Recording & Submitting the Stories

Note: this section contains some technical parts so if you don’t fully understand it, you may want to ask a tech-savvy friend for help.

  1. SOUND PERSON. Put someone in charge of managing the recording of stories for the event, because technical difficulties may arise. (Ideally a tech-savvy friend with digital audio experience.)
  2. EQUIPMENT. Use the best you have available.
    1. If you have an iPhone, we recommend the free iTalk app, on the “best” recording quality. On Android, we recommend the free PCM Recorder app, set to 44,100 Hz sample rate. Make sure you have about a gigabyte of space, a full battery, and the phone turned to “airplane mode” to not receive calls or messages.
    2. If you have access to a better microphone and/or recording system, and someone who knows how to use it, that’s ideal.
    3. Record at highest-possible quality. WAV, AIFF or other lossless type. No MP3s.
    4. You’ll need a mic stand or equivalent to hold the mic in front of the teller’s mouth.
  3. RECORDING. The microphone/smartphone must be about 6 inches from the storyteller’s mouth. This distance is absolutely critical to get a quality recording. A few feet away will not work.
  4. COLLECT STORYTELLER EMAIL ADDRESSES. If we select one of your stories for the podcast, you’ll need to send the storyteller our permission form.

SUBMITTING TO THE PODCAST

After your party, submit your event to be considered for broadcast. You may optionally cut the recording into separate story files, but we’re happy to take the raw recording as is. Do not compress, EQ, or otherwise modify the audio sound. We’ll take care of it.

  1. FILL OUT THE SUBMISSION FORM.
  2. SEND US YOUR AUDIO. Use the free service WeTransfer.com, addressed to hello at truestorytime dot org.
    (Please give your files descriptive names, e.g. houston-Oct20-part1.wav. Also, your upload will go faster if you zip/compress the files first.)

The True Story team reviews all submitted recordings. If we select one or more of your stories for broadcast, we’ll inform you of the good news. After the audio editing and production stage, we’ll broadcast your stories for the world to hear!