h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

We're looking for audio submissions for the Beeblecast as well as AV clips, so if you don't have access to a camera but have a microphone or music-making program, this is for you!

The maximum running time of the whole Beeblecast is ten minutes, so as a rough guide audio clips should be anything up to minute long. This isn't set in stone, though - if you're creating a clip and need a bit longer, we'd rather you submitted it as you want it than try to squeeze it into an unreasonable time-frame. We do, however, reserve the right to trim any clips submitted; but we promise not to butcher your work. Please provide a text transcript of your clip, which we will turn into an article on your behalf. This is even more important if you're making a clip for part of your article rather than the whole thing.

Audio clips could be anything from you reading a poem to a funky tune you've written. We also need narrators for text-only submissions, and would really love to have a wide range of voices to represent our community. So if you don't feel comfortable reading something you've written yourself but are happy to have your voice on the Beeblecast, shout up!

Audio clips should be submitted in an easily-interchangeable format, for example mp3 or wav. Some programs save data in a way that can only be opened by that program, so please try to save it one of these formats if possible.

I quite fancy this. As a professional teacher and an amateur actor, I suspect my voice might be up to scratch.

B

Fantastic! Do you mean you fancy making an audio clip, or doing voice-overs?

Whatever, really.

I do have a microphone that I've never plugged in, so I ought to make sure my sound card is up to it. But otherwise, sure.

B

That sounds very techie. I recently installed audacity, somebody posted the link on 'Ask'. Plugged my head set in and recorded. I have no idea about soundcards, and my PC is an old one, but it worked out.

I've got some ideas that I'll need a voice-over for; if you'd be up for a few snippets of linking, that would be great. There will probably be some text-only submissions that need narrating, too. I'll put you down to do something along those lines, and if you fancy making you own clip about anything give me a shout

Audacity is dead easy to use, and it's a great audio editor. And it's free.

Yup. I've got it lying around somewhere.

B

Can I do it in a silly accent though whilst drunk? damn, where is the wine key

We'll talk about it when you finally manage to email me

I can't think of any original content, but if you want to send me stuff to read, I could do. (E-mail address on my PS.) I have a very strange mixed-up accent, and a very old microphone, but I could give it a try. (I've tried it before, and it seems to come out reasonably okay.)

Should I export Audacity clips to mp3 or Ogg Vorbis?

TRiG.

I'll email you presently

Thanks very much!

To be completely honest, I still can't quite figure out in my head how this Beeblecast is going to work, but I am willing to wait and be pleasantly surprised when it does.

I do have a rather more useful point, though, in that I have a rather charming tune that I feel might be useful to someone out there is they want to use it for one of these new-fangled Beeblecasts.

I used to be in a band called The Exiles, back in the day. We never got signed or properly released any records or anything, but we were a sharp little unit and managed to do two Peel sessions in our time. Unforunately, as is the case with most unsigned bands who split up, we now have a small back catalogue of recorded music that is essentially doing nothing and benefitting nobody, most of it quite good, even though I do say so myself.

The tune I was thinking of is a mornful little instrumental called 'Slush', that is about a minute and a half long if memory serves. Now I understand that there may be legal implications to this, so if they would be too complicated to work out, then someone please say so. But if anyone wanted to use it rent free for the purposes of a Beeblecast, then I am sure the other members of the band wouldn't object. It's not like any of them are using it for anything.

'Slush' was always a bit of an orphan, to be honest. It was the only insrumental we ever did and was only rarely played live, if at all. It always made me think that it should have been used on 'Trigger Happy TV' as the accompaniment for Dom Jolly doing something ridiculous in slow motion. I just want it used for something, and this seemed ideal.

Anyway, if anyone wants to hear it and possibly use (possible legal flaming hoops permitting) it then get in touch and I'll send you a CD,