Internet Radio - Studio Setup

• internet radio, building studio, internet broadcasting, internet, radio
• by Sebastian Wallace

Introduction

I will be honest, I love this part of the job. The studio is the heart of the action when it comes to internet radio. I've seen some incredible ones in my time, from 6 monitors, professional microphones suspended from the ceiling, using the latest pro-tools and streaming software, to the not so great guy with a laptop and headset. There are just two things holding you back, budget and knowledge. My knowledge I've accumulated over the years hasn't actually come from the internet radio world, in-fact it comes from the live music scene, theatre scene and classical music scene. I had a job for a few years working as a sound engineer for a local art centre, and it is here I hovered up as much knowledge about sound engineering as I could. I tried every different type of music and live event I could to hone my skills in mixing, setup and recording. The best bit was after everyone went home I and a fellow engineer would sit in the studio and play for hours and hours, trying different things to improve sound quality. It's fair to say this is a subject I have learned a lot about, through research and through practise. If there is any tips of the trade I can give you its that experimentation is the key. Try something first see if it works out, if not try something else. The word 'test bed' will become a common theme. A test bed is where you do a recording session to try out a new setup, or new bit of kit, before such a time as you go live. As for the budget side, I can't help you there, perhaps a rich uncle?

Environment

I thought this was an excellent place to start. Your environment where your studio is based is very important, it needs to be suitable for the purpose of recording. Now everyone's situation is different, but I have seen some pretty impressive home studio setups, on a budget as well. Whether its a spare room, garden shed or even your living room, here is a list of things to look out for.

1. Bigger is better - Sounds a little backwards I know but the cosy studio while good atmospherically isn't good acoustically. Sound loves bouncing off of things, and although the human ear is very good at tuning it out, the microphone has not such mechanism! Another advantage of a large room, is the ability to adapt it for a live lounge situation easily, it can have vast storage as well for sound equipment and if you are going for a quality content driven show, you will have a few presenters in one room. Trust me from experience being crammed in a tiny room with 4 other people and expecting them to like it, isn't going to be pleasant.
2. Noise reduction - One of the first things to do when choosing a suitable location is to do something called a noise assessment. This entails identifying all the sources of unwanted background noise in any given environment. A shed for example, is great for a small studio, as long as its got lots of sound proofing in the walls (polystyrene is great for this) otherwise you show will start to sound like your show is being recorded outdoors when the bird and the dogs start to make themselves heard. Investing in a quiet air conditioner is also worth while as I've seen studios with windows, and windows always get opened when it starts to get stuffy, and when they are opened you can bet the second the mic's go live someone from the pub decides to do a rendition of 'the pirates of the Caribbean' right outside your window. The key here is observe sources of noise and do something about them. If you have a studio above a laundry, make sure no one does any washing during recording. Another good idea is to invest in a red light so people know when the microphones are live, this is especially good if you have younger folks living in the house.
3. Flooring - This should form part of your background noise assessment but is often missed. Against what would appear as logical, carpet should be avoided, it wears out quickly if the studio is being used a lot, and only absorbs high frequency noise but not low frequency. Try and use hard floor, concrete or tiled floors. If possible don't use an upstairs room, as foot traffic (specially on stairs) will form a lot of background noise.
4. Acoustics - This is unfortunately a feature you will have very little control over. Most rooms in a typical house are square with regular shaped corners and low ceilings. Not ideal. But very little you can do about it. There is one option which is the introduction of sound treatment, such as padding on the walls to help prevent echo and buffering. I have seen cheap options like covering walls in carpet, which work quite well. Here is a moderately priced example amazon.
5. General setup - As a general rule, have a control desk with all the main computers on, and around this control desk place other desks where other presenters sit, or stand. From the centre of this is where microphone stands can come out from. I've experimented with different layouts in the past and this is one of the best I've found. Every situation is different though. It's important to consult the other presenters as they will be spending just as much time in this studio as you, having regular meetings, before you begin to build to decide on placement of equipment and furniture will often prevent problems later on.

Once your environment is set up its time to move onto the next stage. Equipment!

Microphones

Microphones like all other things in studio set up are a degree of personal choice and budget. There are literally thousands of different brands of microphone all with different quality. Its safe to say the quality affects the sound. There are several types of microphones designs, there are two types of Microphone worth mentioning;

1. Passive - passive microphones do not require power, they simply plug into the mixing desk and off you go. They are usually a lot less sensitive and because of the lack of power don't have any active on board suppression or signal improvement technology. These are also referred to as dynamic microphones Here is a nice example of a passive mic
2. Active - also called condenser or capacitor mic's these microphones require a power source to work, this can be from the mixing desk itself, through the use of the 48V button, or through the use of a few battery's which are pushed into the base. The quality of these mics is generally better due to the flexibility to incorporate onboard technology to improve signal, quality and range, this is reflected in there cost. Here is a good budget example

There are other types as well such as ribbon mic's. These are simply more advanced designs but are still active, so need power. These can be very expensive but once again, you get what you pay for! here is a good budget ribbon mic.

A good vocal mic is very important. Personally I started off at the bottom of the range with a set of 3 cheap passive mics. They were good value for money but didn't sound great. When budget permitted, I got better mic's such as condenser mic's and professionals stands with pop filters and everything else. Its personal choice, and budget constraints which should dictate your choice. However a word of caution, I am approaching this from an analogue direction, with mics which connect to an analogue mixing desk using XLR connectors. If you are heading in the direction of a USB mic which plugs directly into your computer, ensure you still aim to get a good quality one, there are some really bad ones out there. Here is a budget USB version and Here is a middle of the range USB version.

Mixing desks

In some cases, if you are, for example using a virtual desk, you won't need a mixing desk. I find however they are a must in a studio where you have to juggle multiple input sources. Sometimes having physical buttons and knobs is preferable over frantically using a mouse and trying to get a virtual button ticked in time. So here is my advice about mixing desks.

In the past 30 years analogue mixing desk design hasn't changed much at all, digital mixing desks have come along way, but analogue has stays firmly in the 90's. What you take away from that observation is up to you, I take away that the technology is proven and reliable. Small Analogue desks are in my opinion a must in any studio environment, although if you prefer digital desks or virtual ones that's also fine. The point here is that a mixing desk what ever the type is a requirement, for any well organised show. You may have to juggle for example, the case of my show two music inputs, 4 mics, 2 phone line feeds and that is on an easy day.

The point to take away from this is that mixing desks whether they seem a daunting thing to learn or not are a must, so knuckle down, go online and look up how to use them, get familiar, spend an afternoon in the studio messing around, and figuring out how best to route things and control things from that little box of control knobs and buttons. YouTube is also your friend here.

Here are a few examples from studio spares. The first one is my current studio mixing desk.

Studio spare Behringer-Xenyx-1202FX

Behringer-XENYX-Q502USB-Mixer

Computers

Here is a subject as vast as the internet itself. When I refer to a computer first of all let me clear up a misunderstanding. I am referring to the device which is not only playing the music but also the device which is streaming the finally mixed down audio to the streaming service which will then serve that to your listeners. I am not referring to the streaming service itself. I cover server technology in a later article, and that subject is as different to this one as a car is to a carpet (have I used that analogy already?).

You often see in pictures of studios, the presenter sat behind a desk with three monitors in front of him or her, more often than not these monitors are to different computers, and are controlling the music and the outgoing stream independently. This is a typical setup, but it can be more convenient to have a single computer, with a single audio output, and an audio input if you are running on a low budget. This set up although offering a single point of failure to bring down your live stream (accidentally tripping on the power cord, I've done that before) also offers more flexibility. This isn't limited to a desktop either, in our own studio set up, I had a desktop controlling the stream output, but myself and Dan used laptops to generate our own 'collective' mix of music.

The take away here is ;

1. Use only what you think your budget can afford. Computers are not a deal breaker for your show. I've done shows from peoples living rooms using a laptop designed to run windows XP! As long as they can handle an audio input and output and have a relatively fast connection to the internet, that is all that is really needed to stream.
2. Another factor worth considering is what software you intend to use. You can usually trailer software to meet your needs (see below).
3. Don't blow your budget on computers with fancy graphics or a Terabyte of ram, seriously I can't stress this enough. Use the money to invest in good microphones and mixing equipment instead.
4. That said, one important aspect to consider is noise, both electronic and physical. Try and avoid a gaming PC, not for its remarkable performance but more for its remarkable set of cooling fans to keep up with said performance. These are going to make it sound like you are doing your broadcast from inside a server centre making for a very annoying listening experience.

Software (S.M.M)

Software falls into four categories.

1. Streaming - This represents the type of software which establishes a direct connection to the streaming server and forwards the audio from your mixing desk or audio input, to the server directly. There are several options out there, ranging from the free and basic (Butt - Broad cast using this tool!) to the paid for and feature rich(SAM pro broadcaster). What ever you decide its important to understand how this software works, as its going to become an essential part of your studio set up.
2. Music Management - This can range from windows media player, to Spotify, to something a little more custom. What ever you decide upon try and find a solution which allows beds to be played behind your voice, sweeps and jingles as well as easy management of music. You can often buy software packages which encompass both streaming and music management all in one place for example SAM broadcaster does this. This however does take away the ability for you to house them separately on different computers.
3. Mixing Management - This both describes post mixing (altering the incoming sound before sending it out to the server, such as adding echo to your voice etc) and also management of sound levels if you have opted for using a virtual mixing desk. Just a word of caution though, if you opt to use some software to do this, and use something like SAM on the same machine, you are literally putting your eggs into one basket, and its going to make for a complicated set up with no physical representation of sound mixing equipment. I personally find this level of complexity too much and need my mixing desk. That said this is personal choice, what ever works for you works.
4. Anything else - Radio isn't just about sound, its also about information. This category covers everything that isn't sound related. For example you could also have software which monitors news feeds such as NewsMD, or a twitter feed app monitoring several twitter feeds for information your listeners may be interested in. Ultimatly what ever software you can get your hands on to help with this must first and foremost be legal, and secondly must be useful. If its too complex to operate on air, or gives poor results, scrap it and move on to the next one.

Aux equipment

This second looks briefly at any equipment which may fall into the cracks as not listed above. There are some common bits of kit you are going to need besides what I have already mentioned, just like with a computer, you have the monitor, the keyboard and the mouse, with sound engineering you have XLR leads, jack to jack leads and various other connecting means. Here is a short list of some useful things to get. If you are struggling to find something just remember google and studio spares are your friend.

1. Professional mic stands - These are a must, else your mic's are going to be constantly falling down, coming off and simply breaking. Here is a good example (Studio boom stand)
2. pop filters - Most microphones come with a pop shield as an external attachment, they help dampen the 'P' effect when talking into a mic. If you don't come with one the good news is they are dirt cheap (Pop Shield)
3. Noise Gate - The noise gate is a bit of whats refereed to as "rack mounted" kit, in that it is a rack mountable device which plugs into your FX send point and takes a sample of your audio, what this clever bit of kit can do is turn down your audio when you talk into the mic, making for a professional feel to a show. They can be price'y though (Noise Gate)
4. Graphic EQ - Again a device which plugs into the FX send and is rack mountable, this is a post effect, which can modify how your voice or music or both sound. It can cut or boost certain ranges in frequency altering the sound to make music clearer or cleaner sounding. Again they can be price'y (Graphic EQ)

Summary

The studio is the hardest part to get right, but also the most rewarding. If you get it right it can make for a brilliant, professional atmosphere which will encourage your creativity. If you get it wrong, don't be disheartened, redesign and change whats wrong, be it location, equipment, software, but don't settle until its right. I spent several years moving my studio around until eventually I got it right. The trick is to get it right before you start your show, ultimately launching with a perfect set up for you to broadcast from. I know that this is hard to do, and if you do find yourself half way through the year into your radio show and find its not working, just do what I did and sit down, write out whats wrong and what needs changing, figure out how to change them, change them and then test it. This process of constantly improving is a bit contradictory to my original statement of get it right before you start, so instead let me just finish by say this.

Getting it right from the start is hard. If you success give yourself a pat on the back. If you fail, don't give up, settle or make do, fix whats wrong. Keep trying, until its perfect for you.