- Sound Recording Best Practices
- Sound Recording Best Practices
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- Audio recording is a noise-sensitive process that requires a quiet space, free from typical ambient office sounds such as voices, phones, air-conditioning, street noise, and so on. Choose an office space to record in that has minimal evident street noises. Listen for air-conditioning hum, voices, and other obvious noise in the space. If there are blinds in the windows, lower them to further reduce outside noise. If you are recording in more than one session, be sure to record in the same space each time. This reduces obvious changes in sound quality.
- Selecting a Microphone
- Noise cancellation or rejection microphones are recommended. These microphones only pick up the sound from directly in front of the microphone. A windscreen helps cut the sound of the speakers breathing. Some microphones listen for sound from all directions and are not recommended because they pick up extraneous sounds during recording.
- Microphones designed for the telephone are not a good choice because they usually use only mid range frequencies to reduce bandwidth requirements. Choose a microphone with a wide frequency range (100Hz to 15kHz). Analog microphones are preferable because they plug directly into the audio card microphone input and can take advantage of the computer's pre-amp instead of the lesser quality pre-amp typically found in a USB cable.
- When using an external microphone, always turn off the Line In and Internal Mic controls to prevent interference in the recording quality. Close any extraneous applications on your computer, particularly those with alerts and sounds, such as email that has a new mail notification. These sounds record with the audio if not turned off.
- For additional microphone information, go to http://www.microphones.com.
- Position Microphone
- Create a script for your narration
- Create a test recording to determine the proper levels
- Record in one session
- Set Sound Playback and Record Options
- To prevent feedback, set your Windows audio to mute the Playback microphone.