FTR Guidelines - Please Read!

[EchoN]

Ok guys, just some general "rules" to go by for Furry Teens Radio. This is to make recording and processing as easy and fair as possible. The aim is to make Natasha's, or whoever-may-be-editing-it's job much easier. After all, she does it for free, and in her own time, so we should help her best we can.

Also, I'm not pointing the finger by saying any of these have already happened, I'm just making sure for the future.

Ok, Rule Numero Uno:

Older Members Get First Preference As Guests On The Show

I reckon this is fair, because people are more likely to want to listen to older members, and, well, it's just courtesy really. That's not to say no new members are allowed on the show, just that if there are more older members wanting to be on a particular show, they will get picked over the newbies, no matter who opted first.

Number 2, pretty basic:

No Swearing

Pretty simple, keep it to a minimum. Crap, Darn, Damn, etc. is ok, but not in excess. The bigger ones which I'm sure I don't need to explain are a no-no. If you absolutely, POSITIVELY have to swear during recording, it will be edited out. 


These will be added to if I, or anyone else, think of any more. Feel free to make suggestions in this thread.

As for recording guidelines, I can only think of a couple of things that would help, being;

a) Make sure you have your microphone at a constant distance from your mouth, and keep your volume the same.

This will make editing much easier.

b) Speak clearly and at a nice speed.

Don't be nervous, we're all friends here. No-one will pick on you, etc, if you make a mistake. I'm terrified when I start a show, as you may have noticed, and I haven't heard anything bad yet, so there's no reason to worry. Plus, keep telling yourself it's not live, so we can do editing if you mess up royally.

That's about it I think, and as I said before, feel free to suggest anything else.

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This board is for discussions of the official FTR only. You are welcome to create your own podcast; just please do so in Techie Talk.

[Meadow Whisper (Natasha)]

For the recording guidelines, a bit of an addendum:

If your audio has excessive background noise, or if your volume is too low, it needs to be taken care of before the show is actually recorded.  I can normalize/boost low audio to an extent, but background noise (especially wind noise from your microphone) is very difficult (if not impossible) to filter.  So, if you're an upcoming guest on the show, record yourself speaking like you would on the show (every OS made in the last decade has a basic sound recorder), and see how it sounds.  Make adjustments to your setup as needed, and remember what you did when it comes time for the show.  If you're really not sure if you sound ok, give Nox, Schism, or I a Skype call and we'll do a sound check with you.

To do this show properly, your microphone needs a wind guard, which usually takes the form of a soft foam ball around the top of the mic (or, if you have professional equipment, it's a mesh disk in front of the mic, but if you have professional equipment, why aren't you hosting the show?).  If you don't have one, go get one from a guitar/amp/music equipment store, they're like $5 at most.  In a pinch, you can do what I did and wrap the speaker padding from an old pair of headphones around the mic, but this isn't perfect.  Having a wind guard allows you to hold the mic closer without getting breath-noise, and thus lets us hear you better without getting noisy audio.

You also need to be able to project your voice.  Some guests have said that they couldn't do this because of being in a shared room or recording the show after people were in bed, but if we can't hear you, it creates a problem.  So, if you're going to be on the show, plan your appearance for a time when you can speak to us as if you were talking to someone on the other side of a noisy restaurant table.  It's better to be too loud than to be not loud enough.

And one last thing:  PLEASE make sure you disable any other audio from your computer, turn off phone ringers, and other background noise.  We want to hear you, not your AIM/Skype IM sound or your cellphone ringtone.

EDIT:  I also wanted to add that while all shows are edited before posting, please try to avoid excessive use of things like Umm, Like, Basically, and other words commonly used for stalling.  I know everyone does it, I do it too, but it doesn't sound very good on a radio show.  If you need to write things down before you say them, or take some extra time to process your thoughts before you speak, that's fine; it's easier to delete empty space than to delete words and piece together broken sentences.

[EchoN]

Ok, as an add-on to this, I think there should be two new rules:

We are not reading any audience member's text from the Skype room (as of Episode 10). There may be exceptions.

Honestly, for listeners it is pretty boring to hear the host say the entire conversation. This would be an exception if notified in the episode's appropriate thread, and if the host agrees. Usually an exception would only be made if the episode in question was an audience-involved episode (which we have not done yet).

So pretty much, if you don't have a mic, don't bother saying you can come, because it makes the show complicated. However, if we say that we are wanting a participating audience for a show, that means people without access to microphones can talk to us through text on air, on what we are talking about (Sorry if this is vague, by the way).

If you cannot meet the deadline, we will not wait for you. Also, we will not change the time of the show for one person.

However, if a considerable amount of people need a time change, that is fine. This is mainly for episodes I am on, because I have to be up really early to do them, and I don't want to have it moved at the last moment, and miss it. Again, sorry if this is vague, but ask me for details.

[Schism]

Also, let me add one more thing here (thanks for doing this Nox :3)

You're NOT going to get on the show if you just say "Can I be on?" or "This seems cool, I wanna go on".

You have to actually message me or Nox about being on the show. This really goes along with the "Older members get preference" rule. We're just not going to let anyone and everyone on the show. You have to really express interest in this,  make sure you're going to do what we ask, show up on time, and have content prepared to present.

[EchoN]

You have to actually message me about being on the show.

Or me. Any questions regarding these guidelines can be answered by Schism or myself, anytime. Just remember in my case, the timezones are different, and so I may not reply straight away.