4 Part Music Blog

For the last few months I have been recording a monthly podcast with Lesley Anne Hornbogen of “On the Go”.   Lesley Anne is a virtual assistant and she see’s a monthly podcast as a means of communicating with her client base and new prospects.

However, a podcast is not simply an audio version of an email newsletter (at least not the traditional type of email newsletter which is often no more than a sales pitch!).  In the business world, a podcast is an opportunity for a business owner to “speak” to their clients or prospects and give an insight into not only their business but talk about their experience and current news items affecting their business as well.  I’ve so far recorded 3 podcasts with Lesley Anne and we have discussed a range of subjects including Networking, Social Media and the role of a Virtual Assistant.

Now, you would be forgiven for thinking that Lesley Anne and I presumably meet up in a recording studio to put together the podcast.  I think almost without exception every person that I meet and say I’m involved with a recording business immediately asks “wheres your studio?”.  But no, these podcasts are currently all recorded in Lesley Anne’s kitchen with us sat round the table.   Welcome to the world of on location recordings.

By doing this series of Podcasts with Lesley Anne, I am hoping to show that with the right equipment and setup you don’t actually need a “studio”.  After all, what exactly is a recording studio other than 4 walls, some microphones and other recording equipment?  Actually, there is a bit more too it than that, but the point is we carry everything needed to turn almost any space into an acoustically treated studio environment.  Luckily for me, Lesley Anne has agreed to be “experimented” on and we have tried various different setups.  I am particularly pleased with the 3rd podcast and would welcome any feedback.

You can listen to Lesley Anne’s podcasts by visiting the samples page of our website. Or alternatively for more information on our audio recording services please visit the main site here.

Communication today has never been easier.  It seems that everyone is Twittering their every move or living out their lives on Facebook, Linked – In and a whole host of other social networking websites.  Then you have business networking, the likes of 4 Networking, BNI, FSB and so forth not to mention countless small networking organisations all of which have their place.  Then, back online you have blogs (such as this one), forums, video messages and podcasts, all of which are ways of promoting your business or your life or anything else you wish to share.

With the explosion of business networking in recent years, a podcast is a great way to give your customers a personal message about your business when you’re not there. What’s more with automated delivery straight into iTunes or some other similar program, it’s easy for your customers to opt-in to your podcasts and then have the freedom to listen to them whenever they want via their iPod or similar device.

The question then is how to go about recording a podcast.  The easiest way for most people is to do this using the microphone built into the laptop or buy a cheap USB microphone and connect it to a PC.  In principle this will work and there are plenty of free audio programs out there which will help to achieve a reasonable quality of audio.  All you then need to do is to go through and edit the podcast so that there are no strange gaps and maybe re-do areas where there is a stutter and there you have it.

So if it’s so easy then why do 4 Part Music now offer a service to record podcasts?

Well, it comes down to the quality of audio which is already in mass circulation.  The most obvious source of audio would be the radio. Anyone who listens to their local radio station or one of the BBC stations is used to the way it sounds.  That level of quality is almost impossible to achieve from a tiny mic located in the average laptop.

The quality of any audio recording is subject to a number of factors.

1. Location:

We do not currently have a studio but do all our recordings on site, or on location as we refer to it. This makes our customer’s lives much easier. However, that means we have to effective create a studio environment everywhere we go. This we achieve through a number of portable accoustic panels and foam which is placed at various points to “deaden” the accoustic in the room.

2. Microphones:

Using a high quality microphone is one of the most important factors in any recording.  For a podcast we generally use a very high quality condenser microphone for each person coupled with pop shields as necessary.

3. Hardware:

All our recordings are captured at 96/24 which is the accepted standard for high quality studio recordings and recorded onto the computers hard drive via the Pre Amps and Analogue to Digital converters.

4. Cabling:

Even the microphone cables and other connectors all have to be of the highest possible quality and often we will use cables with a silver core.

Is this a bit excessive for a podcast?

In short no! As we have seen, anyone can essentially record their own podcast using a laptop and some free software.  To make a difference we need to offer the same standard of audio you would expect from the BBC.  This I hope we achieve, which for £50 a podcast we hope represents excellent value for money.

To find out more visit our Website.

I’m currently working on a commission to write some music for a training company to be used with some training CD’s and during various training sessions.  Now of course technically you could just use any piece of music for this. Or could you? Of course most music nowadays is subject to copyright so if you are proposing to use something in the public domain you can’t just play your favourite tune without first checking you have the necessary permission. Otherwise it could all turn nasty!

This is where our composition services can help. As a professional composer I can write music in a variety of different styles to meet a variety of different needs, whether its for a training CD, an introduction to a podcast or even music for the TV or films.  The main benefit of such music is it is written specifically for the customer and in the majority of cases it will never be used for anything else.

Yes, I admit there are plenty of online places now where you can buy “royalty free music”. But this isn’t quite the same as often these short clips are available to multiple customers and as such you do not have anything unique for your business or presentation.  Of course sometimes a short clip is all that’s needed and we do also offer such things to multiple clients but this is something which needs to be made clear at the outset. If you want something unique then make sure that’s what you have asked for and it is agreed with the composer!

I will shortly be publishing more examples of compositions on the website and I’d welcome some feedback.  In the meantime there’s music to be written!

Use of audio on a business website is an ideal way of adding a personal touch to your business.  It’s widely accepted that people buy people before products and services.  By using short audio clips on your website you can give your customers the chance to get to know you before they consider your business.

Nowadays this even more important as competition is getting tougher in the vast majority of businesses, particularly with the economic climate being what it is.  By offering on location recordings for web audio we give you the opportunity to speak to your clients before you meet them and give them an overview of your business in your own words.

Think of it rather like an email newsletter but in spoken form.  The biggest benefit of an audio file is that your customers or prospects can download this and listen in their own time.

Podcasts are not new, in fact they’ve been around a few years now. However what is new is that 4 Part Music can now offer a professional “on location” podcast recording service.  This service is due to be officially launched next week along with our first series of podcasts and will make podcasting more accessible to small and large businesses alike.

This service will adopt the same principles as our recording services for musicians. Essentially we will be using a cut down version of our main recording rig, but still using the high end Lavry Engineering solution and a combination of microphones from AKG and DPA.  This means the audio quality of our podcasts will be second to none and on a par with that you would expect from the BBC.  To further enhance our podcasts we are also able to add music and effects all of which will have been written by one of our in house professional musicians which means there is never any issues with copyright.

As well as “on location” podcasts we can also offer an “in house” service where all you need to do is send us your script and we will have a member of our professional voiceover team read the podcast on your behalf.  Further news of this exciting venture will appear soon so watch this space.