Recording A Message
Now you are ready to start recording. RealProducer has an assistant that will walk you through the set up procedure and get you started recording. As soon as the program is finished downloading on your computer it will ask you to start configuring the program. You want to make sure you have "Enable Recording" checked. Then it will ask you for your email address and zip code.
In the next section it will give you the option to "Record From File", "Record From Media Device" or "Live Broadcast". For our purpose you will want to check "Record From Media Device". After you click "OK" you will be asked if you want to "Capture Audio" or "Capture Video". You want to check "Capture Audio" and make sure "Capture Video" is unchecked.
Now you need to give your file a name, a description and keywords so it will be indexed properly. Let's call it "Welcome To My Site". Type that in where it says "Title" and type your name in where it says "Author". Where it says "Copyright" you want to have your name, the name of your company or some other name that will be legally recognized as belonging to you along with the copyright symbol and year that are already provided. Now type in a description. This can be a description of your message or a description of your site. Now type in the keywords. These are just a description without all the nonsense words. For example, if your site is about children your description could be something like "Children are our future, come find out more about taking care of them". Your keywords could be "children kids toys food diapers bottles".
Next you will be asked about file type. This is really up to you. It depends on what kind of server you are going to place this file on. Then they will ask you for your target audience. I recommend checking "28K Modem" so that even people with a slow connection can hear it. Now you will be asked for the audio format. Since we are recording a message you should check "Voice Only" unless you intend to have background music in which case you will want to check "Voice with Background Music". Lastly you will need to give it a file name and tell the program where you want to put it on your computer. This may already be chosen for you but you can easily change it if you want to.
What Are You Going To Record?
Tell All?
Now for the fun part! Get out your microphone and click "Start". Now start talking. When you are finished click "Stop". Then you can click "Play" and listen to what you have recorded. If you don't like the way it sounds, do it again. You can keep recording until you get it right. Now you are ready to put your message online.
