Originally posted by CP3
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LEt's not start the FM transmitter quality argument. Just know that direct wired will always sound the best, but for ease and convenience of having all boats on the "same page" nothing beats a quality transmitter like the one ffrom Mobile Black Box.
Now on the front-end side, I have fake radio station id tags. These were created in my home studio in my win95 machine that has a full-blown multi-track music recording system installed. You can do something similar with a program like NCH's WavePad. Get the install, find a decent microphone to work with, and then use the effects within the software to make your commercials and radio id tags sound as real as possible. My station is called "107.3, THE DUCK". It is not called out with any four-letter identification. Here is the website: http://www.freespaces.com/theduck/index.htm
Build a playlist that has some of your homemade id's in it. Thatway you are not stuck playing DJ right then and there. Vary the number of songs between, but know that a quick id tag every 4th or 5th song is not objectionable for most people, as they are used to it. Depending on your creativity and how good your id production is, a larger number of tags often times will be more fun, as it makes people stop, listen, and then try to figure out if what they are listening to is real or not.
A few tips:
* Don't create a bogus 4-letter station id starting with a W or a K. that is for sure illegal. GO with something like "THE BREEZE, 102.3" or something like that with style, but without the call letters.
* Don't be one to use a bunch of bad words and/or expletives. What you are doing is really not illegal, but is on the border, and subject to scrutiny.
*Remember that whatever you do, it is out there for anybody to listen to. Act in your own best interest. Taste is not something you want to be lacking.
* From a production standpoint, know that most MP3 players need to see audio bits of 10 seconds or more, so be sure to make your little station ID's and fun things at least 10 seconds long.
* When you are recording bogus commercials for the lake's "holiday jam", or the bogus commercial supporting your legitimate business, know that 30 second and 60 second commercials are the norm.
* Music fades seem the easy way to end a commercial, but listen to real commercials and notice that most fade the music out right before the last word. It makes a much tighter sounding transition to whatever is coming on next.
Follow these basic guidelines, and have fun!
Know too that the use of the transmitter in your house is a great way to have whole house audio as well, without the complication and cost of a wired-up whole house stereo. Use a PC, your MP3 player, or even your CD carousel as a music server, connect the transmittier, and then broadcast to any and all stereo or radi systems in the house that have FM receiving capabilities.
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