HOW TO RECORD YOUR SUN SOUNDS OF ARIZONA PROGRAM AT HOME

Recording your Sun Sounds of Arizona program at home provides many advantages and conveniences, and thanks to current technology it’s easier than ever!

This guide will help you install your home recording system, maintain Sun Sounds broadcast quality standards, and permit you record on your own schedule.
EQUIPMENT REQUIREMENTS
* Laptop or desktop computer with at least 512 mB of RAM and a 1GHz processor
* Microphone with stand
* headphones
Almost all computers purchased in the last 5 years meet the computer specifications listed above, and most exceed them by far. If you are unsure, please consult the Operations Manager at Sun Sounds or your local computer expert. 
Almost any microphone will do. We recommend a directional microphone with a stand for the microphone. It DOES NOT have to be expensive! Below are links to some mics we recommend. (If the links do not work directly, simply select them and copy them into your browser.)
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/search/search.jsp?sB=r&question=usb+mic#fT=2012:25.00-50.00|50.00-100.00&gP=1&pS=20&v=g&sB=r&lP=s&question=usb mic
http://www.target.com/p/Spectrum-Professional-Uni-Directional-Microphone-Black-AIL-105/-/A-12888377
We recommend that you purchase an inexpensive pair of head phones so that you can hear what’s being recorded. 
CREATING THE HOME STUDIO
Physical Space
You will need to find or create a space in your home or office which can control the acoustics.  Consider these three things about your physical space:
1. Are the surfaces in your room square / parallel or are there a lot of angles? More angles create more sound reflection, which makes recording quality poorer.

2. Is there a lot of diffusive material such as carpet, clothing, heavy drapes? These are good things as they can absorb sound. Other things that will help are bookshelves or putting eggcrates or diffusers on the wall to ‘diffuse’ the sound. 

3. Will you be recording near an air duct or window? Air ducts will create noise, especially when AC is cranked up during the summer. Recording near a window could possibly pickup outside noise and can create sound reflections, which are bad.

Here is a link to a descent article on home recording. It is probably a little more advanced for our purposes, but it does contain a lot of useful information. 
http://www.heartwoodguitar.com/homerecording.htm
Recording Software
You will need to install recording software on your computer. Many volunteers use a free, user-friendly program called Audacity. You can download it here.
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Other professional recording programs, also called DAWs (digital audio workstations) on the market are ProTools, Adobe Audition, and Sound Forge. These commercially-available programs are more sophisticated and feature-rich, and therefore more difficult to learn to use. 
Uploading your Files to Sun Sounds
Once you finish recording and editing your program you will need to electronically send it to Sun Sounds. 
To do this, you’ll use an FTP (File Transfer  Protocol) program.
We like a free program called Filezilla. http://filezilla-project.org/. Choose “Download Filezilla Client All Platforms” and follow the installation instructions.
There are many other free FTP programs available, so you may find one you prefer. It doesn’t matter which FTP program you use. What’s important is that you know your way around the program and can input the correct information in order to connect to the FTP volunteer folder at Sun Sounds. 
Enter the following in your FTP program:
URL: ftp://sunsounds.org/shared/christieferris
USER ID: christieferris
PASSWORD: volunteer
PORT: 21
URL: The URL is essentially a web address. It allows your FTP program to access a computer at Sun Sounds where we store the recorded programs. 
USER ID and PASSWORD: The ID and password give you access to the Sun Sounds computer. 
PORT ID: Set the Port ID to 21. 


Once you connect to Sun Sounds, the FTP program will display your computer files on the left side of the screen, and Sun Sounds’ files on the right side of the screen (see picture below). Most FTP programs work this way.


This is probably the trickiest part of setting up your home studio. We are here to help you, so don’t hesitate to call the Sun Sounds Operations Manager at 480-770-8300, or your affiliate station managers in Flagstaff, Tucson, or Yuma.






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