Remote Recording Best Practices
If possible, find a quiet, small room for your recording. Large rooms with hardwood floors will create more reverb and room noise, which can cause your audio quality to suffer.
If possible, wear regular corded headphones (not airpods) to limit the amount of bleed through from the host track. When wearing headphones, try to keep your headphone volume as low as you can to limit that noise coming through your microphone.
If you only have access to an internal or webcam microphone, a good backup plan is to use an audio recorder app on your phone to create a better copy of your audio that can be synced up to the host’s file. The microphone on your phone will generally sound better than a standard voice over IP call, like Zoom. The downside is that you will have to keep it near your mouth for the duration of the recording.
Try to avoid using webcam or built-in microphones for your recording. If you can, use a wired/USB microphone. If time and budget allows, a USB headset with microphone can be purchased at your favorite tech retailer from as low as $20-$30 and up.
Try to keep movement to a minimum and keep your distance from the microphone consistent. If you are wearing a microphone that is hanging or attached to your shirt, try to limit anything that may rub or move against, such as the shirt itself, or long hair.
If you are using an external microphone, be sure to check the audio/video settings on your computer and choose the connected device, as opposed to the built-in microphone. It may not automatically choose it.
Try not to place the microphone directly in front of the path of your mouth and breath. A good practice is to keep it underneath closer to your chin, or off to the side near your cheek. This will limit the amount of “p-pops” and plosives. Also, you want the microphone to be around 4”-6” from your mouth to keep your audio consistent and clean.