The home is increasingly finding itself to be the site of media recording of all forms. Whether recording video for YouTube, streaming, producing music, podcasting, voiceover recording, or audiobook recording, we are finding a usefulness and convenience in home recording that going to a professional studio does not provide.
However, some forms of media—namely those that are audio-focused—require a properly prepared recording space in order to record sound cleanly and at a desirable quality. Since my focus is specifically in spoken word media, what this post will feature is designed expressly for those looking to record voice.
I’ve detailed below a number of ways you can outfit your recording space to produce a quality recording, whether it be for audiobook narration, podcasting, or voiceover production.
The Room
The most important factor in determining a quality recording is the room itself. Rooms for recording voice should be small. The ideal room in your house would be a small closet, for reasons in addition to its small size that we will cover later.
If a small closet is unavailable, you may need to test out a few other rooms in your house. Rooms you should avoid include bathrooms, kitchens, and any other space with a high amount of hard, flat surfaces.
In the event you need to use a bedroom or other small room, a number of steps can be taken to improve the space, which we will cover below.
Another good point to keep in mind for home recording is where the room is in relation to the outside. In a home environment, outside noise is ever constant: birds, traffic, construction, gardeners, and other daily neighborhood commotion is the bane of the home recordist.
Choosing a room that is as insulated from the outside as possible is ideal.
Acoustics
The ultimate goal of building a voice recording space is to make it as “dead” as possible. “Dead” refers to the inability for sound waves from your voice to reflect off of hard, flat reflective surfaces back into your microphone.
The ideal way to achieve this is through the use of plenty of absorbent material. Heavy blankets, pillows, rugs, and other absorbent materials can greatly improve a recording space. This is also an advantage of using a small closet: the presence of hanging clothes, with the addition of carpeting and, perhaps, pillows stuffed in the corners can easily result in a great sounding “dead” room.
Fittingly, the absence of absorbent materials and presence of a high amount of hard, flat surfaces lends to a room which can be described as being “live.” Rooms like bathrooms and kitchens contain many of these reflective surfaces, such as tiled floors, mirrors, and flat walls.
Even if you use a small closet, a lack of hanging clothing or other absorbent material will still result in a recording in which the hard, bare walls of the closet causes reflection of sound waves and thus an acoustically “live” sound.
Get Creative!
You’re not trying to impress anyone with a home studio; nothing needs to be as fancy as your standard, pristine professional recording studio. Thus, anything you can do to dampen the room’s sound and increase absorbent surface area will help.
The following is a short list of various materials and methods by which you can improve your recording space:
- Moving blankets: Moving blankets are cheap and provide an adequate form of absorbent material for your studio. Hanging blankets over doors or windows can help dampen your room. If you’re in a bedroom or otherwise small room, you can use moving blankets to partition off part of the room by hanging them by some means from the ceiling, thereby making the space both smaller and more dampened.
- Mattresses: This may seem like a wild idea, but using mattresses build your little recording booth-fort is an easy way to block out several square feet of space for sound absorption.
- Pillows: pillows are another readily available material that you can use. They can be particularly effective in the upper corners of a room, which are prime areas for bass frequencies to cause trouble.
- Rugs: If your recording space has carpeting, that’s great. If not, it’s important to cover the ground with as much material as possible. Rugs are an obvious way to do this, but any sort of material, including blankets and towels, will help as well.
Absorption vs Diffusion
We’ve talked thus far only about absorption of sound waves. Another tactic used in recording studios is the implementation of diffusive surfaces.
In a square room with flat, hard walls, sound waves will easily bounce back and forth from wall to wall. Think of how a bouncy ball will act when let loose with force in an empty, square room. Each bounce off of a wall will result in another bounce off of the wall it ricochets to.
If you were to fill the room with objects like furniture (which you normally would) these objects with their varying shapes and sizes will cause the ball to ricochet more awkwardly, and less smoothly, than a clean bounce off of a wall, and result in the ball losing power more quickly.
This is an apt analogy for the use of diffusive surfaces in recording. The more diffusive surfaces, the faster your sound waves will break apart and die off. A sparse, flat-walled room lends itself to more reflections and, thus, a livelier sound.
So, don’t fret if you choose to record in, for example, a corner of your room with a bookshelf. In fact, a bookshelf is a prime example of a diffusive object that many people will already have in a home. Books of varying sizes offer a wonderfully uneven surface which will aid in breaking up the sound waves of your voice.
This is why, for example, movie theaters will not be perfectly square: it helps to prevent sound from bouncing strongly off each wall.
While absorption of sound should be prioritized in my opinion, remembering the usefulness of diffusive materials will help in achieving a quality sound out of your recording space.
Multiple Levels of Absorption
Using just one or two blankets will probably not be enough in a recording space. If you look at the image below, you’ll notice that there are several layers of this acoustic paneling that factor in its absorption quality. The actual walls of the studio will likely be built in a similar fashion.
Using multiple layers of blankets and other tools and materials can greatly help your recording situation.
I say this in anticipation of any questions you may have about microphone isolation shields.
These are great tools that can help prevent your voice from shooting out into the room; however, these shields are not an adequate remedy for a room that’s not treated for recording.
No matter how expensive of an isolation shield you invest in, you will still “hear the room” in the recording. For that reason, these tools are best utilized in conjunction with a properly set up recording space.
Acoustic foam paneling can be a good investment, but be aware that it is, like an isolation shield, best used in conjunction with other sound dampening measures.
Be Aware of Mechanical and Electrical Noise
In addition to outside noises, the various noises of devices and appliances within the home itself pose a risk to the home recordist. Refrigerators, laundry machines, dishwashers, and plumbing can all easily make their way into a recording through the walls.
Just be aware of this fact and avoid both setting up your studio too close to any one appliance as well as any unnecessary laundering, showering, or other pesky and noisy home activities.
In addition to appliances, it’s extremely important to pay attention to the risks of a noisy computer. Most computers make some amount of noise, and those that make a lot of noise are the archenemy of the home recordist.
The easiest way to avoid this is by keeping your computer separate from your recording booth. You may need to invest in some long cables in order to do this. Some people will also use a remote to control recording and playback from inside the booth, but this is up to your preference.
Conclusion
The space in which you record is the number one factor in determining whether you get a quality recording. Home recordists are up against a plethora of challenges in this respect, whether it be a noisy neighborhood, loud appliances, or rooms not outfitted to manage acoustics well.
But with a number of methods and materials, the ability to create your own home studio is well within your grasp. Like I’ve mentioned earlier, you’re not trying to make the most stylish of studio spaces. Don’t be afraid to get creative, and remember the importance of small spaces and absorbent materials.
I hope this guide proves helpful for anyone interested in recording audiobook narration, voiceover, podcasts, or any other form of spoken word media at home.