Our broadcasters are welcome to record their radio programs at WEMM where we have the needed equipment and staff to record your program for you. Please call Roger at 304-522-2277 to reserve a once a week recording time. Typically, though, within the first year our broadcasters want the convenience of recording at their church, home or office. To record a radio broadcast, you will need a quality microphone and recorder. If you wish to add recorded music or preaching, then you will also need a mixer and a playback unit, preferably a CD player.

Microphone: To begin, you need a broadcast quality microphone. Select a name brand microphone, such as AKG, Audio-Technica, Behringer, Electro-Voice, Sennheiser or Shure. Plus or minus $100 should buy a good microphone for speech recording, such as the AKG D 9000 High Performance Dynamic Microphone, Electro-Voice N/D767a Dynamic Supercardioid Vocal Microphone, or the Shure SM48-LC Vocal Microphone. If you want a lavalier wireless system, then Musician's Friend has a good selection, provided you spend $250 or more. Mack & Dave's in Huntington also has a UHF Audio Technica Wireless system. Regardless of the recording equipment, use an external microphone rather than a built in microphone or the inexpensive microphones that come with some equipment, including conference microphones. (If recording on a church public address system, turn off the speakers and tone controls.)

Mixers: If you want to add recorded music or preaching to your broadcast, then a mixer will let you add either to your broadcast while recording it. A simple mixer would also give you a volume boost if needed for your computer sound card. Today's mixers let you make a lot of adjustments to the sound. We suggest keeping the tone set to flat (no bass or treble boost or cut). The Alesis MultiMix would be a good choice; It has both USB and standard audio outputs. There are also other good mixers available, such as Behringer, Electro Voice, Mackie, Sony, Yamaha, and etcetera.

Cassette Recorders: Broadcast quality cassette recording equipment is hard to find, and the inherent tape hiss makes cassettes undesirable for broadcast. Now that we have the far superior choice of digital recording, we encourage our broadcasters to switch from cassette to compact disc (CD-R), or even better, use an FTP site to get your program to WEMM. While we still accept cassettes, the time is fast approaching that we will discontinue their use. For now, though, the Sony TC-WE475 is a good recorder. As for WEMM, we use Tascam professional cassette machines. Call Bradley Broadcast (800-732-7665) or go to the Tascam Web site. Please use quality, name brand cassettes and record at full level (-3 to 0 dB or where the LED lights change color). Quality cassettes can be purchased from The Little Warehouse (216 398-0022); they also sell cassette deck recorders. Even though Marantz, Sony & Tascam are excellent machines, we still would prefer to move from cassettes, with their inherent tape hiss, to digital audio.

CD Recording: A CD recorder is an excellent means of recording a broadcast. Because the audio is recorded deeper into the CD-R disk than on a computer CD burner, there is less risk of skipping. CD recorders are increasingly hard to find, but some local consumer outlets still carry them. Mack & Dave's carries a Teac recorder. Also, Marantz makes the CDR300 Portable CD Recorder that is available from of Bradley Broadcast (800-732-7665). (When recording CDs for broadcast, be sure to finalize the disk!) Also, only use name brand CD-R discs. We order ours from The Little Warehouse (216 398-0022). CD recording is giving way to computer recording. We get our best FM sound quality from wave files; for example, using Adobe Audition, save as a Windows PCM .wav file.

Computer Recording: We strongly recommend a Sound Blaster sound card, rather than the built in sound card that comes with your computer or notebook. Regardless of the sound card, request that you be able to plug a line level CD player or mixer into the card and a microphone into the card or directly into the computer. Also ask that it have a CD burner, be Internet ready and have USB ports. Various computer interfaces are starting to come on the market, for example: TASCAM Track Pack T1 US-122L with Mic & Headphones and TASCAM Track Pack T2 US-144L Recording Bundle with Mic. Only use name brand CD-R discs. See Editing Software below.)

Editing Software:  Like a word processor, audio editing software lets you add, delete and move different sound files around within your radio program. For example, to put together a ½-hour broadcast, use a recorded introduction and close, recorded music and perhaps a sermon you preached elsewhere. (For a ¼-hour broadcast, do the same, but leave out the music.) Then, add some personal comments and put it all together in the desired sequence. An excellent example of what we've described here, is the True Word of God broadcast, Sundays at 2:00 PM on WEMM-FM. However, a simple recording where you speak from the start of the broadcast to the finish, without inserting any prerecorded audio, also sounds good. We have broadcasters dong that, using their pulpit sermon notes or outlines as the basis for their WEMM radio broadcast. Adobe Audition and Sound Forge are industry standards in editing software. Both make professional and scaled down versions of their programs. Audacity, Cake Walk, Fast Edit, and GoldWave are other programs that have been recommended to us.

When starting a new recording session in Adobe Audition, in the "New Waveform" dialog box, set the Sample Rate to 32000, Channels to Stereo, and the Resolution to 16-bit. A sample rate of 44100 is CD quality, which surpasses the frequency range of FM radio. Therefore use a sample rate of 32000. When saving the file to your hard drive as an MP3 file using Adobe Audition, save it as an mp3PRO© (FhG) (*.mp3) file. To save the file as CD quality, choose Options, and then from the drop down menu: 224 Kbps, 44100 Hz, Stereo (12.6:1). However, for FM broadcast quality, choose Options, and then from the drop down menu: 192 Kbps, 32000 Hz, Stereo (14.7:1). Alternatively, if your program is voice only, other than perhaps a theme song, you can create smaller files by saving your programs as mono. Choose Options, and then from the drop down menu: 96 Kbps, 32000 Hz, Mono (14.7:1).

Disclaimer: In stating the difference between CD quality and FM broadcast quality, note that we are doing so for informational purposes only. Mortenson Broadcasting Company pays the necessary licensing fees for you to broadcast music over our airwaves and through our Internet streaming. However, apart from this, any recording of copyrighted music by you for other purposes needs to be covered by obtaining your own licensing agreements.

Adobe bought Cool Edit and renamed it Adobe Audition. Luther Dingess of the True Word of God Ministry still uses Cool Edit to produce his Sunday, 2:00 PM, 1-hour broadcast on WEMM-FM. Luther does an excellent job and thus he explains here how he puts together his broadcast. Listen and then apply what he shares to the editing software of your choice.

FTP Site: While you can bring or mail a CD to us that you record on your computer, you can also upload it to an FTP site on the Internet. An FTP site, typically associated with a Web site, is a password-protected location on the Internet where you can place your radio program. WEMM can then retrieve it from the Internet, saving you the cost and time of bringing or mailing us your program.

Timers: Rather than watch the clock, use a countdown timer to keep your broadcasts on schedule. If you need a timer to help the Pastor in the pulpit stay on time, then Microframe (800-635-3811) has timers for that purpose. However, in the studio, office or home, a personal timer or stopwatch that counts down is all you need. The Invisible Clock (888-602-2588) countdown timer that silently vibrates or has adjustable beep volume is an excellent choice. If you need assistance with the recording and timing of your radio broadcast, call WEMM at (304) 525-5141 and ask for Laddie Smith, our Program Director. Note: Our timing is very precise. Therefore if your program runs over and gets cut short, call Laddie and request his help in the recording and timing of your broadcast.

Remote: Broadcasting live from your church, office or home is still feasible. Ideally, we recommend using a Comrex, such as the BlueBox. The Barix Instreamer/Exstreamer also works. These are available from SCMS. (Don't order either without verifying compatibility with our equipment. Also, we can get Comrex equipment for you at a discount price.) Call Roger at 304-522-2277 for assistance in broadcasting live over WEMM.

If all of the above seems overwhelming or beyond your present financial capability, then use the "shop at home" principle. As a pastor, could you use the sound equipment at church or do you already have some equipment at home or the office? Buy what you need, but don't buy "all the bells and whistles" at once to get started. For example, all you need to get on the air is a microphone and a recorder. Later, you can add a mixer, software and a CD player.

Finally, please don't get hung up on perfection either in getting the sound just right or spending lots of time editing out a cough, mistakes or putting together an impressive broadcast. After all, radio used to be live and church services are recorded before live congregations. So, you don't need to make a "big production" out of it. Our WEMM listeners simply want to hear the preaching and teaching of God's Holy Word. So, keep the recording process simple and focus on communicating with your listeners. As for the technical stuff, avoid cassette and stay close to the microphone (6 to 8-inches from your mouth, in line with your shoulder, and thus aimed at an angle toward your mouth). If you need help, call Roger at 304-522-2277.

Call Roger Manning at 304-522-2277.
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