SOUNDBYTE ENHANCES RADIO/PODCAST PRODUCTION

I write a newspaper column and I'm also a radio talk show host. I've been broadcasting the Computer America radio show (www.computeramerica.com) for over 16 years now and a lot has changed in that industry. Armed with a computer, the right software and an Internet connection, anyone can produce a talk show. If this sounds vaguely familiar to you, it's because you've heard the same story within the entire publishing industry including music, books, magazines and just about every other medium that gets published.

Used to be that if you were a musician or had a music group of some kind, you were at the mercy of the big publishing labels. Now musicians can put their music out on the Internet and make it big on their own. The same goes with writers and authors. Self publishing has become a way of life and it's working. Podcasting is a slightly different publishing phenomena only because that it really didn't exist before the Internet. But now, if you have something to say, you can say it to a global audience online. Podcasts have traditionally followed the talk show format but of course, there are many that don't. Still, a lot of them follow the talk show format because it's a tried and true formula that works. Doing something new is tough enough so putting whatever it is you have to say within a proven format usually turns out to be a help.

One of the things that's commonly found on most talk shows are audio clips.  These audio clips can contain any audio content. In older days, these audio clips were stored on broadcast carts. These clunky plastic carts look a lot like the even older 8-Track tapes and work pretty much in the same way.  They contain a continuous loop of magnetic tape of varying lengths. The sound byte was recorded onto the tape and played whenever the host or show needed the audio content to be heard. Thankfully most modern radio broadcast stations don't use carts anymore but rather use some kind of computer system that digitally stores the audio content. The host or board operator can play any sound clip (also called a sound byte) by simply pressing a labeled virtual button on the computer's screen. Such a system can cost thousands of dollars. But now you can have something very similar running in your Mac or Windows PC.

SoundByte, from Black Cat Systems, uses the same cart metaphor found on the expensive systems you find in professional broadcasting facilities but it only costs $39 for the Lite version, $79 for the regular and $149 for the Pro version. Basically, you are presented with a configurable grid that contains the virtual carts. Each cart contains whatever sound file you wish to play. SoundByte supports most of the popular formats such mp3, WAV and AIFF. Just drag and drop the audio file you want to play over to any of the grid positions. When you click on any of them, the associated sound file plays. That's the basics of it. You can assign any key to trigger the sound cart as well.

SoundByte recently added some requested features (from me, of course) such as Timed Play. Now you can create a sequential list of files and their respective times to be played. As a host, I can assure you this can prove to be invaluable because if you solo your show, you will invariably miss the time something is to be played. With the timed schedule feature, just set it and forget it. The computer plays what you need at the right time.

SoundByte contains many additional features such as individual volume slider controls, presets for each file and a timed offset just in case your computer's internal clock doesn't match the actual time you need something played. But no matter if you're a talk show host wannabe or podcast aficionado, you're gong to find that SoundByte may turn out to be the best thing on the air except for yourself.

www.blackcatsystems.com



 

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