 Hey there Foundation staff, so you want to make a guest contribution to Site 42? Here are some guidelines. Before we get started, it's important to remember that senior staff reserves the right to refuse to post somebody's video for any reason whatsoever. Be it having to do with the content of the video or the content of the character of whoever sent us that video. First and foremost, like the SCP Wiki, quality control is paramount. You have to have good enough equipment to get a near professional sound and be able to edit your takes using audacity or another program in order to send in a finished mp3 that meets our standards. The next phase, like a newspaper editor, our senior staff will listen to your recording and send back requested edits. Once you've gotten a final product approved, a Site 42 channel card will be added and posted up with your information. If you listen to season 1 versus season 3 videos on the channel, you're going to hear a much different recording quality based on some fundamentals I've learned since then. A couple basics I can throw to you to improve your sound quality immediately. Number one, your mouth should be about 12 inches away from the mic. Your pop guard should be between you and the microphone, so 6 inches from both. Number two, the gaps between your sentences should sound natural. Airing on the side of too quick is better for YouTube than airing on the side of too slow. Number three, any lip smacking noises in the gaps should be silence. They make my skin crawl. Natural breathing sounds are okay and make you sound like a human. Number four, finally, don't forget to noise reduce and normalize your voice track, as well as making sure you are not too quiet or clipping the microphone, i.e. being too loud and going into the red. Phase two is art direction. I want you to check out a couple of my videos to make sure we're on the same page. All of these are in the season 3 playlist. SCP-3108 is the basic reading format with an interview log. SCP-3043 and Duke Tildon are extravaganza episodes. SCP-3999 is the most ambitious, but it's also an hour long, so that one's optional. You have to be able to pull off at least 3108 quality. A couple of things that draw people to your video via artistry. Number one, good pacing just like in the quality concerns. You'll notice a lot of my season 1 videos are a lot slower and I've tightened things up a lot since then. Number two, royalty-free music is a godsend and instantly makes your video more watchable. There are all sorts of songs that are 100% free to use as long as you credit the author on YouTube. Get some and be sure to include the credits and link to the source along with your video. We don't want any copyright strikes here. Number three, character voices. Part one. I'm not as concerned with your natural voice as I am the character you are portraying. Site-42 readings are more than just narration. They are radio dramas meant to make the listener feel something. Even in the most simple SCP document with no sound effects and minimal music, you are still trying to make the listener feel something. Is that something fear? Existential dread? Heartbreak? Maybe some crazy laughs are in order. Either way, your recording and your voice need to reflect that. Number four, character voices. Part two. Just a small one. If two or more characters are in a room talking and you are doing all of the character voices, make sure they sound different enough so the listener can tell them apart. Now I'd like to point out that this is a second upload of this guide and that's because about one hour into having it uploaded, user Yossi Posse hit me with a question that I did not address. Rather than doing an entire recording on your own, if you would like to just record a character in a future reading that I am putting together, all of the quality guidelines still apply. Well, maybe don't add music to yours, but moving on. Send me your audition tape of you performing characters, accents, and things you'd like me to consider you for rules-wise. I'm going to create a small dossier of these kinds of folks to help fill my needs, especially in episodes heavy with multiple doctors, mobile task force characters, or females. When I find a recording I want to do but need backup for, I'll turn to this dossier. If I think you're right for the character I need, I'll send you an email saying, hey, can you get this to me within two days? If yes, game on. If not, I'll run down the list and catch you with the next one. I can't guarantee you will ever get called on and it will be highly random depending on a multitude of factors, including, but not limited to, how many people apply, what characters I need, how quick your work turnaround is, the quality of your audio, your vocal quality, or accents you can perform, your participation in the Site 42 community, because admittedly I'm probably more likely to pick people I see around the channel and in the comments more often than people I don't recognize. Are you a patron on Patreon? Like, holy cow, I hate to be that guy, but if you are donating to the channel, you likely get first dibs. Okay, I think that's everything. So, what do you think? Is this something you are ready to try for? If so, email your recordings to scpsite42 at gmail.com and let's start spreading the foundation love. For more tips and tricks to making better sounding recordings, head to the SCP Wiki and check out Colonel Horn's Bee's Audio Guide, which I will link to below because I forgot how go around thorough it is. I'm going to read through it myself and see if I can get some tips. I look forward to seeing you all around Site 42.