All things for Radio

All things for Radio ©

By Michael Casey

I am thinking of getting my writing on Radio, as I’ve told you all before. I have had good feedback from radio stations about my writing. I did once get a comment “I like your style but not the content” which may have come from a Hip Hop radio station. I have sent my word files far and wide in the hope of connecting with a fellow simple mind,   wasn’t  that the name of a band too?

A couple of radio stations even said they could find me a slot but they didn’t get back to me. I even sent a bit of video and audio along with 300 and Not OUT, which is my largest single collection of short writing. I can wait till I die so I’ll continue my campaign. Now I’ve decided to record everything I write so that people who prefer to use their ears cannot escape me either.

I have over 500 pieces of short writing spread over 3 books on Amazon Kindle, and 3 other books too. So now I embark on recording them all. To do this I need a mike and a pop filter. At the moment I’m using the old mike my wife used to scream through to Shanghai and her mum. Shanghai people are very noisy, or is it passionate, no it’s noisy, after 14years I think noisy is the correct word.

Now I’ve managed to record 50 pieces or 10% of my creation so far. There is a problem when you record stuff and you are a writer, you want to make changes as you read the piece. I also want to do it all quickly, so I’m not as prepared as an actor, an actor would read a piece several times before attempted to record it. I want the reading, the recording to be as fresh as the original writing.

An actor would do a couple of takes and the director would advise him, then in the editing suite the director picks the best. So I have to be my own director, it is a learning process, and a couple of pieces I’ve left out as they are too short perhaps or they don’t seem to fit Radio. The original idea for Radio was 90 seconds with Michael, where I’d have 90 seconds to read something for Radio and amuse them. Some stations liked the idea, so I hope that if I now record everything and it’s out there in cyber space I’ll get spotted, maybe I can be the new Justin Beaver. I am of course better looking.

Now for Radio I have to read more slowly, because when I write I am very fast, and when we all read to ourselves it is much faster than when we hear something on the radio. Remember too that we all think 4 times faster than we speak. So first in my mind I have an idea, which I then write down here at the keyboard, then I upload it to my sites. But to record it in the hope that it’s heard and spotted, and folks tell their local radio stations to listen, I have to remember to speak clearly and slow enough for people to hear all the words clearly. Yes obvious, but when we all talk to our friends we do speak much faster.

Which brings me to the topic of technology.  When I started recording a week or so ago, I was using our old stick microphone, which is ok for screaming to grandma in Shanghai, but for speech radio it is not good enough. Grease may be the word but HISS is the move, the sound you get when you record things. I tried lots of things then I decided on wrapping the mike in the foam from mini paint rollers, as I mentioned a few days ago. My daughter had been doing some felting at school in the craft lesson. Her square of felt was perfect to insulate the microphone from wind noise, or rather my own heavy breathing.

Pop filters are also recommended, I did not understand the concept at first, I thought it was just some kind of lollypop. However after watching music videos on MTV and VH1, I begin to understand. Utube also explains things. A pop filter not only keeps the spit off the microphone, it breaks down the air flow. So Ps and Bs or whatever don’t overwhelm the microphone, it’s like changing an American into an Englishman, a very posh and clear sound. Only teasing you Americans.

You can get all manner of “free” software on the Internet, only it’s not really free, its free till you just get the hang of it, then they want 50dollars. So you curse and start looking for more free software. You click and click and click and then finally you find  a couple of really free software packages to record with. Only they are cuckoos in the nest and change your browser settings and your default search engine to something worse than useless. Then you have to go to the control panel and delete their droppings from your computer.

I was a computer operator for 22years or so, in the old days, a kind of dinosaur compared to the IT people of today. So I always tidy up, in the old days your computer could run out of space and crash the system. If you had 4 gig on the computer that was very impressive, and that was 10 years into my stint as a computer operator.  We produced acres of paper and sold this to the clients, market research into alcohol sales, yes really. I can even remember my boss saying alcopops would NOT catch on.

So once I got rid of 2 or 3 not free recording sound programs I settled down to record. The hiss factor was much improved, Audacity seems to be just right, but when I get a new mike I’ll see how that sounds and then I can record my stuff anew. I may have to go back and record what I’ve done already.

Girls just like toys, so dad’s recording software and his mike with a ferret attached to the top, is too good to be true. So the girls have tried it out, singing hymns from church and Lady Gaga songs too. Then they wanted to be BBC news reporters and weather girls. So while I had my dinner, on their side of the computer the girls had broadcasting lessons with the gerbil attached to the mike. All I could hear was laughter. Afterwards I showed them Audacity and they tried that out. They were pleased with the less hissing results, no snakes in the grass now.

Since I started on this adventure with a mike my ears have been really tuned in. Even as I type as I talk to you I’m listening to the sound of the keyboard. I’m listening to the sound of the computer itself on the self by my knee. I can hear the clock ticking on the bookcase too. Normally I have music playing as I talk to you but now I do not, so every little sound echoes in my mind.

So will my efforts be in vain? I don’t know, but it will be great practice for after dinner speaking. If I record 500 short pieces and put them on my sites Typepad and Tumblr then perhaps somebody will discover my words. And as for me perhaps I’ll get a free dinner.

 

photos are of my DIY pop filter as copied from U tube