Two things you want to have for radio production
Some people asked me what tools I used to produce the radio documentary that NTR aired a while ago. So here goes!
First of all, I got myself a digital audio recorder. I used to have a minidisc recorder, but it died (mechanism broke, plus the wear and tear of the tropics) and I don’t think anyone still uses them anyway. Nowadays, we record on chips. There are many different types on the market, but my favorites are the ones made by Zoom, and the one I use is the H2. It runs on standard batteries or rechargeable ones, uses standard memory cards – even in remote third world hellholes you’ll be able to get what you need. It has four built in microphones and various options for recording mono, stereo or 4 channel, in a variety of formats and audio qualities. The only thing I do not like about it is that the buttons aren’t lit, which is a nuisance when working outdoors on location at night. Other than that, it’s perfect. It comes with a windscreen and some other accessories. You’ll have to buy good headphones as well.
Then, editing. This you can do on any computer or laptop using the Ardour software. This is not just great, it’s fantastic. Comparable with ProTools, but open source and free. There’s a number of third-party plugins available as well – tons, actually – for all kinds of signal processing. Various manuals are available online too. My favorite was this one. If you’re new to audio editing I recommend it highly, because there is a somewhat steep learning curve involved.
I did most of the editing on an old netbook, but highly recommend using a computer with a bigger screen, not in the least because the Ardour windows don’t re-size to the small netbook format. Yet if you need to be mobile, you can edit on a netbook. Mine, a HP Compaq Mini, has just 1GB of RAM and runs Ubuntu Studio (forget video editing though).
Last but not least, you need a fast and reliable internet connection to get the voluminous result to the station. This was – Panama being Panama – actually the biggest technical challenge in the whole production process!
