New Radio Strategies

Here’s a summarised recent email exchange. Comments and suggestions welcome!

David emails with a question: “I need help with budgeting for a show, single person narrative, 4 episodes of 15 minutes, all pre-scripted. How much would it cost?”

My digested response follows…

“David, you can do for very little (if any) cost. But you will have to put in time. If you can borrow a studio, do so; if not, improvise.

For equipment: use a PC with reasonable memory (512k or up) and hard disk storage (2 Gb) to spare. Download Audacity and learn how to use it. Beg, borrow, steal or even buy an acceptable Mic for maybe £30. You may need to get an external sound card.

For the studio: use a quiet room with a square table in a corner. Get 3 meter-square carpet tiles. Put one on the table, and the other two on the walls to left and right of the corner, cube-wise. Put your mic on a stand facing you, out from the corner. Voila! a £3 voice booth. Experiment with positioning to get the best mic sound.

Now… put in the time. I can’t tell you how long it would take to record the episodes. It depends on your voice artist. It depends on the script. It depends on how quiet the room is, and at what times of day you will record. It depends on your access to the room. But if you can control these variables, this is a much better option than forking out for a studio where you are working against the clock. A guesstimate might be three hours to get the basic material down; less if the script is good; more if the voice talent is inexperienced. And then factor in editing time.”

Did I miss anything? Suggestions for David are welcome…

Tagged: Equipment, Learning, Starting up