The document provides tips for making quality voice recordings with simple equipment, discussing how to eliminate environmental and self-induced noise, properly configure equipment gain structures to avoid distortion, and recommends affordable microphones, recording software, headphones, and online resources for learning recording techniques.
87. Tips
1. Count to five, before and after
2. Record ten seconds, then LISTEN
3. Save the first take
4. Never edit the original
5. Use fade-ins and fade-outs
6. Save work as native files
7. Donât try to replace one word
Hi everybody, thanks for being here. This presentation is called âMake Hi-Quality Voice Recordings with Simple Equipment.âMy name is Robert Hershenow, and Iâm (click) anindependent Technical Communicator from (click) Berkeley California and a (click) Senior member of the STC. For the last six years Iâve been (click) Managing Editor of the newsletter for the Instructional Design & Learning SIG. (click) Iâve been creating and recording audio for a long time, and Iâd like to share some of what I know about that.
Hereâs our agenda. Weâll talk about (click) Good audio: what it is and why it matters(click) Bad audio and how it got that way, how to prevent it andHow to treat it when it slips through your defenses.(click) Weâll look at gear, both hardware and software, andTechniques for saving time and sanity(click) Iâll recommend a few sources of information & equipment(click) And we should have time for Q&A at the endSo letâs get going!
What is good audio? Well, the answer is subjective. But as far as voice recording goes, (click) Iâd say good audio is clean (that is, free of noise), (click) intelligible (that is, you can understand the words), and (click) itâs appropriate for the situation... Whatever that may be.Thereâs one word that encompasses all of it for me, and (click)
⌠that word is transparent.Good audio is transparent. You hear right through it. It does not distract.
A sound recording is like a window for your ears. A portal that enables the transfer of information. But if something is wrong with the portal, it can mess up that information.
For example: this window is distorted. It offers an interesting view â but itâs hard to tell exactly what youâre looking at. What would this sound like if it was audio? Probably confusing. And how about noise?
Noise is dirt.A dirty window gets in the way. It is a distraction. If itâs enough of a distraction, your attention stops at the window. (And you think to yourself âMan, thatâs a dirty window!â) You donât really see whatâs outside because youâre thinking about the dirt.
But if the window is clean, it is transparent. It is no longer a barrier. So our goal is to create transparent recordings (click) that deliver the message without getting in the way.Because: anything wrong with the audio will grab your listenersâ attention. And as soon as they start thinking about that, they have stopped thinking about what you are saying. Transparent audio frees your listeners to focus on your message. (click) And thatâs why quality sound is so important.
Letâs assume that you have a good script, a good narrator, and a good-enough recording system â and you know how to use it well enough. We will focus instead on two other problem areasâŚ
Noise (click), and distortion (click).We will look at what they are, how they happen, and how to minimize their effects on your recordings. Weâll start with NOISE.
There are exactly two kinds of sounds in the world: thereâs what you want, and then thereâs noise. So⌠noise is (click) any sound other than the one you are trying to record.
Iâm going to divide Noise into three categories â (click) Environmental, (click) Self-Induced, and (click) System Noise â and then talk about them separately, because they have different root causes and require different approaches.
Environmental noise comes from all the things around us â people, animals, toys, vehicles, tools, machines, the weather, your telephone⌠itâs a long list.
Some environmental sounds we learn to ignore, because we hear them all the time â things like constant traffic, or the ventilation system in the building. In fact, weâve gotten so used to some sounds that we may hardly hear them anymore. But they are, of course, still happening, and they will show up on recordings, and listeners will notice -- because for listeners, these sounds are out of context. And they will be distracting.
So itâs important before you start recording, to sit still, be quiet, and actually listen to what is going on around you. (click) Because before you can deal with a problem, you have to know you have a problem. And when you know what you are treating, you can apply appropriate remedies.Letâs try it, right now. Letâs have ten seconds of silence, just sit still, be quiet, and listen. (Discuss)
So, here are four possible Approaches for dealing with environmental noise, listed in order of probable effectiveness. - Maybe you can eliminate the noise. - Maybe you can reduce it, or reduce its effect on your recording. - Maybe you can work around it by rescheduling your recording session. - Or, maybe youâll have to relocate â just go record somewhere else.Letâs look more closely at each of these ideas. 7:19
The first approach is to eliminate the noise. Can you turn the thing off? Or move it into the next room? Can you ask it to be quiet for five minutes, already? You can turn off the heater or air conditioner for a short time. And you can turn off your phone.
If you canât eliminate a noise maybe you can reduce its effect on your recording. Close the door; close the window, close the drapes or hang a blanket over the window. Stuff a towel into the crack under the door if noise is getting in.You can point your microphone away from the noise source. And remember that the closer you are to the microphone, the louder your voice will be in comparison to any background noise. Weâll talk more about that shortly.This picture shows an accessory called the Portable Vocal Booth, which wraps halfway around the microphone, and provides some isolation from background noise. It costs about $300. You can do the same thing with a blanket, which actually works pretty well; it just doesnât look as elegant. I would try the blanket first.
The Third Approach to dealing with environmental noise is to reschedule your recording session. If you are in a shared space such as an office building, can you maybe record when there is less activity? Before- or after-hours, or on the weekend?
If all else fails, you might have to Relocate. Sometimes it just makes sense to go somewhere else -- down the hall to an empty office, or down the street to an empty classroom at school or church. How about a walk-in closet full of clothes? How about outside in your backyard at night? How about anyplace where nobody is? How about ⌠fire up your imagination and check out all the resources available to you.How about we move on to the next category, Self-Induced Noise?9:43
Which is all the noises you make yourself by doing all the things you do. (Click) Hereâs a partial list.Itâs easy to overlook many of our own sounds. Weâre accustomed to hearing them and they coincide with our actions. I donât hear myself breathing most of the time, but the microphone does. And, if you drop something on your desk, you expect it to make a noise â when it does, youâre not surprised. But if that noise ends up on your recording, your listener will be very surprised â they didnât drop the thing, and they didnât see you drop it. So the noise is unexpected, and will be a distraction.My friend made a training video for her company, and only after she recorded the narrative track, did she realize that her earrings â which she had been wearing all day â were jangling through the entire thing. And she had to do record all over again.
Once again, the most effective thing you can do is to pay attention, and listen. (click) Listen to the sounds you make. You have to sit still and control your breathing and movements while youâre recording. (click) It is hard to do, but gets easier with practice.(click) Use a copy holder or a music stand to hold your script, or set it on the desk, so youâre not handling papers. (Demonstrate) which are noisy.(click) If you donât use a headset microphone, use a microphone stand. Donât try to hold onto the mic â (demo) this is called handling noise and itâs very distracting.(click) When you record, wear clothing made of soft fabric, like cotton, that doesnât make noise when you move. And of course, (click) Practice your technique... Record it, listen to the results, and modify your approach as necessary.OK, thatâs it for Self-induced Noise. Now, letâs look at System Noise.
System Noise is noise generated within the recording system itself.All electronic devices generate some electronic noise, but if your system is properly set up (which Iâll talk about in a minute) you shouldnât have to worry about that. What is more likely to bite you is alarms and alerts from your computer, feedback from your speakers, and the sound of the cooling fan.
So while youâre recording, turn off system sounds. I got tired of doing this every time, so I created a separate user account for recording. When I log on as the recording guy, system sounds are disabled; I donât have to remember to do that. Itâs handy.
Pay attention to your computerâs fan. It will come on, and your micwill pick up the noise. (click) So keep your microphone as far away as possible, and point it away from the computer.You might even find it helpful to hang a sound-absorbent barrier, like a nice heavy red velvet curtain (click), or, you know,a blanket, between the computer and your microphone to knock down that noise. Just make sure you leave room around the computer for cooling.
Hereâs a tip: donât run audio cables (like this microphone cable) alongside AC power cords. Because, the alternating current in the power cord can induce hum (click) on the microphone signal. This is a bad thing, so keep them apart. I try to keep power cords on one side of the desk and audio on the other, whenever possible.
When you have to crossthose wires, try to arrange them at 90 degrees, (click) which will minimize interaction between them.
And, did you know that many dimmer switches spew electrical radiation all over the room? Your recording system can pick that up and reproduce it as noise. If your audio has a buzz on, that might be why. Either turn these things off completely or go somewhere else.
One last thing about noise: Despite all this care youâre going to take, there will always be some [click] noise present on your recordings. Thatâs these dots down here. If you have done a good job, that noise will be much quieter than your program material (thatâs the white squiggly line up here; see, itâs up here because itâs louder). When noise is low like this, itâs pretty much inaudible.
The level of this ambient noise that we canât ever quite get rid of is called the Noise Floor, because thatâs as low as the volume of your soundtrack can go without running into the noise. And weâll come back to this concept in a few minutes when we talk about Gain.But first, weâll take a look at Distortion.
Which is a misrepresentation of the original sound. A change in its character. This happens for different reasons, and it isnât always bad â tone controls, by definition, distort the sound. For good or ill. Anyway, we can divide Distortion into the same categories we used for Noise. The first is Environmental DistortionâŚ
âŚwhich is what happens to sound in an enclosed space. Every room sounds different. Big rooms usually sound better than small ones. Singing in the shower sounds different than singing in the living room. For one thing, the rooms are different sizes, but also they are covered with different surface materials.
Hard, smooth surfaces like tiles and walls and windows reflect sound waves...
which bounce around âŚ
Until their energy dissipates. And, all these sound waves bouncing around and running into each other change the sound you HEAR, sometimes in good ways and sometimes in strange ways. But in general a reflective room is very lively, with all that sound bouncing around. Think of clapping your hands in an empty warehouse or gymnasium, how it reverberates.
Hard surfaces that are curved or irregular â for example, a bookcase full of books â will refract the sound, break it up, send it off in many directions at once, causing it to dissipate more quickly. This is still lively-sounding, but not as much. A good way to tame a lively room, in fact, is by putting some stuff in it. Fill that gymnasium up with people, and it doesnât echo so much.
Soft surfaces like carpeting, upholstery, and clothing absorb and trap sound energy. This can soften or deaden the sound to varying degrees.
So each of these properties â reflective, refractive, and absorptive â do different things to the sound. Most good-sounding rooms contain multiple surface types, and different places in the same room often sound very different from each other because of it.
So itâs important to try different rooms, and different places for the microphone within the same room.
So record your voice in different locations.
Then listen to the recordingsâŚ
to see what sounds best. If none of them do, try another room.
I almost always end up standing in a corner, with a microphone a few feet out, so that it faces the center of the room and I face the corner as I speak into it. Iâm maybe 6 or 8 feet from the corner, myself.I am not directly facing a wall, and neither is the microphone, which considerably lessens the effects of roomâs acoustics.That usually means a more transparent recording. This will work nicely with any kind of microphone. And, it works in almost any room. Any questions on environmental distortion? Letâs move on. 24:00
Self-induced distortion is often caused either by speaking too loudly into the microphone, or by turning something up too far, either of which can overdrive the system. The key is practice. The more familiar you are with your recording system the easier it will be to produce consistent sound levels. And, you always have to pay attention: listen, and watch the level meters. They tell you how loud the sound is. These are analog meters. The needle swings from left to right with increasing volume levels. If it hits the red part, the sound is distorting. Sound levels fluctuate so the needle will bounce around, but you want to keep an eye on how high it goes â the peak volume levels.
Hereâs a digital meter, showing an example of good peak recording levels. Not too loud, but not too soft. Again, if the meter is in the red, itâs too loud. These red lights are all off, which is good, but most of the green lights are on, which is also good.
This sound, on the other hand, is too loud. Those red indicators tell you so. You can either turn it down, or donât talk so loudly⌠because this sound is distorting.
Now, only a couple of the green indicators are lit. If this is a peak reading, this sound needs to be louder, because this recording is going to be noisy. Iâll show you why in a moment. That wraps up Self-Induced Distortion, which basically, is about being not too loud.
And as for System Distortion, this slide is blank âbecause if your equipment is in good shape, System Distortion should not be an issue.
And thatâs what I have to say about Distortion, a misrepresentation of the sound. âŚWhich means itâs time to move on to our discussion of GAIN. 26:00
What is GAIN? It is (click) a measure of amplification. As in: how much louder or softer did the signal become, between one point and the next. So, Gain can be positive or negative, depending on whether the sound level got louder or softer. If it stayed the same, itâs called âunity gain.â Just so you know.
A gain stage is any part of the system in which the gain can change. Even the simplest system has at least a couple of gain stages. The first is your voice (you can talk louder or softer). The second âgain stageâ is the microphone pre-amplifier, which may be in the microphone itself, it may be a separate component, or it may be part of the computer. It may have a control, or it may be fixed.Your recording software may also have an input adjustment control, and perhaps there is a Master recording level as well.Each of these places represents a gain stage. For the best sound quality, you must optimize each stage sequentially, starting at the beginning, with your voice.
Gain Structure is the term that describes all those settings in series within your recording system. (click)Proper gain structure is very important, because it minimizes noise and prevents distortion. Hereâs how that works.
Each stage of your system has an ideal range. It can handle a certain amount of sound.The trick is simply to keep the sound within that range in each stage. In the case of your voice, that means you donât yell, and you donât whisper â you keep it in-between; you talk normally. And then you just do the same thing for each gain stage: using the meters â or, if you donât have meters, using your ears â you set each stage to its ideal level, then move on to the next stage.
Now above that ideal range, the sound is too loud, and it causes distortion.
And below that ideal range, the sound is harder to hear (and if itâs really soft, it approaches the noise floor). If I record like this, with the sound down low, someone is going to turn it up later on â if not me during editing, then my listener during playback â in order to hear it better.The problem is, if I recorded this, my voice and the noise just below it would be locked together in that recording. No longer separate things, they are one hunk of sound.So when I turn it up so I can hear my voice, or when the listener turns it up âŚ
âŚthe noise comes up, too. And now, itâs not that transparent dinky below-the-noise-floor noise any more. Itâs loud now. And thatâs why setting gain structure is important.
So if you donât know where all the level controls are in your system, find out. If you donât know where the meters are, find out. Explore it. Check the help files, check the forums, ask your people. Hit the library or the bookstore.I know this sounds complicated, but it makes a huge difference. And after you go through the process a few times and start to understand it, it wonât take very take long, (especially if you write down what you did each time). And every time you do it, it will get easier.
The first step in setting that Gain Structure is microphone placement. We talked earlier about microphone placement within the room; now, letâs talk about it in relation to your face. And this may apply even if you use a headset micâŚ
The idea â as always â is to maximize signal (your voice) and minimize noise. So you want the mic up close, to capture your voice at a good strong volume, but not so close that it picks up things you donât want, like mouth noises.
Contrary to what we see on television, the right place...
⌠is NOT directly in front of your mouth, but rather...
... off to the side and a little below your mouth....
So that the air from your lips can pass over the microphone rather than blasting straight into it. So you can say something like âPlease pass the popcornâ â if you wanted to â and nothing bad would happen.
A good starting point is between four and six inches away from your face, pointing directly at your mouth, but not right in front of it, instead just below and to the side of your mouth. The ideal distance away from your mouth will depend on how loud your voice is â but the closer the microphone is, the stronger the stronger your voice will be â theoretically allowing you to turn down the input level a little, which lowers the level of ambient noise that youâre putting into your recording.Does that make sense?
A pop filter can help. You should have one. It is mesh screen that mounts in front of the microphone to knock down those blasts of air before they hit the mic. Pop filters work, they can help you relax a little in front of the mic, and theyâre not necessarily expensive (though some are).
Or you can make your own pop filter by stretching a section of nylon stocking over a hoop made from a wire coat hanger; this is probably not even as attractive as it sounds, but it works.
Since weâre already talking about gear, letâs talk about GEAR!
Buying a microphone is a balancing act. What do you need? What do you want? Often those are different things. Whatâs the budget? And what other considerations should you take into account?Will you only use it to record narration? Then you might like a headset. Will you have to share it with anyone else? Then you might not like a headset. Thereâs something called the yuck factor, which comes into playâŚYou should buy the best you can afford, but thereâs no sense in throwing money away on something over-the-top. Will your recordings end up on a CD? Or are they designed for Captivate training to stream on the web? If theyâre not going to be on a CD, maybe you can save a few dollars on the microphone. And what about portability? Do you need a little microphone that you can move quickly? These are all questions which could affect your purchase.
If you record with a computer, a USB microphone is the way to go. It doesnât need any other parts, except maybe a stand. You simply plug it in to your computerâs USB port and itâs ready to go. A USB headset microphone is the easiest to use, because once you put it on it stays in place. And most USB headsets come with built-in noise-reduction circuitry, which can make your job even easier.
You can buy a decent USB microphone â either headset or otherwise â for not very much money. This one, the Samson Go Mic, is about $39 right now. And itâs a pretty good little microphone. Iâve seen decent headsets in the same price range. Of course, if you spend more youâll get better stuff. Personally I wouldnât spend any less.Thereâs a whole lot more to say about microphones, but I donât have time to do it. So at the end of this Iâll provide links that offer more information, or if you want to come on up afterward weâll talk.
You also have choices when it comes to recording software. Thereâs Garageband for the Mac, which is a great program, very easy to use, and you can buy it from Apple for $15. You almost canât beat that price. Except maybeâŚ
...for this program, called Audacity, which is free software available from Sourceforge.net for PC, Mac, and Linux. Personally, for the Mac, I prefer Garageband; it just works better for me. But Audacity performs very well on the PC, and I use it all the time.Now letâs talk about editing and sound manipulation.
What happens if you record something perfectly but thereâs noise in it? Maybe you can fix it. Filters are special tone controls. Most recording programs have them. Filters let you zero-in on a problem area and make precise adjustments. For example, if your track has high-frequency noise, you could remove it or at least tone it down with a low-pass filter. (click) Which passes all frequencies below a certain point in the audio spectrum and rejects frequencies above that point. Itâs like a treble control, except that you can set that cutoff point yourself.(click) A high-pass filter is just the opposite; it rejects low frequencies and passes the higher ones. (click) And a notch filter takes a chunk out of the middle which can sometimes make a weird-sounding recording sound more natural. Or vice-versa.
Hereâs how a high-pass filter can improve a recording with some rumble on it; maybe from a train or a truck going by.
This filter works in this circumstance because your voice occupies a different part of the sound spectrumâŚ
âŚthan does the rumble. So you can set the high-pass filter to âŚ
⌠split them apart, at a point that spares your voiceâŚ
but eliminates â or reduces - the rumble! Filters are helpful in all kinds of noisy situations, and I urge you to explore them.Although itâs better in the long run to prevent or reduce the noise up front than it is to try to deal with it later, sometimes you donât even know the noise is there until later, and then youâll be happy you have these tools. So get to know them before you need them.
Noise Reduction software is likean automatic filter. Essentially, you give it a sample of noiseâŚ
... which you have selectedin your recordingâs waveform âŚ
... Then you set some parameters âŚ
... and it removes everything that looks like that noise from your recording. Like the other filters, Noise Reduction takes a bit of fine-tuning to get just right, but it is worth the effort. Check it out.
One piece of software I recommend highly is the Levelator. I donât know exactly what it is and even the programâs website doesnât say what it is. But it works.You open it on your desktop and drag-and-drop an uncompressed audio file onto it. The Levelator churns out a new file that just sounds better. Thatâs all there is to it. Itâs easy. Levelator is a free download for Mac or Windows.
As with any software, there is great benefit in getting to know these tools so they can help you do your job, and not get in the way. Have I mentioned this?Learn, practice, and practice. Especially, practice. Especially, before you have to record a big project.And take advantage of other peopleâs knowledge. Buy a book. David Pogue has written a lot of them. Iâll give you some recommendations.
Donât record with speakers turned on, because they can cause feedback and echo. If you donât use a headset, I recommend closed-ear headphones when recording, because they donât bleed through into the microphone. Earbuds will work fine, too, though I donât find them as comfortable.Ideally youâll have a pair of good, comfortable headphones for recording and some cheap ones too, because thatâs probably what your listeners will use, and youâll want to be able to hear it the way they will hear it. You might also want to check the sound on your laptop speakers for the same reason.
Finally, here are a few tips that can save you some misery. Finally, here are a few tips that can save you some misery. (click) Count to five⌠after you start the recorder but before you start speaking, and again after you finish but before you turn it off. In the heat of the moment itâs easy to cut off the beginning or end of your first or last word, and you canât get that back. Itâs easy, though, to edit that extra space out of your recording. If youâre a really nervous type, count to ten.(click) When you first start a session, Record ten seconds of your work and then LISTEN⌠More than once I have finished recording only to discover that the mic was turned off. And the first take is almost always the best, so donât miss it.(click) Save the first take. Even if you think you can do better. Because you might not.(click) Never edit the original recording. Make a backup and work on that. (click) Use fade-ins and fade-outs when you edit, rather than hard cuts. They will sound more natural. Look in your book that you bought to see how to do that.(click) Save work as native files⌠even if all you need is an MP3. If you need to go back and change something later, it will be easier and quicker.(click) If you discover at some later time that you need to fix something, donât try to fix just one wrong word. It is very difficult to match the sound of a previous recording, and your correction will stand out. So do a whole sentence over, at least.
Here are links to some of my favorite audio things. You can get this from Slideshare too or Summit@AClick, so you donât have to write them all down.
Thank you very much. I hope you enjoy the rest of the Summit!