Welcome to the 21st century
Divaville Lounge joined the 21st century today! For the first time I played music from my computer on the air. It turned out to be easy -- i just needed an $8 cable and a little help from the tech-savvy dj who's on before me.
This was a trial run so it was only a half hour of the show. Then I switched back to CDs like normal. I don't plan to do this every week, just when I have a pre-planned theme show. Up to now I've been burning the theme shows onto CD. Which is first of all, a hassle. And second, a waste of CDs. I'm really happy about being able to save the CDs and run the music right out of my computer.
A couple of technical issues: the levels are a bit low, and when the track was also low I had to push the sliders all the way up, which caused some distortion. Next time I'll check the levels and use Audacity to amplify anything that's too low. Audacity also causes some distortion if you amplify too much, but it doesnt seem as bad as doing it on the board.
The other technical concern was that every time the computer went to sleep, when I woke it up there was an audible pop. Next time I'll be sure to set the computer to never sleep. And remember to bring the power cable!
The next theme show will be March 27, a tribute to Sarah Vaughan on her birthday. Which reminds me, I need to search the library website and see if they have a biography of her.
The show was busy aside from the tech stuff: six requests, two from people I haven't heard from before! One was a guy who asked for Spike Jones and said it was for "the guys in the shed." I have no idea what that means. Maybe some older gentlemen who work in facilities? I thought it was cool regardless of what it means so I played two songs for them. The other new caller was someone who clearly hadn't heard the show before, really dug it, and wanted to talk a lot. How did I start doing the show, where do I get the music from, etc etc. I felt bad about cutting him off but there just wasn't time. I think people have no idea what community radio is like. There's no engineer pushing the buttons for me while I sit and wait for the next talk set. It's all me and it can get hectic!
Speaking of hectic, another dj rang the doorbell in the middle of a talk set, which is how i discovered that unlike the old doorbell, the new doorbell isn't wired to the board. Meaning, it just starts beeping really loud, even if your mic is on. And it's too far away from the mic to turn it off, so I just had to let it beep while I finished the talk set. I ran down, let the dj in, ran back upstairs and the ding-danged bell got stuck! It just kept beeping and beeping, and it was over 10 minutes before I had time to go back down and fix it. I'm trying to cue up music while that stupid bell goes BEEP BEEP BEEP. It was insane. I found out later that this happens a lot in wet weather. Speaking of community radio and the way things are.
This was a trial run so it was only a half hour of the show. Then I switched back to CDs like normal. I don't plan to do this every week, just when I have a pre-planned theme show. Up to now I've been burning the theme shows onto CD. Which is first of all, a hassle. And second, a waste of CDs. I'm really happy about being able to save the CDs and run the music right out of my computer.
A couple of technical issues: the levels are a bit low, and when the track was also low I had to push the sliders all the way up, which caused some distortion. Next time I'll check the levels and use Audacity to amplify anything that's too low. Audacity also causes some distortion if you amplify too much, but it doesnt seem as bad as doing it on the board.
The other technical concern was that every time the computer went to sleep, when I woke it up there was an audible pop. Next time I'll be sure to set the computer to never sleep. And remember to bring the power cable!
The next theme show will be March 27, a tribute to Sarah Vaughan on her birthday. Which reminds me, I need to search the library website and see if they have a biography of her.
The show was busy aside from the tech stuff: six requests, two from people I haven't heard from before! One was a guy who asked for Spike Jones and said it was for "the guys in the shed." I have no idea what that means. Maybe some older gentlemen who work in facilities? I thought it was cool regardless of what it means so I played two songs for them. The other new caller was someone who clearly hadn't heard the show before, really dug it, and wanted to talk a lot. How did I start doing the show, where do I get the music from, etc etc. I felt bad about cutting him off but there just wasn't time. I think people have no idea what community radio is like. There's no engineer pushing the buttons for me while I sit and wait for the next talk set. It's all me and it can get hectic!
Speaking of hectic, another dj rang the doorbell in the middle of a talk set, which is how i discovered that unlike the old doorbell, the new doorbell isn't wired to the board. Meaning, it just starts beeping really loud, even if your mic is on. And it's too far away from the mic to turn it off, so I just had to let it beep while I finished the talk set. I ran down, let the dj in, ran back upstairs and the ding-danged bell got stuck! It just kept beeping and beeping, and it was over 10 minutes before I had time to go back down and fix it. I'm trying to cue up music while that stupid bell goes BEEP BEEP BEEP. It was insane. I found out later that this happens a lot in wet weather. Speaking of community radio and the way things are.