Select a Quiet Location

Whenever possible, recording should be conducted in enclosed spaces. Sensitive microphones and equipment will pickup all types of background noise that will distort your recording and obscure vocal clarity. Another thing to watch out for are motor noises. These can come from simple home and office appliances such as ventilators, air conditioners, steam heaters, etc. You may be used to some of these noises so you don’t notice them, but a professional microphone will pick them up easily. So try to keep away from areas in a room where these appliances are located.

Checking on the Quality of a Recording

It is important to monitor a recording with plug-in headphones if you can. Your eye will never hear the recording exactly the way it comes out. Some recording devices have visual monitors which tell you approximately how loud the sound is coming through. You’ll want to watch these monitors to see that the light or bar is moving roughly half to a third of the way when a main speaker is talking. Still these visual monitors only give you a broad sense of the volume and little or no sense of the clarity. So headphone monitoring is preferable.

Usage of Microphones

Built in microphones on hand held recorders may be acceptable if one or two parties are close to the recording device. If there are more then 2 or 3 people or if the people are spread out over a long space, you will need either extended professional microphones or more then one recording source. Generally built-in microphones do not work that well as they tend to pick up machine noise. This is because they are situated on the machine and hence are closest to the motor. You should plug in an external microphone if you can. You may want to check what type of microphone it is. A standard unidirectional microphone will only pick up the sound directly in front of them. Omnidirectional microphones will pick up every direction around them. Semi-omidirectional and adjustable microphones will pick up different ranges of space. In choosing a microphone, you want to consider how many people are in the recording, what is the layout, and how much of a challenge is background noise.

Usage of a Mixer

Mixers are good if you have many people that you are recording. With mixers, you can monitor the recording through different channels and use equalizing (EQ) techniques to limit background noise and clarify vocal quality.

Post-production.

If a recording does not come up with satisfactory sound, software programs like Sony Sound Forge can provide you options to equalize, enhance, and amplify the recording. It is important to remember that enhancing a poor recording will never be as good as making a good original recording to begin with.

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