Pre-production is the most basic technique for a sound engineer and production officer of a radio station. You can achieve the best form of audio production by mastering this technique.

• Getting Started
  Listening to previous winning entries is useful — and enjoyable — for students who are preparing to develop a radio program.
• Equipment
  Use the best equipment available. Practice using it until you are comfortable with its operation. Find a good distance for speaking into the microphone. If you use a hand-held mike, avoid moving it. Experiment with different mike placements (such as overhead) for special effects.
• Recording Formats
  If you are submitting your entry on an audiocassette, use a new one if possible. If you must record on a used cassette, erase it completely before recording on it.

  If you are submitting your entry on a compact disc (CD), use the “Audio CD” option of the CD-burning software. Be sure to save your original files or make a copy of your production on cassette tape in case there are problems with the CD entry you submit.

• Program Presentation
• When you have you program idea on paper, make a list of the needed sound effects and music possibilities. Allow time to find and prepare sound effects and music for your program.

  If you a dramatizing a story, find voices that fit the characters. Close your eyes and listen to
  your friends read. Do their voices create pictures in your mind’s eye of the characters you want? Do their portrayals sound like their characters might look?

• Use of Sound Effects
  Sound effects enable you to create pictures in the minds of your radio audience, helping listeners to “see” in their mind’s eye exactly what is happening in your radio program.

  Sound effects can set the pace and the place of your program, tell the time of day, and serve as a bridge to advance the program in time or to change locations.

  Record your sound effects and play them back to listeners who aren’t part of the project. Ask them to identify the sounds for you. Their comments will let you know if the sound effects are doing what you want them to do.

  Students who are submitting their entries on a CD may wish to visit Web sites offering free
  sound effects that they could download and incorporate into the production. Be sure to read — and adhere to — any copyright and usage restrictions described by the site’s webmaster.

• Use of Music
  Music can do many of the things sound effects do — such as set the time or place — and it can do much more. Music can frame the program when used at the beginning and the end, much as a picture frame sets off a picture and makes it special. It also can set a mood — sad, spooky, scary, light-hearted, childlike, and so on.

  Like sound effects, music can serve as a bridge in a program. Musical bridges are short, incomplete pieces of music; a few seconds are usually all that is needed. They can advance a program in time, change the location of the story, indicate a new turn of events, or introduce a new character. Musical bridges also can be used instead of — or in addition to — a narrator.

  Experiment with “fading in” (gradually increasing the volume from soft to loud) and “fading out” (gradually decreasing the volume from loud to soft). Practice will help you determine how long your music or sound effects should be. Play your music and sound effects for other people to see if they elicit the reactions you want.

  Music and sound effects can be one of the most enjoyable parts of putting together your radio show. Give yourself lots of time to experiment, so you can find exactly the right sounds for
  your program.

• Practice Makes Perfect
  Practice your lines until you can read them smoothly and without stumbling. Before you record your program, rehearse it for several other people. Ask for their comments to see if the voices, music, and sound effects are creating the effects you intended. Ask if they were able to follow along with the program easily. If not, find out which parts need more work.

  Play back your recorded program for people who were not involved in the production. Ask them for their feedback: Were the sound effects executed well? Was the dialog spoken clearly? Was the volume level satisfactory? Ensure that every sound and word is clearly understood and that no extraneous noises have crept in.