Our aim is to produce shows to a high standard which means taking a few things into account. This may seem like a bit of a faff, but I think it makes the difference between a show that is pretty good and one that’s truely excellent. If you have any questions on any of the following please drop me a line at [email protected]

Recording

Ideally shows will be recorded multitrack to allow for volume balancing and applying compression to the talking sections to keep everything sounding even. I’ve heard from many people that it can be frustrating to listen to shows where the volume changes dramatically during links and between tracks. I know it’s not always possible to record this way though, if that’s the case please try to record your links with some compression applied to your mic to get things sounding good. Using sidechain compression on your vocal track to dip whatever you’re talking over really helps. 

Music beds

While talking it’s great to have a quiet music bed behind your voice. This isn’t a requirement but it can make a show sound really nicely produced. If you’re doing this please take into account the relative volume of your voice so that people can hear you clearly. 

Track list

Some listeners really like a track list (me included) so I’d ask you to provide one as a CSV in the following format. This really helps me with publishing the show and it’s great for the artists to have their work linked to.

Our podcast feed

In addition to Mixcloud some shows will also be available as downloadable podcasts. For a show to be added to the podcast feed all tracks must either be CC licensed or we need to get explicit permission from all featured artists to state they’re happy to be included in this version of the show. This is totally optional so don’t let this be the bit that puts you off having a go! Start with a Mixcloud only show and we can think about podcasts later if you like.

If you do want to have a crack at this, there’ll be a few extra columns in the CSV as follows:

Download the CSV template file

Creative Commons licenses are listed at https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/cclicenses/

Supplying the files to me for upload

Please supply shows as WAV/AIFF if possible or 320kbps MP3 if not. There’s an upload form I’ll share with you that will handle large files.

I’ll upload the show to Mixcloud and tag your account as a host which will automatically add it to your Mixcloud feed so you won’t need to upload it yourself and it won’t take up space in your account. For shows where all tracks are podcast safe I’ll also upload the show as a podcast and add it to our RSS feed.