Scroll down to learn how to get started, or click one of these links:

• Home Studio Setup: 🔨 Choose Your Studio .. 🔩 Stand+Arm .. 🎤 Mic+Mixer ..  Vertical Supports
• How To Record: 🎤 Learn to Record .. 🎧 Audacity .. 🔊 Better Sound ..⚡ Mixer

Want live help? Click the tab above to get the live augemented reality video app.

Ready to start your home studio space?

Start by sending us FOUR pictures. Take a picture from behind the mic looking out (#1), and one from a distance away looking in (#2). We need to see the whole room. Take a picture of your mixer and microphone as well (#3 and #4) showing how your microphone is mounted, and how the microphone cable is routed.

For Audacity or your Computer:

Request to schedule tech support help from your coach during a session, or by email or text, and they will send you a code to enter below. They will remote connect to your computer and assist you.

For Mac Users:

1. Open System Preferences and go to ‘Security & Privacy’ pane.
2. Select ‘Accessibility’.
3. Click the lock  and provide system authentication to allow changes.
4. Select the checkbox next to ‘RemotePCHDDesktop’.

Live video support: Download one of our augmented reality apps below, and we can draw right on your live video as we chat live with you to help you make changes to your studio setup:

We’ve helped tons of folks find easy ways to create an inexpensive home studio—you can do it too!

How to find the best Space to record in

Our philosophy is to follow the best practices in choosing and setting up your space, and then adjust it until it’s good enough. That means do NOT buy a lot of acoustic baffling first! Buy the minimum you need after figuring out the best ways to set up, then add more a bit a time to troubleshoot your sound. Even if you have a large budget—follow best practices first! Give yourself small problems to fix, not big ones.

Your Goal: Give yourself small problems to fix, not big problems. Every space requires some “fixing” to make it work.

1. Put a tunnel of foam over the road;
2. Put an igloo of foam around your house;
3. Line the walls of your studio with foam;
4. Put foam around your microphone.

Solution #1: A walk-in closet.

THE GOOD: Walk-in closets are fantastic—but ONLY if they are full of clothes! Hanging clothes are great at absorbing sound energy (how does sound absorption work?) and make a great place quiet enough to record voiceover in. Since they are often inside another room, that can make two doors that you can close between you and any pets.

THE BAD: The hassle: It might be pretty cramped, and you might have to move some of your equipment in and out. Closets are often NOT near air conditioning units and may not have central air vents, so you might want to cool the room down before going in.

THE FIXING: Probably not much, if you can position yourself in a way that works.  You will probably benefit from hanging some clothes on the back of the door, or leaving the door open if the room is not a source of noise.

Closets are sometimes near sounds such as plumbing, and that means the sound of running water could be an issue. If you can, just wait until the water is not running. Otherwise, try to make the space as quiet as you can to muffle the water sound and experiment with noise removal (sometimes calls noise gating) options in software.

But, if a clothes closet works for you, congratulations! You have chosen your space.

Solution #2: Room Corner

Here is a short animation to show you basics of setting up your studio in a room corner. To help us help you, you’ll want to send us a couple of photos of how you have set things up. Watch the video for details:

Example of Zone 3 Baffle placement:

THE GOOD:  This doesn’t need to be permanent! You can tuck your equipment away when you don’t need to record, and the room corner can return to its previous configuration, except that you will probably want to leave your acoustic materials on the walls. So any room is a potential studio. A room corner is perfect for bouncing sound in order to trap it. All you need to do is put some sound deadening materials on part of the walls to take advantage of their perfect right angle.

THE BAD: Even though you can make the setup easy to put away, you might have more things to move around in a corner than you would wish, and you have to keep other people and pets out of the room when you are recording. And room corners always need more fixing than walk-in clothes closets. To find the best corner, ask yourself these questions first:

Question #1: What noises are nearby?

Example: A window near traffic noises, a connection to a laundry room,  inability to close the room off from pets or people, pipes with running water, an air conditioner unit, etc. For intermittent noise, such as trucks driving, planes flying overhead, or dogs barking, just pause! Retake if you were recording, or wait until the noise ends to begin recording.

Question #2: How many hard surfaces are exposed nearby? Here’s an example of a poor space in a basement: Floor is indoor/outdoor carpeting (not plush) or bare, and the walls are painted cinder block, and there are not any items which absorb sound such as padded furniture or clothes handing nearby. This not a great choice because you’ll need to add a lot of material to the walls and floor. It will be more expensive and take more effort than most spaces.

Better would be a floor with a plush carpet, and sheetrock walls—as long at there are not other hard surfaces nearby, such as laundry machines (they have hard metal sides).

If you are trying to fix a space with hard surfaces, one thing to consider is to bring in a clothes rack, and hang clothes in front of the hard surfaces—which is exactly what makes a closet work so well!

Question #3: Are the walls more than six feet apart?

If one set of walls are closer than six feet apart, avoid that space, or skip to solution #3 below: the small hideaway (solution #3). Small hideaways create challenges. A room corner is often a better choice.like the space under a staircase or a small space in a basement.  I’ll explain more under solution #3.

THE FIXING: You’ll need to put some acoustic dampening material on the walls, and strap some to the back of your microphone.

Solution #3: Small Hideaway

While this is often an unused basement room, or the space under a staircase, any room where one set of walls is closer than six feet apart is considered a small hideaway. Ideally, you still want to face out from a corner if the space is large enough to allow that. 

THE GOOD: These kinds of spaces are usually unused.

THE BAD: Walls are too close to the mic, creating more echoes. You’ll have to dampen more walls than you would in a room corner.

Also, it will be “bassy” due to the closeness of the walls. There are some things you can do to work with that, such as processing your audio to remove some of the lower frequencies, or hanging bags of clothes or fabric in the corners. Bass frequencies behave much differently than higher frequencies, and tend to literally “pool” and ripple in corners.

THE FIXING: Lots of wall covering!

Mounting “Pizza Box” Panels

These are panels that we make for our students, but they are very easy to make for yourself.

This section is for those of you that have some of these panels, and wonder how to mount them

Your acoustic panels or material should be in a corner. So you can take advantage of the way the walls meet in the corner to help prop things up, or just use regular hanging approaches.

Also, you may want to place panels a few inches from each other, and place fabric or rolled towels between them to inexpensively increase the amount of baffling you place on the wall!

Hanging Ideas

Things people have done on the panel

1. Bend a paper clip, poke it into the back to become a hook for hanging
2. Stick a 3M “sticky” picture hanger to the back
3. Wrap and tie a piece of string from top to bottom, hang from the tie

Things people have done to hang / prop up

1. Hang from ceiling with a plant hook
2. Hang from wall like picture: Use 3M “sticky” picture hangers, or regular nail hangers
3. Put on a shelf

Special Corner Tips

Lift into place, lean against each other.

Prop and hold in place in corner: hold them up against the wall with something underneath them so they lean against each other in the corner. Pin a piece of cardboard to the top of both, holding them together so they stay in place by leaning against each other. Or jam a 2×4 or stick between floor and ceiling in the corner for them both to “lean” against.

Line the corner

“Line” the corner by placing two panels (make, buy, or find) against each wall in the corner so they “lean” against each other in the corner. Attach them to each other in the corner so they keep leaning against the wall and each other. (Bending a piece of cardboard into the corner and taping it to each panel works.)

Now you can attach shelves (from cardboard that you make yourself, or whatever) to these panels. Bend a piece of cardboard into a triangular “tube” (like a FedEx tube container) and attach it VERTICALLY so that just the end makes a tiny shelf. Use two of these to make a “full’ shelf.

Panels can be cardboard pieces you taped together (use double thickness, or get pallet cardboard by going around Costco or Sam’s Club near closing time). Or plywood, sheetrock, pressboard, whatever.

PVC

Attach or fit pieces together in the corner so they stay in the corner. A bunch of configurations can work.

How to Improve an Existing Home Studio

Work Backwards from the Mic

1. Tradeoffs

2. Where to Place Material

3. Voice Types Affected

Click above for the tab called “Mic+Mixer” after you have completed these instructions!

We recommend NOT buying a mic stand, but buying from us or making your own stand out of PVC (with a built-in scissor arm) that will adjustably hold pillows behind the mic. We build these for folks who can get to the Twin Cities to pick them up.

Parts list and plans are here in our private Facebook Group. You can also mount or hang the crosspiece (that holds the pillow and mic) rather than build a stand to hold it.

The alternative is hanging pillows via string from the ceiling and attaching the mic to a scissor arm attached to a copy stand—click the “Alternative Stand” tab above to learn more.

Experience has shown there is no third option—every alternative support structure for a mic+pillow people have tried has failed, for reasons such as:

1. Structures interferes with movement and gestures;
2. Hard-material structure decreases studio quality by increasing echoes;
3. Weak structures that can’t support weight, or are unmaintainable due to instability
4. Attaching pillows to vocal isolation shields. First, the shield is a bad idea—you’re better off without it. Second, there isn’t adequate space for the pillows. Third, you can’t see over it to your script—adjustability is poor

Click above for the tab called “Stand+Arm” if you have not set up your stand and arm yet. It also includes pictures of how to set up the microphone. To connect mixer to a tablet, or if your mixer has no USB post, see these instructions.

Sections below are:

1. Connecting your microphone to your computer
2. Attaching the microphone to your stand or arm

NOTE: If Audacity is already running before you connect the microphone, you may need to click Transport > Rescan Audio Devices in Audacity before it will recognize the microphone you have just connected.

Your microphone may come with a shock mount—which you WILL need, or it may only come with a simple microphone mount (which you will NOT need). If a shock mount is not included in the box, it should be provided separately. Here is a microphone with only a simple mount (not needed), and a leather carrying wallet:

Here are two examples of what your shock mount may look like:

1. Connecting Microphone to Computer

I’ll assume you are using Audacity and have a MIC500USB mixer, or another mixer that has a USB cable to connect to your computer.

1.1 Setting up the Mixer

Press in the button on the Mixer 48v power AND for Low Cut (circled in red below). For the MIC500USB, here is a picture guide to settings and plugs, and here is the simplified manual. Click image to enlarge:

• Set to OFF/NOT pressed in: 20dB, Phase Reverse
• Set to ON/Pressed in: 48V, Low Cut

When recording, set the mic gain (4) so that your voice lights (3) one yellow LED from time to time, but not two, and NEVER lights the red LED. Leave 7 and 8 ALWAYS pressed in. (6) and 9 should be off (rarely or never needed), and 1 is the ON/OFF if you plug a headset directly into the mixer—and 5 will be your headset volume control.

Only after you have set the microphone gain will you set microphone volume in Audacity.

Back of mixer:

1.2 Connect Cables

Your microphone is connected to your mixer by an XLR cable. Connect the XLR cable from the Mic to the Mixer, and the USB cable from the Mixer to your computer:

To learn more about how to record in Audacity, click the “Audacity” tab above. For issues with Windows sound and recording devices, click here for tips.

2. Connect Mic to Stand

2.1 Mark the BACK of the Mic

Find the (usually tiny) logo on the front of the microphone. This is the part you talk into! The logo marks the front. I suggest turning the mic over to the back side (no logo) and writing with a magic marker on the back something like “NO!”, or “Talk into other side”. Yes, really! Or write it on a piece of brightly colored paper and tape it to the back of the mic.

Someday you will accidentally try to talk into the back of your microphone. The front and the back look identical…except for that tiny logo. Spare yourself a future headache and mark the back clearly.

2.2 Place the Mic into the Shock Mount

You should have already connected your shock mount to your boom arm, and the arm to your copy stand. If not, scroll up and click the tab titled “Arm+Stand” for instructions.

Squeeze your microphone into it’s shock mount. If it seems tight, first remove the shock mount from the boom arm (you will have attached in an early step). Tight is good—not a problem.

If the mic fits too loosely into the shock mount, you may want to wrap and tape a strip of paper to the mic before putting it into the shock mount.

Turn a 2×4 into a vertical support with no tools.

Buy one or more standard 8 foot long 2×4’s at your local hardware store, and tape a thin piece of fabric or packing foam to one end. You could also simply cut the end off an old sock and use that.

You’re going to push the end with the fabric into the ceiling

But first, put something smooth underneath the bottom end. You’re going to tap the bottom end into place. So push the top of the 2×4 against the ceiling

…while you tap the bottom end into place.

Now you’ve got a vertical support you can use for your home studio!

How to Hang a Baffle

Create a loop of string or rope to lift the baffle up, it could look something like this:

One way to tie the ends of string together to make a large loop could be like this:

The bottom of the baffle will look something like this:

Notice how you could use the string at the bottom to tie a second baffle below. Two baffles mounted on a 2×4 could look like this:

Create a Clothes Rack

Any clothes you have in piles or drawers can be hung instead! Especially clothes you are planning to donate, or whatever is currently out of season (coats in the summer are awesome for your studio!)

Simply duct tape a dowel or stick—such as a 2×2—between two vertical 2×4’s and you’ve got a clothes rack!

One way to set up your studio so that you stand with your back to one rack of hanging clothes, and another rack behind your copy stand.

COAT HANGERS: Cut up cardboard from boxes to make coat hangers if you don’t have enough or don’t want to buy more. Or tape pieces together.

Instead of vertical supports, you could also hang a dowel between two ceiling-mounted plant hooks and hang clothes on the dowel.

Hang Towels with T-Pins

Hang towels from the ceiling with T-pins. Cheap, fast, easy. Be sure to “curtain fold” (also called accordion fold) the towels for maximum sound absorbtion.

Click above for the tab called “Mic+Mixer” after you have completed these instructions!

We recommend NOT buying a mic stand, but buying from us or making your own stand out of PVC (with a built-in scissor arm) that will adjustably hold pillows behind the mic. We build these for folks who can get to the Twin Cities to pick them up.

Click the “Studio-in-a-stand” tab above.

The alternative is hanging pillows via string from the ceiling and attaching the mic to a scissor arm attached to a copy stand. Here is some information about how you can hang pillows from the ceiling using non-destructive Pin Hooks.

1. Best Option: Click “Studio in a Stand” Tab Above

Parts list and plans are here in our private Facebook Group.

2. Arm attached to Copy Stand, Hanging Pillows

TIP: tighten all connections loosely! Use the minimum amount of tightening possible. EVERY thing you can tighten can and will break someday. Make that day decades into the future instead of sometime next month.

There are four common ways to attach the boom arm, which holds the microphone to the copy stand. I’ll show them first, then explain how to put them together.

Here is what the final setups look like (before you add the pop filter or mic cable)—notice how the white microphone is being held in a black shock mount. However, we suggest NOT putting the microphone in the shock mount until later. Detailed instructions are below. Click any photo to enlarge:

We suggest having the microphone position horizontal (first two pictures above), at about chin height pointing up toward the mouth when setup is complete. In this photo, using TWO pop filters (not required), you can see the microphone angled up toward the mouth:

Make sure you are talking into the correct side! See how the end looks like a “no” symbol on this mic? We also strongly recommend starting your home studio by rubber banding a hand towel to the back of the mic. You’ll learn more about how important this is in class, along with other options. Here’s a “how to” example picture from a student:

Also, if your stand doesn’t seem tall enough for your height, scroll to the bottom for solutions.

1️⃣ FIND BOOM ARM AND SHOCK MOUNT PARTS

First, find your boom arm, also called a scissor arm. There will be a small adapter you will need to remove and save. Here is what the parts of a common boom arm look like (the adapter is circled in violet and labelled “KEEP”):

You might wish to keep the part labelled “NOT NEEDED” simply to insert between the arms of the boom arm later in some configurations.

Next, remove ALL the springs attached to the boom arm. You will not need them. Most boom arms are designed to be attached to the horizontal edge of a desk, and the springs help hold the arm when making adjustments. We will be fixing the arm into one position, not making adjustments.

To attach your microphone to your boom arm, you will only need ONE adapter, and a microphone shock mount (labelled “ATTACH” in the diagram below). Even though your microphone and boom arm may come with additional parts, you will not need them and can discard or store them. Here are examples of all the possible parts that involve adapters you may encounter:

Finally, find your microphone shock mount. The shock mount will attach to the end of the boom arm, and hold the microphone. There are different kinds of shock mount. Here are two example shock mounts. The microphone will later squeeze into the middle:

The main issue most people overlook (especially if they skip the directions) is where the small adapter that connects the shock mount to the arm comes from. Some shock mounts come with an adapter, in which case it it ready to attach to the boom arm. But if you shock mount needs an adapter, after you (1) Remove the mic holder from boom arm, you need to (2) Remove the adapter that comes with it, and (3) use it to connect the shock mount to the boom arm:

So, if needed, use that adapter to connect your shock mount to your boom arm. Here is a silver shock mount attached to a boom arm using a black plastic adapter:

Alternatively, you may remove an adapter from inside the shock mount via its notches:

2️⃣ Connect Boom Arm + Shock Mount

If your shock mount comes with an adapter, you can simply attach them both together to the boom arm—simple! Otherwise, you can screw the adapter that came with the boom arm onto either the arm or the shock mount, before completing the attachment of the mount to the arm.

You may need a wrench or similar tool to complete the tightening of the shock mount onto the boom arm:

Here is a picture of a silver mic in a silver shock mount, using a black adapter to connect to the silver piece at the end of a black boom arm:

(We suggest NOT putting the microphone in the shock mount until later).

3️⃣ Assemble the Copy Stand

Making custom height adjustments:

First of all, realize that many copy stands are not tall enough for most voice talent—they are designed for musicians to look down at, but voice talent should have the copy as close to eye height as is reasonable.

So before we even begin the assembly, you should realize that many talent make adjustments to their stands to bring their copy up higher. If there an adjustable slide on the back, you can gain 2-3″ by sliding it higher—the red arrow indicates some of the adjustment that can be made:

Other talent simply fold their copy over the top of the stand. But you can also simply mount a copy holder up higher on the existing stand. Here is an example of using the cardboard the copy stand came in taped onto the assembled stand in order to hold the copy higher (click to enlarge). The mic in this picture is not placed for work, it’s just positioned to show how easy it is to position a mic higher by sliding the base of the boom arm up:

Beginning the assembly:

Different copy stands have different mechanisms. These instructions cover a popular type of stand.

To attach the TOP of the copy stand—the part that holds your script—to the base, first loosen the small screw at the top until it is almost—but not quite—completely removed:

Once the screw is almost removed, slide the plate the screw is attached to into the grooves in the back of the stand, screw end first. When pushed all the way in, tighten the small screw gently to hold it in place.

Tighten the small screw when done:

When you’re ready, adjust the angle of the stand and tighten:

To raise your copy stand, loosen the hand screws at the top of the legs, then push the legs down and out.

If you wish, you can adjust the legs to be any width. This will not change the overall height of the stand:

4️⃣ Attach Arm to Stand

We suggest placing the arm at the lowest point on the copy stand, and tightening loosely until later. If the circular metal plate on the tightening screw tilts when you tighten, this is normal—the arm is designed to attach to a wide range of sizes:

VERSION 1: ARM STRAIGHT UP

The simplest configuration is to extend the arm straight up, holding it in place with a piece of tape between the arm and the stand:

However, an alternative to using tape is to insert something near the base to prevent the arm from dropping, such as some pennies taped together, a piece of wood, the handle of wrench, etc. Here are some examples from students, including a piece of tape, a piece of packing foam, even a plastic knife, each of which prevents the arm from lowering:

At the top, where the shock mount is attached, you may let it hang free (pic #1), or insert a part to extend it higher, such as a scissors (pic #2), or the handle of a small plastic clamp (pic #3). Anything the right size will do the trick:

VERSION 2: ANGLED BOOM ARM

An alternative to extending both parts of the boom arm up, is to have the lower arm extend out horizontal, and the upper extend up vertically. In this case, the simplest solution is to insert something between each of the double arms, to prevent them from changing position, as in these pictures:

Different size parts inserted between the arms can produce different angles. Whatever you insert between the arms can be wrapped in paper and/or tape to make the part larger if needed.

5️⃣ Determine if the stand will be high enough

Stand in front as if performing. If it is not high enough, you have several alternatives:

1. Find or build a box to place the stand on.
2. Replace one of the uprights with a longer length of PVC or metal pipe, or a wooden dowel.
3. Create a base by stacking a number of flat pieces of wood underneath until it is high enough.

► Next: Scroll to the top and click the tab titled “Mic+Mixer” to continue.

If you haven’t yet, download and install Audacity, a free program to let you record audio on your computer:

Download Audacity

Start by setting up Audacity so that you can record (connect to your microphone) and set basic preferences  (video coming soon!)

For several videos of Audacity tips, be sure to visit this link. 

Do I have to use Audacity?

No. But it’s the easiest-to-use program for recording voice over, it’s free, and it also includes very powerful features for advanced users. If you use it, we can help you with it. If you prefer to use something else, we won’t be able to help you as much as if you use Audacity.

► Follow these steps to make your first test recording.

If you prefer a getting started video tutorial, try this one:

Once you’ve gotten a few basics down, learn these tips:

1. Save the Project, Not Just the Export

When saving an Audacity project it is normally easiest to use the File > Save Project command, which has a default shortcut of Ctrl + S (or ⌘ + S on Mac). The first time you save it will prompt you for a file name. If you save a project again having made further changes to it, there will be no further prompts—it will just save.

To share audio files, you will need to export them. Don’t try to share an Audacity project! The project and its related files stay on your computer. We suggest watching the following video below to learn how to export using Export Multiple, which can also be used to export single files. It’s the best way to create an audio file to share it, in our opinion. Alternatively, you can click ‘File’ then click on ‘Export‘ to bring up the File Export window. It gives you options on where to save, type in a name, and choose a file format to export to.

Making a commercial from voice over in Audacity by adding music and sound effects is known as sound design. (To learn how, go here.) Once you’ve added all the voice and sounds into Audacity, click the File Menu and save it all as a project.

Eventually, you will export your work (the option underneath Save Project), but always keep all your tracks and modifications saved as a project separately.

If you are going to modify a track, such as your voice over, first duplicate that track, drag it down to the bottom of the project, and mute it. This is just so you have easy access to a backup of the original track before you started modifying it. To duplicate, select the track (double-clicking anywhere in the track will work) and then use Ctrl-D (Windows) or Command-D (Mac)—or click the Edit Menu and choose Duplicate.

Your main goal in saving your project workspace (vs only saving the exported file) is to be able to go back and make changes later, even after you export your final draft of the commercial.

Exporting and Sharing

If you don’t know what format the client wants, export as a .wav file (large) or high-quality .mp3. You can NOT share a file from your software—you have to export before sharing. For example, a .aup file created by Audacity is actually just a shortcut to the audio database on your computer. There are few cases where you would share an entire project from your software—you would only share the exported files.

To share your work on social media, you will often have to convert it to a video (mp4 is a common video format that will work everywhere) if you want it to play inside the social media post. That means, at a minimum, choosing a static image that will be visible in the video while your audio plays. To find an image that gives you the rights to do this, try Pexels. To convert your audio to video with the image you choose, use ez-converter.

2. Control Clipping at ALL Stages

Oversimplified, clipping is audio distorted by being too loud. The rounded top or bottom of a waveform is “clipped” off. When you are viewing audio in Audacity, clipped areas appear red (IF you have set Audacity to make clipping visible, see next paragraph). Here is an example of viewing the same clipped audio at two different zoom levels:

Audacity can fix mild clipping, and it’s particularly good at fixing clipping in voice-only recordings. The first step is to set your bit depth to 32-bit float and see where clipping occurs by turning on “Show Clipping” at the bottom of the view menu. Simplest is show clipping all the time. (Alternatively, you can have Audacity search for clipped areas by using the “Find Clipping” Analyze function.)

🎧 Technical note: Think of the bit depth setting as the place where your computer stores the volume or loudness of your audio (more accurately called amplitude). Your sampling rate is the place your computer stores the pitch (more accurately called frequency) of your audio.

Control during recording

When recording, you will adjust amplitude levels (louder or softer) using knobs on your mixer (these knobs are sometimes called “pots”, short for “potentiometers”).

If your mixed has BOTH a level AND a gain knob (check the labels on the mixer itself) set the “Level” knob midway between max and minimum (usually straight up) and turn up the “Gain” knob until your voice at normal volume is clipping often—but not all—of the time. Then turn down the “Level” knob until your voice is sometimes but rarely clipping. Occasional clipping is better than setting levels too low; very low levels will can over-amplify background noise. (If your mixer has more than one channel, make sure you are adjusting the channel your microphone is plugged into.)

Control during mixing

When you add music and sound effects, you may have to quiet everything 1dB or so, or the power of voice and music combined may clip a bit too much. Fortunately, it’s easy to see what is going on and adjust accordingly.

Here’s a simple way to tell: Select all (keyboard shortcut: ctrl-a/Windows; command-a/Mac) and then mix everything down to a single new track (picture at right: Tracks Menu > Mix > Mix and Render to New Track).

If there isn’t much that is red/clipped, select either the entire new track, or only the main areas with red/clipping, and choose Effect Menu > Clip Fix. If there’s a lot of red/clipping, delete the combined track (or just undo (Ctrl/Command-z) the new track you created) and quiet (reduce the gain) one or more of your tracks a bit. The easiest way to quiet the level/gain of a track overall is to drag the +/- slider at the left edge of the track.

If you want to understand advanced settings better—NOT required!—read these next:

Looking for Troubleshooting Tips? Here they are!

Simple Studio Tips

First of all, there should be a quiet corner behind you. You face into the room, the microphone faces into the quiet corner.

It doesn’t matter how you deaden the sound in corner, anything from hanging acoustic panels to putting shredded fabric in chicken wire will work! For the least expensive acoustic panels anywhere, be sure to talk to your School of Voiceover or Academy of Voiceover coach for a deal we give to students.

Second, there should be something behind your copy that “catches” some of your voice, such as hanging a blanket in front of you, and pinning your script to it. Or something behind and slightly around your microphone, such as a fabric bowl. Don’t let it come around the sides of the mic much, though—you don’t want to put your mic in any kind of tunnel—that will change the quality of your sound.

Tip for better audio:

If you’re new to recording, try to just barely avoid clipping. Eventually, you’ll want to record at a high amplitude—record loud, as loud as you can get away with. If you don’t, you many have to increase the amplification of your recording, and that means you will ALSO be increasing the amplification of any noise on the recording.

How loud works best? To the point where your audio is actually or nearly clipping slightly from time to time. To visually see if your audio is clipping when you record, in Audacity click the View menu, and put a check mark by View > “Show Clipping (on/off)”.

What does “some, but not too much” clipping look like? If you were looking at 10-15 seconds of audio on screen (it looks different at different zoom levels), it might look about like this:

How Much Clipping is Okay to Allow?

But isn’t this a mistake? Isn’t this “bad” audio? How would you fix this, anyway?

Audacity and its competitors all have a “Fix Clipping” feature. In Audacity it’s Effects > Clip Fix. Since the top of a peak (or bottom of a valley) of your audio waveform has been cut off, what Clip Fix does is calculate what the missing peak (or valley) would look like, and “draw” it back in. Let’s zoom way, WAY in to the clipped area in the picture above (the red line) that is farthest left—under the “G”. Here’s what that looks like:

Zoomed in View of Clipping

See those four vertical red lines? That marks the part that’s missing—the part of a peak that was “clipped” off. The blue lines mark the part of the waveform that was recorded accurately—we’re zoomed in so far we see the audio as digital “points” instead of a smooth analog waveform.

But: See how easy it is to see visually what part of the peak is missing? Audacity won’t have any problem adding the missing peak back in. Heck, you could probably draw them in with a marker and get pretty close to perfect. And it will sound as perfect as if it had never clipped. If we zoomed in a bit less than this, you would see there are about six peaks and valleys that look like this in the dark red line under the “G”. Each easily fixed automatically by Effects > Clip Fix.

Again, ideally, you want your audio to undergo ZERO amplification increase after recording; otherwise, you will ALSO be amplifying your background noise (“Room tone”). So DO allow slight clipping so that you will actually be DECREASING your your audio amplification slightly, which also decreases your background noise!

For voiceover, occasional light clipping is fine. Yes, it means you are “risking” too much clipping, but  think of it this way:

Instead of spending another $5,000 on your studio to be able to record at lower dB settings, gain experience with when and how much you clip, and let occasional clipping happen.

A very small amount of skill in allowing clipping can save you hundreds or thousands in studio upgrade costs!

What is Good Audio?

First, let me point out that you should always record more than a second of silence/”room tone” (leave setting alone—don’t change them after you begin speaking) at the beginning and end of each track. Some clients and marketplaces even require it. It help you and them hear your “room tone” and it can be used in a variety of ways.

Some of the most well-known standards in the world for quality voice over audio are part of the ACX (Audiobook Creation Exchange) Audio Submission Requirements. I wouldn’t suggest reading it (yet) until explain some of the basics behind the technical language, but I’ll relate this discussion back to those requirements.

Most important: When you make changes, work on a COPY of your recordings. Simple way to do that: After you’re done recording and saving, do a Save As of the session to create a copy of it, and work on the copy.

There is a plugin for Audacity (get it here, install (how?), then choose Analyze > Add/Remove Plugins to enable) that will do most of the necessary measurements for you. You don’t have to learn a bunch of technical language about audio engineering concepts. It measures the three most important things:

1. How loud is background noise? We don’t want to hear your air conditioner or the traffic in your neighborhood. Measured as “Noise Floor“—ACX standard: “No higher than -60dB RMS”. This is where recording as “loud” (high gain) as you can helps the most.
2. Is the volume fairly consistent? Don’t make listeners keep having to turn the volume up or down when listening. Measured as “RMS Level“. If volume isn’t consistent enough, simply run the compression effect at default settings—ACX standard: “Between -23dB and -18dB RMS”.
3. How loud are the loudest moments? This is just a one-click (Normalize) setting you choose before measuring. Measured as “Peak level“—ACX standard: “peak values no higher than -3dB”. Imagine you are clipping at about +.1 dB. That means you can lessen the amplitude by 3.1 dB to bring it into ACX compliance—and the process, lessen your background noise by 3.1 dB too!

Here is a partial screenshot of what you get when you select some audio to test, and choose Analyze > ACX Check from the Audacity menus:

There are ways to “cheat” to pass a home test of ACX requirements, and still fail the actual test. Two things NOT to do: Do NOT replace breath sounds with complete silence, and DO include some “room tone” at the beginning and ending of your recording for testing purposes. More about these two tips below.

How Quiet is Your Voice Over Studio?

Think of the noise floor as “How loud is the silence in your studio?” A quick way to get an approximate idea is to record a few words in your studio, then continue recording but hold your breath/hold still/make no sounds for a few seconds and watch the Recording Meter Toolbar. Here is what it looks like in Audacity before and after you start recording,

When you are “recording silence” (room tone), you want the color to stay at the far left, typically not to go past -42 on the scale. Note that what you see is only an APPROXIMATION of what a test will show. You’ll still need to run ACX Check (or something similar) to be sure.

Tip: Do a retake when intermittent noise happens, e.g. you bumped the mic, a dog barked, a plane flew over, a truck drove by, etc.

Whenever you record, always include a few seconds at the beginning and ending where you make no sound. This isn’t silence, this is what is called “room tone”, or “background noise”.

If your “room tone” volume is too loud, you can take a sample of it and remove it from the recording using Effects > Noise removal.

Realize you can only do this if you have recorded some room tone! However, what also can work is to make a copy of a track (Ctrl-D) and deleting all the sounds made by you. Once you have a few seconds of room tone left you could try using it as the sample for noise removal. So any time consistent sounds change in the background, go silent, keep recording, and get a new silence/room tone recording. Then use that sound as the sample for noise removal.

For ACX specifically, they require you submit your audio with room tone at the beginning and ending of your recording (“Each file must have 0.5 to 1 second of room tone at its beginning and 1 to 5 seconds of room tone at its end.”)

You’ll have to use your judgment! If a steady/consistent background sound is too loud, you may have to wait for it to end before recording. (Of course, for intermittent sounds—such as a dog barking—you’ll almost always have to wait and retake).

Tip: If your studio is quiet enough that it passes a noise floor test without doing any noise removal, you can probably use noise removal when remote distant sounds occur. But if you are already having to remove background noise from your studio “as is”, when other sounds happen, you will probably have to wait to record more. Too much noise removal reduces the quality of the overall recording—your voice will start to sound weird.

ACX, also requires that you NEVER replace anything with silence, such as breaths. You can only replace them with whatever recording you have of “room tone”. Our new macro for Audacity will help you with this.

Is Your Audio Volume Consistent?

Even if you aren’t producing an audiobook, if your recording seems to vary between too loud and too quiet, you’ll need to adjust it.

This is very easy to adjust via Effects > Compression. To experiment, try making a recording, run Effects > Normalize set to -3.0 dB and then select the audio and run Analyze > ACX Check on it. Write down the number in parentheses that appears on the screen after “RMS Level”. In this example screenshot, you would write down -18.8

Now select your audio and run Effect > Compression, and then Effects  > Normalize (again set to -3.0 dB), then run Analyze > ACX Check again. See how the RMS level has gone down? That’s because the compression effect makes your audio volume more consistent—the quiet part are made louder without changing the loud parts.

However, if the reason it varies is because you are moving your head too much during a session—or changing position between sessions—you may want to re-record. Generally, this is NOT an issue if you have had some on-mic training. Moving around a bit is okay! One thing you SHOULD avoid is turning your head much. Again, a little is okay, but if you aim your mouth away from the mic too much AND get too far away, you’ll become very quiet on the recording.

Why Care About ACX Voice Over Requirements?

You don’t have to. Many ACX requirements are common sense, such as that your audio must be:
► “Narrated by a human”;
► “Be free of extraneous sounds such as plosives, mic pops, mouse clicks, excessive mouth noise, and outtakes” (notice they do NOT say to exclude breathing sounds);
► “All in the same … format” (all mono or all stereo);
► “Be consistent in overall sound and formatting”.

Fixing Mouth Noises

One of the first steps is to install some great Audacity tools that can help you! See this article for tips about click and pop removal techniques

Click to enlarge:

A Good VO Mixer Does What?

We like the MIC500USB. Here’s what it does:

1. Direct-connects headphones. Connecting headphones anywhere else may introduce a delay, or phase reversal. Having an on/off button is also useful, so you can stop listening to the mic when you are listening to recorded audio, or when the talent is warming up, clearing their throat, etc.
2. Provides vocal adjustment. Some folks own thousands of dollars of mics for different sounds, when they could just be using preamp modes! Save your money: get mixer with more than one preamp mode. Some mixers include one mode and that’s it! Always seemed silly to me vs. having multiple modes.
3. Shows Clipping. You MUST see this BEFORE it reaches your recording software.

   How to Use: Watch the lights while you set the gain (4) You want to see ONE yellow led occasionally, TWO yellow led’s rarely, a red led NEVER. AFTER you have set the gain, only then adjust microphone volume/level in your software.

4. Provides Mic Gain Adjustment. Some mixers also provide a “fader” or “mic volume” control…that you don’t need or want if you have gain control. Read above for how to use.
5. Headphone Volume Control. Seems silly to leave this out, but some mixers don’t provide it.
6. “Quiet Mode”/20dB Pad: This decreases the gain (lowers the volume) of the mic by -20dB. Love using this when a script calls for shouting. Beginners back up, but pros hit the -20dB pad and get high-quality audio at all volume levels.

   ► You should practice using this! See how loud you have to be to generate audio at the same volume with the pad pushed on. You can back up when you need to get loud, but that brings in a LOT more room echo, and makes your voice sound “tinny”—useful if you WANT to sound “off mic”, but better to hit the pad when you need to get loud.

7. Mic Power. Extend the life of your mixer and mic by turning off power when they’re not in use.
8. Cut Subsonics for Cleaner Sound. You actually MUST do this somehow, somewhere. Subsonics are everywhere (floor rumble, HVAC noise, plosives, etc.) and they muddle up other frequencies and make mouth sounds worse. If your mixer doesn’t cut them, those sounds have to be cut later, after they have already affected your audio.
9. Provides FULL 48v Power. Sadly, many if not most budget mixer/preamps do NOT provide full power, and do NOT say so on their spec sheet. You’re left guessing. This helps mics that need more power work properly and often, mean less mic “self noise”, helps many mics work their best, and never leaves you with a mic that won’t work well with your mixer.
10. Provides USB Audio Out. The internal sound hardware on your computer should be avoided when you can. It can lower the quality of your audio, cause necessary device setting issues, and introduce latency (delay). So bypass the analog audio input port on your computer when you can.
11. Acts as a Tube Preamp. The circuitry that amplifies your voice before it reaches your software is the preamp. Tube circuitry (instead of solid state) has long been preferred for voice, hence the label on the mixer “Audiophile Vacuum Tube Preamp”.
12. Doesn’t Break the Bank! The real benefit of the MIC500USB is that it does all this at a much lower price than other mixers with these features. You don’t have to cut corners to save money.

You almost lose #9 or #10 or #1 or all three with cheap mixers. Expensive mixers sometimes skimp on #2 or #8.

Bonus: Phase/Polarity reversal:

This has several potential uses in a studio with multiple mics and preamp/mixers, but for single mic voiceover you’ll probably never need it. However:

If your headphone cables or Mic XLR cable is reverse wired, press this button to fix it. Experiment by talking into the mic with your headphones on and see which setting sounds most natural to you—on or off. If you’re not sure, leave it off.

The potential issue is that your voice through the headphones may be polarity reversed compared to your voice through the air. Think of how a speaker pushes air: when it’s pushing forwards into the room, it’s pulling on the air inside the speaker. The air on one side of the speaker membrane, like a drum, is polarity reversed on the other side. To an observer on one side the drum is pushing out, but on the other side it’s pushing in.