Recording Practices

 

So you’re hosting on Media M.D.? That’s great – we’re probably really excited to have you on!

This page is here to run down our recording process, to help you give an idea of how actually recording the show will go. So, in case you haven’t listened to an episode, we record two distinct parts. This means we do two recording sessions (which we refer to on the show as The Prescription and The Diagnosis, respectively). The Prescription part of the episode is where you pitch the media to us, and The Diagnosis is where we meet back again a fortnight later to give a retrospective on how we went with the piece of media you pitched, what we liked and disliked, all that jazz!

 

So, what will the recording sessions look like? We have a pretty simple recording setup. Basically, we use a skype call to all talk to each other. This means you’ll need to have Skype installed, and a skype account. It’s important that you set this up beforehand (it can take a little time). We also record our voice separately while we are on the Skype call (to get better audio quality). This gives us three separate audio tracks, which we then edit into a single good audio quality track. To sync up the tracks, we will record a small piece of the skype call, where we each take turns saying a few words (something like “THIS IS A REFERENCE POINT”), which we then use as a reference to sync each local audio recording.

This means you will need to be able to record audio on your end. As long as you have a microphone, that won’t be a problem. Both Elliot and I use Audacity to record ourselves, which is a free program you can get from here if you need it. Most people who guest host on Media M.D. are guests / hosts on other podcasts, so you should know how to record audio and make sure you sound good. If you need any help with recording decent quality audio, just send us an email or get in touch.

After each recording session, I’ll send you details on how to send the local audio you recorded. This probably means zipping up the audacity files and sending them over skype, or alternatively just sending an exported .wav file. I’ll edit it together. Then, I’ll usually let you know whereabouts in our release schedule this episode is going to appear. Usually episodes will appear 1 or 2 episodes after we finish recording them (which means 2-4 weeks, usually). You can use this information to prepare any cross promotion in your podcast that you would like to do, or anything like that. We don’t require any of our guest hosts to do any kind of cross promotion or plugging of Media M.D., but feel free if you’d like to promote your appearance on the show!

 

In summary:

  • We do two recording sessions, usually two weeks apart (although we may do shorter or longer depending on how long we estimate it will take for us to consume the media you pitch to us)
  • We call you via Skype for each recording session (you will need skype setup before your scheduled sessions).
  • You will need to record your own local audio – record your voice talking. I (Reuben) will edit it together using a small sample of our Skype call to sync the individual voice recordings.
  • After each recording session you shoot us your local audio so we can edit it together.
  • We will let you know when the episode is going to slot in to our release schedule. Hopefully it won’t be too far away! Then you can do whatever branding or cross promotion you see fit!

Simple stuff! Shoot an email to us or get in contact if you need any clarification on how it will all work!