Location Podcast Kit Bag

This blog is intended to provide guidelines about minimum standards for podcast recording. In later blogs I will get you details about equipment lists, digital formatting, delivery specifications and more.

Location Recording

Sometimes the recording will be in studio where quality control can easily be maintained and copy can be repeated until it sounds right. However the greater challenge is location recording of a live event where there is no second chance and you may not have control of the public address system or the presenter’s schedule. Pre planning, understanding your equipment requirements, equipment testing, setup rehearsals, and early venue arrival become very important when faced with an unfamiliar situation.

Equipment Planning

List in your plan to include a couple of common sense items in your carry bag, which can make all the difference. Simple things like how many pieces of your equipment need AC power, need a power bar? How far is the nearest wall plug, bringing an extra power cord can make life a lot less stressful. Does your mixer, recorder or microphone run on battery power and did you bring extras of each kind (AA, AAA, 9 Volt)? Have a roll of heavy tape at the ready to tape down any cables that have to run across the floor or a doorway. Also do I have a table or flat surface large enough to setup my equipment?

Checkout the Venue

If you have the time and know which venue and room the event is booked into, go and chat with the venue contact and have them give the tour. You can check on where they prefer you sit and is it close enough to the house or PA sound system. Ask if they can provide a table or AV cart to put your equipment on, the availability of power to that location and they may even show you the house sound system you will be plugging into. Ask what additional equipment they are providing to the event or have extra of just to make sure you’re covered. All of these suggestions will go a long way to reducing your stress on the day and let you concentrate on getting the best recording.

Documentation

Be sure to carry checklists and/or take some paper to the location to document the days recording. Keep a copy of the recordings and the documentation for yourself as a backup in case of mishap.

Recording and Conversion

Please note that the use of a consumer cassette recorder to record programs is unacceptable. If you are in need of recording software and free is your preferred price, I would suggest Audacity. It has a limited multi-track capability as well. Take the time to setup all the equipment before going out to the venue. Do a full check of the hardware and software, making sure you have all the cables then pack them in the bag.

Once you have the recording, never work on the original files, duplicate then edit the copy. If the files have to be converted to a compressed digital format there are many good sound programs to choose from, some are free or free on trial.

Package Delivery

In this day and age digital package delivery can also mean the Internet. Once you have all the recorded files and the documentation together lock them into a zip file and send them along to whoever needs them. For not a lot of cash you can setup a transfer point where the files can be picked up by File Transfer Protocol (FTP) by way of an FTP Client such as Filezilla, CuteFTP or SmartFTP. If you have never used one before look into it, it’s quick and secure.

Thanks and make sure you have fun.