How to record radio show with music + mic breaks

[radiogaga]

I'm trying to keep my college radio station going through COVID. We're online-only, so instead of a live stream, we're going to do 2-hour shows that are accessable from our web site, hosted by Mixcloud. Because most of our DJs don't have access to our (or any) recording studio, I'd like for everyone to be able to just play music from their iTunes (we can't legally play music streamed from Spotify/YouTube, it has to be music we own in some format) or an external device (phone/CD player), and add mic breaks with either a USB mic or the computer's built-in mic.

This seems to be impossible. I've tried Soundflower; it lets you record music playing on your computer, but you can't actually hear it while you do that, so there's no way to tell when the song is ending! And you can't add another input, so you can't add mic breaks.

The only way I can see to do this is to edit each individual piece of the show together — convert songs to AIFF, record mic breaks, mix it all together. Which is effective, but it doesn't really feel like you're "on the air." Does anyone know of a way we can play music on a computer, talk into a microphone, and come out of it with a complete audio file in Audacity?

[kozikowski]

you can't actually hear it while you do that

You can.

Make iTunes or the system sound play to Soundflower instead of speaker or headphones. Make Soundflower play to Audacity. Set Audacity Playthrough On. Make Audacity play to the system playback service where you plug your headphones.

There is another software package in that series like "SoundFlowerPot" or something like that which makes it easier to manage that juggling act. But that does work. I use it that way.

Set your phone up on a roll of paper towels and use that to capture your voice.

Simple Mix the two tracks later.

That's using equipment everybody is likely to have. If you can wrangle two computers, record your voice on the second one.

You are not in a fuzzy-warm position. Search through the forum for all the problems people have trying to home-record podcasts and audiobooks. You are marching cats. Flynwill on the forum is trying to contact the KUSC DJ that has hum in his home microphone.

Koz

[billw58]

Here's some advice on capturing streaming audio (including playback from iTunes) on a Mac:
https://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Reco ... ack_on_Mac

The companion to Soundflower that helps control what you hear is called Soundflowerbed.

-- Bill