Where Should I Record?

Good narrating starts with a good recording.

And for that, you need a good, quiet spot. If you are not aware of certain things you are doing or of noises around you while you are recording, you will end up doing a lot of re-recording….which is one of the most annoying things in the world. You get such a flood of relief when you finish recording a long project, that the last thing you want to do is GO BACK to a chapter you barely remember that you recorded 2 weeks ago because your air conditioner turned on for 10 minutes in the background and you didn’t notice until now.

Sounds to be aware of:

1. Household Noises.
   • Shut off A/C and heat while you are recording. I doubt you’re going to be recording for 8 straight hours. You won’t freeze or melt in the 2 hours you record before your first break of the day. If you’re really worried, have ice water or hot tea with you to help.
   • Beware buzzing fridges! This goes for any other household appliance that makes noise that you can’t just turn off. Pick a recording location far away from these things.
   • Exercise your pets. A tired pet will be laying down resting, not pitter pattering around on your hardwood floors. Honestly, my microphone didn’t usually pick up my dog’s foot clicks, but because of that, I didn’t always stop recording when she was walking, so when it DID pick up the sound, it was extra annoying.
2. External Noises
   • F***ing. Birds. My old studio was a tiny bedroom with two windows in it and I often wished for the power to explode birds with my mind when blue jays sat on the bushes across from the window. Constant window-banging and cursing at the birds had to be edited out of my audio. But the lesson is: I was conscious of when they tweeted so I didn’t have to re-record later. I could just re-read the paragraph in that moment…once they SHUT THEIR CHIRPING PIE HOLES!
   • Well-endowed men. Isn’t that what it means when they take mufflers off their cars or accelerate their diesel trucks loudly down your street? Whatever the reason, the low rumbling frequency of “cool” cars and trucks IS picked up by your microphone for a LONG time. I would listen to them drive away and could still hear that low frequency sometimes for a full minute after they’d driven by. Occasionally motorcycles would have this problem too.
   • Weather. This one will be pretty easy for you to notice, but wind, rain, thunder, etc. are going to be heard by you AND your microphone. So just wait to record until it’s done.
3. YOUR Noises: These are the hardest to recognize and perfect. Practice. Practice. Practice.
   1. • Saliva. It’s sticky and it’s loud and it’s there every time you open your mouth. Listen to yourself as your record. If you start to hear more sticky mouth noises than usual, try either taking a drink of water to make your saliva less sticky, or sucking the saliva out of your cheeks and mouth and swallowing before repeating your phrase. As you record more you’ll learn what words/sounds cause you to make a sticky smack noise and you will learn how to move your mouth to avoid it. Practice. Practice. Practice
      • Acting. Especially in dialogue scenes, I’m a vicious gesticulator. I talk with my hands, I rock back and forth on my feet, etc. Many narrators sit to record. I prefer to stand to get the best breath support (and because, when I tried sitting to record, I kept hitting the desk with while acting). I believe the acting gives my narrating a more real feel, but it also causes my recording booth to creak slightly when I rock on my feet. The air made from my wildly moving hands sometimes creates enough of a breeze to rock the pop filter which in turn wobbles the mic slightly. This is something I still struggle with, but, as I said: practice. Practice. Practice.
4. Other People’s Noises

1. • Who knows?! If you cohabitate, it’s not realistic to expect your roommate, spouse, partner, whatever to be totally quiet while you are recording. Don’t ask them to either because they live there too. Rather, either find times to record that they are not home, or find activities that they enjoy that you can request they do for the couple hours that you want to record. My husband likes to play video games and… as long as his dinosaurs aren’t being killed by a stray T-rex, he’s not getting shot up unexpectedly by enemies, or getting eaten by zombies…he’s able to play them relatively quietly and doesn’t mind having the volume down low. Occasionally I will need to re-record something if he’s walking around and makes the house creak or drops a plate loudly in the sink, but as long as I’m aware, we can exist harmoniously.

SO WHERE DO I RECORD?

I recorded my first dozen books in a tiny bedroom, with soundproof foam duct taped into only one corner, at a glass desk with a piece of carpet on the surface. There were two windows in the room so all outdoor noises easily infiltrated my “studio”. Not ideal, but basically, where there’s a will, there’s a way.

BUT if you want to start off a little more easily:

1. A walk-in closet…preferably filled with lovely, sound-dampening clothes.
2. A small room with not a lot of hard surfaces. (Hard surfaces reflect sound)
3. Build yourself a little studio. This is what mine is. My husband made some 2×4 frames and put plywood on the inside that I covered every square inch of with soundproof foam. LxWxH, it’s probably 6x5x6
4. Buy one. Whisperroom.com specialize in making small recording studios exactly for this purpose. They’re a little pricey which is why we made our own, but R.C. Bray (an amazing audiobook narrator!) personally recommended them to me.
5. I’ve also seen pictures of people that built a little cocoon on their desk that only fit their head, shoulders, and microphone.
6. Google it! See what else is out there or try your own thing. The important thing is that you get started with SOMETHING. My friend and narrator Anton Francis started out with a microphone clipped to the side of his computer desk with no soundproofing at all! So just start!

What are you waiting for? Just start!