The following is an attempt to help explain (and show) how we are capturing weekly sermon audio for the BVBC Podcast. For background on the podcast, check out my earlier blog entry. For starters, we have run a connection from the sound board to the computer using the “Aux 3” output.
You’ll notice that going across this row on the sound board, only the knob on the far left is actually set. This is Pastor Bo’s lapel mic and it is the only one we are recording from. If he is ever using a different one, or a we have a different speaker that needs to be recorded, that mic input will need to be adjusted.
As far as the software is concerned, we are using a product called Audacity and you’ll find a desktop icon like the one shown to the left. We will usually try to record the sermon from the 8:30 service (that way I can copy it to my jump drive before the 10:00 service starts and if something goes wrong at the first service, we have a couple more chances!)
Once the software is opened, you only need to worry about a couple buttons. The red circle which is “record” and the yellow circle to “stop”. We are recording the sermon message from “prayer to prayer”. In other words record the opening prayer before the start of the message and go through until the “amen” of the closing prayer.
While recording, you will see a blue waveform bar which show the amount of audio signal coming in. The correct signal strength should show the top and bottom of the wave without hitting the very top and the very bottom too often. The one at the left is a good example.
In the next picture (right) you can see an example where it hits the max limit. If the signal is doing this too much it will sound too strong. In this situation, adjust the knob on the soundboard to derease the signal strength. Once they message and closing prayer are done, cick the “stop” button and just leave Audacity open. I will come up and save the project file and copy it to my jump drive to take home and publish to ChristianPodder. If you haven’t been over to ChristianPodder.com to check out where the podcast is published, you can find it by clicking here. For those of you doing the 8:30 service, please look this over carefully and let me know if you have any questions. I will try to be there the first time you have to do it just to make sure you are comfortable. If anything happens or you forget, don’t sweat it, just leave a note for the person doing 10/11:15 that you need them to record it for you. Thanks for all your help!