Audio Interface

Show production guidelines

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 it makes the difference between a show that is pretty good and one that’s excellent. If you have any questions drop me a line at [email protected]

Content guide

Here’s how I approach the content of my shows.

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 know it’s not always possible to record this way. 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.

Here are my three rules for a decent sounding show

Download Pete’s Show Template (Ableton Live 12)

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

We provide a full track list for each show. Please provide one as a CSV in the following format.

Download the Track list CSV template

Track title	Artist name	Release title	URL
Seeing Red	Xylander	Inexistens	https://xylander.co.uk/releases/inexistens

Our podcast feed

When polled 70% of our listeners said they preferred to list to shows as downloadable podcasts rather than on Mixcloud.

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 (or their record labels) to state they’re happy to be included in this version of the show. This is obviously more admin 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 Track list CSV template for podcast shows

Track title	Artist name	Release title	URL	License	Podcast safe	Artist email
Seeing Red	Xylander	Inexistens	https://xylander.co.uk/releases/inexistens	CC BY-NC-SA	Yes	[email protected]

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

Request for podcast permission template

Here’s the email/message template I use to request permission for inclusion in podcasts:

Subject: Request to include your music in a podcast

Hi there,

I’m producing an electronic music podcast for www.audiointerface.org and I’m seeking permission to include one of your tracks. We put programmes out on Mixcloud which handles rights in the same way radio stations do, but we’ve heard from our listeners that they prefer to listen to our shows on our downloadable podcast feed.

The show is called [YOUR SHOW TITLE] and is a [MIX OF AMBIENT AND EXPERIMENTAL] electronic music. A full track list is included with the show and we will link to your website or social media. You can hear recent shows here: https://www.audiointerface.org/shows/

All the best,

Supplying the files to me for upload

Please upload your show as a ZIP containing:

1) Your show (WAV/AIFF if possible or 320kbps MP3 if not)
2) Full track list CSV using either of the templates above
3) A short bio for you including any URLs you’d like me to link to
4) A profile photo

I’ll upload the show to Mixcloud and tag your account (if you have one) 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.