The audio quality of a recording is of utmost importance. Once people sense poor sound quality on a podcast or video, they get turned off immediately. Getting the best audio quality doesn’t exactly start from the point of recording.
It’s not all about having the best mic or the most distinguished guests in your podcast. Before you hit the record button, your immediate environment has to be set. You are about to learn some of the strategies provided by Audext specialists for improving sound quality.
Tips to Get a High-Quality Audio Recording
Not everybody pays attention to the things that should be in place before and after recording. The tips below will show you how to enhance audio recording quality.
1.Get a Good Location to Record
This is the most important factor. A good microphone in a noisy background will create a mess. You need to review the acoustics of the room that you are recording. Close the room’s windows to shut off any external noise.
Check for equipment that can generate background humming noise. Fans, refrigerators, phones, and furnaces are common culprits.
Ensure that the arrangement of your recording environment does not make your voice bounce back into the microphone. Non-parallel walls and furniture can help to minimize this kind of reflection.
If you want to make things easier, just use your closet or a very small room.
2.Give Priority to Your Content
Value your audience. Blogs and podcasts share some similarities. An informational blog content coupled with an engaging website design will keep people engaged.
If you know how to improve audio quality of a recording, your content will be appealing to your audience.
3.Purchase a Good Microphone
A good microphone is the most important investment if you want excellent audio quality. The price of the microphone you will buy depends on the task you have in mind. However, your budget, personal taste are also important.
Podcasts don’t require high-end, costly microphones. A dynamic microphone should be sufficient for a short podcast in your home or office. It is normal to be confused about a final choice to make.
It might not be the perfect idea to shop for microphones online as a newbie. You might not get exactly what you want. Your best bet is to head to a professional recording studio and test the different microphones there.
You will find one that matches your taste. Avoid condenser microphones and headset microphones. Condenser mics are built for large-scale, fancy recording.
Your headset microphones are only good for casual conversations. The goal is that your microphone of choice should showcase your brand well.
4.Move Close To Your Microphone
Don’t keep a far distance from the microphone. Speak into it directly. That is how to get better audio quality. Six inches will be the perfect distance. Conversely, don’t get extremely close to the microphone.
Getting too close to the mic will amplify the low-frequency component of your voice. The resulting audio recording will have too much bass. Speaking near the microphone also causes plosives.
Plosives refer to consonant sounds that can affect the sensitive parts of the microphone. A viable solution to this problem is to get a pop filter. A pop filter is a noise protection device for microphones. Just get a decent and affordable one.
5.Make Use of Multiple Tracks
Use multiple tracks so that every voice in your audio will have a different recording channel. If your counterpart will join you on a video call, you can get a local recording of their voice.
For a two-party dialogue, one person will be on the left track while the other person will be panned on the right track.
6.Back-Up Your Recordings
Power can go out when you are recording your audio. You could lose your audio recording. It will be a bad loss if you can’t retrieve it. Try your best to record into a computer.
If you feel that you might be affected by computer glitches, use an external recorder instead. To get the best possible effect, use both a computer and an external recorder.
An XLR splitter is the best way to achieve this. This device will make your voice run into the external recorder and audio interface simultaneously.
7.Get a Microphone Stand
Most people simply overlook this. Avoid holding microphones in your hands unless it is absolutely necessary. The microphone can pick up little movements that you make with your hands.
Simply mount the recording device on a piece of furniture with the appropriate stand. You could also use a flood-mount stand.
Also, don’t place your mic stand in a place that your body will touch easily. That’s how to improve sound quality of recorded audio.
8.Get an Audio Interface Software
An audio interface is a device that converts the analog sound from your microphone to digital signals. This piece of equipment is easier to use than a mixing board.
It could be more tasking to deal with knobs on a mixing board. Some common examples of good audio interfaces include Focusrite Scarlett, Universal Audio Apollo Twin, and PreSonus Studio.
9.Try To Produce Your Content
What happens post-recording also matters. You should edit and produce your audio recordings. If you have experience with this, do it. There are several third-party software that you can use to achieve this.
You can use GarageBand, Audacity, Adobe Audition, or Auphonic. If you aren’t so sure of what to do, hire a producer. A producer’s wisdom and wealth of experience will prove useful in helping you to improve audio quality.
What One Is Best For Digital Accessibility Between Captions And Subtitles?
Most people think that captions and subtitles are the same. Most people think they are both just text on the screen. That’s not true. They serve different purposes.
Subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing (SDH) are used when people can hear the audio but cannot comprehend its message. Captions assume that you can’t hear the audio at all. Let us examine the differences between them.
Customization
Most of the time, closed captions are usually white text on black background. Subtitles allow for more customization. You can adjust their colors, designs, font styles, and sizes.
Technological Compatibility
SDHs are compatible with High Definition Media Interface (HDMI) while captions are not. That is the reason why DVDs don’t support the kind of captions you see on today’s media.
To fix captions into a video, you use modern coding and computer programming. Most subtitles are burned into videos as pixels or dots.
Which one should you choose between captions and subtitles? Well, that depends on you. Every online video should have a text version or caption according to the Web Content WCAG 2.1 act. Whatever choice you make between the two, make sure that it is up to standard.
Why Audext?
Audext is a powerful tool for digital accessibility via automatic speech recognition and transcription. Our online software makes the creation of subtitles as easy as possible.
By using Audext, you will save a great deal of time and energy. With all the tips above, you have learned how to improve audio quality for your podcasts and interviews.
Audext online transcription software works well when you have good enough audio quality. If the quality is not good enough, you can use manual transcription services from Audext.