My Home Studio Rig
As you can see from the above photo, I’ve got myself a home studio rig together. It consists of a Numark C3 USB mixer, which is basic but provides all the bits and bobs I need, especially handy is the USB feature which allows for USB audio IN and OUT. As you can see I’ve also got an XLR mic, which is a Shure SM58 plugged into it, and of course, the necessary laptop powering the whole show. I’m using the MacBook Pro. At this time I’m just going to use iTunes to play my music, but we will see how that goes. To stream the audio to the Inverclyde FM Studios from Edinburgh (which is why I’m doing this in the first place), I’ve purchased a license for Nicecast. It’s essentially a nice wrapper to icecast for the mac, but lordy lordy it makes setting up the stream a breeze. Icecast, even for a seasoned tech-head like me is a bit of a pig at times and I really need something that just works at the click of a button. This provides that task and quite a lot more besides. I was missing that certain something punchy like a cartridge loader for my jingles. We use the ENCO DAD system at IFM, but since that costs thousands of pounds, I won’t be entertaining that!. Instead I bought for £17 a neat bit of software called Soundboard . The idea behind this software is that it allows you to cue up and make small edits (like fades and effects as well as volume) to your sound files. You get an array of up to 32 sound files at a time (you can have as many arrays open as you like though). Each item on your soundboard can be kicked off by pressing the relevant launch key, for example, 2 for the second sound file. It works great for jingles and so forth so that was a great addition to the armoury.
I’m using the open source, free sound-editing software, Audacity for any major editing work, and I’ve made a few jingles in Apple’s Garageband, which is reasonable-ish. The main reason I’m still using iTunes is I have yet to find some software (ideally free) that gives proper Play and Stop features as well as a Cueing mechanism. I’m not talking fancy-schmansy stuff like pitch bending or mid-track cue here, I’m just asking to have something to cue an mp3 to the first bit of audible sound, ready to be played like you would a CD in a Denon player or equivalent. A wee brucy bonus would be to have the ability to fire off your next cued music whilst your first one is ending, so it gets mixed a little. I downloaded PaceMaker, which is really nice (and now free) but that’s way more than what I’m looking for. If anyone has any ideas for me, I’d love to hear your comments!
Anyway, I’m pleased to say I’m now cooking on gas, so with any luck I should be good to go from my own home studio in Edinburgh on Wednesday 23rd Dec. I probably won’t manage the Saturday show on 19th December as I’ll be moving home the day before, but you never know!
