Groovy's Official Guide to Recording Yourself
Step 1: Ask these questions!
- Are you alone? If you're not, then you need to be. Any sound that someone else makes could screw up the recording.
- Is it quiet? Before you start recording, listen to your surrounding environment. Overhead lights, air conditioners, computer fans... They all contribute to raising the noise floor of the recording, which is hard to get rid of later. If your computer is too loud, put a towel over it. If the light is too loud, turn on a table light instead of an overhead light.
- Have You Practiced your lines? Look over your lines before you record them. Just read through each one once. You'll be much more pleased with the results.If you do it twice, even better. Even professional voice-over people still practice.
- Do you have enough disk space? Not that we're recording a lot of stuff, but it would be good to check and make sure that you have enough space. Just don't start recording if you only have 30 megs left on your system. Allocate at least one gig.I will be substantially reducing the file size later.
Step 2: Settings
- Open Windows Sound Recorder
- Go to File ->Properties
- Under Format Conversion press: Convert Now...
- Select: CD Quality or Stereo, 44100 Hz, 16 bit.
Step 3: Do a Sound Test!
- Find your loudest. Since you've practiced your lines, find the one that you speak at a loudest volume. It will probably be one with you yelling, or being angry or something.
- Record your Loudest. Record yourself saying that line.
- Listen to it back: If it sounds like it's distorting, then proceed to adjust volume. If it sounds OK, go on to Step 4. If you have a tough time telling if it's OK, please email the file to our sound tech or put it up on the FTP site. Our sound guy will recommend what to do from there.
- Adjust Volume: If needed, adjust the volume using the control panel for your sound card. You will need to adjust the Microphone setting.
Recording Guidelines:
Take Frequent Breaks... Recording is tiring and difficult. You'll get better results if you chill for five minutes every once in a while.
Don't Talk Directly Into the Microphone... Especially if there are a lot of "p" or "b" sounds. That sudden rush of air will distort the microphone if it hits it directly. Try and speak close to but OVER the microphone instead of into.
Don't Change your Distance From the Microphone... this is not a problem with headsets, but with other microphones, you will NEED to make sure that you are always a similar distance away from the mic. Even one inch of difference can severely effect the sound. Our sound techs will probably be able to fix this problem if it occurs, but if you keep the same distance, you'll save them a lot of time.
Don't Settle for something you don't like... you can always re-record. Use multiple takes if you don't want to lose your old ones, but always strive for better. When running sessions, I often make people record one line 10 times over. When recording music, you're lucky if you get it within five times.
You're Allowed to Change Your Lines... if you notice a grammatical error or a typo in your line, or if a phrase just seems weird to you, feel free to mail our writer and let him know about the problem. He's a very reasonable fellow and will usually agree to change your lines. It is very important that you let him know, however, because he will need to change the text in ConEdit as well.
