the community as they may be dated. Overall, speak to your audience, but make any details broad.
Remember to sit up straight and get close to the mic like you would with a live show.
To get an idea of what a successful pre-recorded show looks like, check out the How-to Guide: How to do a Radio Show with CHMA (A Transcript).
Here is a quick rundown of the equipment and setup for pre-recording your show:
This is the audio interface you’ll be using:
Mic 1 should be ON (Green light indicates it is on) when you are ready to talk to your audience, and the fader should be turned up exactly like you would do during a live show.
The Music button should be ON (Green light indicates it is on) and the fader turned up all the way just like you would with the ‘Host’ & ‘Layout’ during a live show.
Disclaimer: There are many people who use the Digital Media room, use the image above as a reference point if something is not working properly.
Recording Software:
To start recording you will first want to pull up your recording software (like Garageband) and do a short test run to see that your mic’s audio and songs from the playlist are at the correct volume levels (green into the yellow).
Garageband:
There’s a few steps to making Garageband best for pre-recording your show. Though it’s initially set up for making beats, this is how you make a template for pre-recording your show.
1. Turn off the Count-in and Metronome
2. Change Beats to Time in the counter
3. Enable the recording on the track for mutlitracking: Control-Click in Track area, “Configure Track Head”, “Record Enable”
Prior to recording:
- Make sure the mics are set to stereo (done in garageband) = Input 1+2 for audio!
- Plug your laptop into the recording interface (with the aux cord) — this should be left unplugged to the left of the Mac Desktop in the Digital Media room.
- Adjust the mic and music faders accordingly, usually this is the maximum level and make sure that the volume on your laptop is set at 100%.
- Ensure you have a playlist ready to go on your own computer.
- When ready, record your show as if you were live.
Playing Music via Bluetooth: You can now connect your phone with bluetooth at just a press of a button.
Exporting: After completing the entire length of your radio show, export the file by clicking ‘Share’, then ‘Export Song to Disc’, and then save it as an mp3, and make sure ‘export cycle area’ is ticked on. You will want to make sure that it exports the track area which you can set in GarageBand by clicking on the small grey box located in the area that keeps track of the time above your audio file. Once you click on this it will turn yellow and you can then drag the size to be the length of your audio file (this is your track area).
File Transfers
To send it to us we suggest using Wetransfer.com and you can email it to station@chmafm.com. Make sure this is done at least a few days before your radio show is supposed to air in order to ensure it is uploaded in time.
