Priorities in order of importance (least to greatest)
Recording Platform
Garage Band (comes free with every Mac) and Audacity are your two best free options.
The negative of Voice Memo is that it doesn’t give you much control in regard to settings. But even with Voice Memo, if the mic is fine and the environment is great, it will sound great.
Garage Band or Audacity are recommended because they tweaks if needed.
Microphone
HERE is a quality, fairly inexpensive one we recommend.
Mechanics
- When recording, please let it run with complete silence for 5-seconds. This allows the capture of room ambience that can be pulled out of the background later.
- Decibel level (volume at which the drivecast is being recorded) should be between -12 and -15
- Voice memo does not give you an option to see at which decibel level you’re recording, but the other platforms will. For further explanation of decibels, see image 1 below.
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- If your recording is higher or lower than the goal, there are TWO ways to adjust it.
- Microphones often has a volume setting on it. Turn that up and down.
- Go to sound settings on your device. For instructions on this see image 2 below if you’re a mac user.
- If your recording is higher or lower than the goal, there are TWO ways to adjust it.
- Intimacy matters. If our volume is too high or too low… SIMPLY GETTING CLOSER OR FARTHER AWAY FROM THE MIC WILL NOT FIX THE VOLUME. That instead keeps us from sounding “the right amount of close and intimate and relatable” with the audience..
If we’re too far away from the mic, we sound distant or in a tunnel, which hurts our ability to be personal. If we’re too close, our “p’s” are popping and we sound like we’re in a blowhorn, also stealing from relatability.- Every mic is a bit different, but generally, being about A FIST away from the mic is where we want to be. If you are a fist away, and the volume is too high or too low, then you need to adjust the setting. Not our proximity to the mic.
Environment
The environment is the most important thing.
- Obviously, a quiet room is important. If there is an air-conditioner buzz or something consistent, just record the room while making no other sounds and we can pull it out. NON consistent noise can’t be pulled out.
- A smaller room is better (inside a closet or your car is great)
- Echo is the enemy. If there is echo, please wait for a time when you can find a better environment.
- While all of the above may seem like a lot, one can easily make their own “recording studio” and accomplish the goal. (see image 3 below)
- ANYTHING SOFT BEHIND THE MIC GOES A LONG WAY. Make a “V” or little cave with a couple pillows and put your mic in there. When you record, there will be a difference. Put a blanket up behind your mic. Some coats. Anything soft behind or around the mic is arguably the most important thing, alongside the “Mechanics”.
You’ll see the green and yellow bars on the bottom which extend to in between -12 and -15 on this example. These bars are gonna bounce around, so they don’t have to be perfect. But if we get higher than -6, you’ll prob see red and that means that you’re recording so hot that you’re picking up the groundhogs outside in addition to your voice and we can’t fix much of that. If it gets below -21, we’ll be muddy and production can’t fix that either. So really anything that’s middling out at around -12 to -18 is what we’re shooting for?
Go to System Settings > Sound (indicated above). Select the microphone being used under (Input) (this example shows microphone AT2020USB+). Then slide the (Input Volume) up and down until it gives the desired level.
Home Made Recording Studio
