{"id":1641,"date":"2016-10-30T14:25:26","date_gmt":"2016-10-30T19:25:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.com\/?p=1641"},"modified":"2016-10-30T14:25:26","modified_gmt":"2016-10-30T19:25:26","slug":"3-must-know-tips-for-getting-quality-audio-from-your-pc-recording-studio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/2016\/10\/30\/3-must-know-tips-for-getting-quality-audio-from-your-pc-recording-studio\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Must-Know Tips For Getting Quality Audio From Your PC Recording Studio"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"3-Tips-For-Good-Audio\"Ah, the pc recording studio.\u00a0 So many folks have one, yet so few use it to its full potential.\u00a0 Have you ever noticed that sometimes, a really professional-looking website with cool graphics and slick videos, will have audio content that sounds crappy?\u00a0 What\u2019s with that?\u00a0 It seems like lots people have set up computers to record\u00a0in their homes or offices, but they don’t seem to know how to create really good sounding audio, even though it is possible to do it with just a little knowledge…and not even hard knowledge.\u00a0 The home recording tips<\/em> you’ll find at Home Brew Audio will help tremendously.
\nI think it has something to do with myths that still linger in the zeitgeist from the old days, when audio recording was the realm of tech geeks who did electrical engineering projects for fun.\u00a0 The gear needed to do professional recording back then was expensive and bulky.\u00a0 Most recording engineers couldn\u2019t even afford their own gear.\u00a0 They mostly worked for studios with their own funding (universities, record companies, etc.).
\nBut that has changed drastically in the past 10 or 15 years.\u00a0 With computers able to do so much, and digital recording (that\u2019s as opposed to the tape<\/em> recording needed in the past) being the norm, literally anyone with a computer can create good quality audio without having to spend much more than $49 or so on a moderate USB mic like the Samson Q1u USB microphone<\/a>\"\"<\/a>.\u00a0 So why is there still so much crappy audio out there?
\nOkay, I suppose we should have a definition of crappy<\/em>, where audio is concerned.\u00a0 Here\u2019s my definition: audio that sounds thin, echo-y & “far-away” sounding, noisy, hard-to understand, full of p-pops and other bass-y bumps and bruises (called \u201cplosives,\u201d for those who want to know) when the speaker\/singer says certain kinds of words, or any combination of the above.\u00a0 Some may quibble with that definition, but I find it to be quite descriptive of common audio problems.
\nSo that means that, by contrast, good quality<\/em> audio should be full, clear & up-front<\/em>, clean (free of any sound except the thing you want to hear), easy to understand, and free of audio glitches like plosives and hissing, and overall natural-sounding.
\nSome of the above requirements for good quality audio are not easy to obtain without fairly good gear, thus would be hard to do with that $25 or less set-up I mentioned.\u00a0 But some of the most important factors, like reducing\/eliminating the \u201cecho-y & far away\u201d thing, ARE do-able even on the low-cost pc recording studio.\u00a0 Here are three tips that will drastically improve your audio regardless of how cheap your set-up.<\/p>\n

Get Close to the Mic\"Close<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n

Generally speaking, your mouth (assuming voice recording) should be quite close to the microphone in order to get the best and clearest sound, anywhere from 6 to 18 inches away is about right.\u00a0 If you are recording a video, and the speaker is 10 feet away from the mic on the camera, the result will be what I call echo-y & far away sounding.\u00a0 The reason is that the voices has such a long distance to travel that by the time the actual sound from your mouth reaches the microphone, it has also bounced off of every wall, ceiling, floor, table, etc. in the room and created copies of itself.\u00a0 Those copies are getting into the microphone too.\u00a0 In visual terms, it would be like trying to film someone in a house of mirrors.\u00a0 Everything is all jumbled up and it\u2019s hard to tell the real<\/em> person from the reflections.
\n\"pc<\/a>One easy answer to this is to get close to the mic.\u00a0 If your camcorder has an external mic input, use it!\u00a0 Get a microphone by your lips and run the cord to the mic jack on the camera.\u00a0 If the camera doesn\u2019t have an external mic input (hard to find for some reason), just hook a mic to your computer and speak into that while filming.\u00a0 Then when you edit the video, add a track for the extra audio you recorded on your computer, synchronize it with the audio from the camera (the echo-y audio), then delete the camera audio track.<\/p>\n

Get a Pop Screen<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"pc<\/a>Mics are sensitive to wind.\u00a0 Certain consonant sounds in speech (like \u201cP\u201d for example) called plosives<\/em>, cause a burst of wind into the mic if you\u2019re close to it.\u00a0 The result is a muddy, unpleasant rumbling or bumping sound in the audio.\u00a0 One way to reduce or (preferably) eliminate this is to put a screen between your lips and the mic.\u00a0 You can buy these screens, called pop screens, or you can make them yourself with some used pantyhose stretched over a wire hanger you\u2019ve bent into a circle or square-ish shape.\u00a0 For good measure, you can try to be aware of consonants that cause plosives and try to minimize the amount of air you spit into the mic.\u00a0 This is one of the pop filters that I have used for years: The sE Electronics Metal Pop Filter<\/a>, which is the one in the picture.<\/p>\n

Fix It After It’s Recorded
\n<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Without spending a dime, you can edit your audio after you\u2019ve recorded it, using free software from the web.\u00a0 One such program is called Audacity, which is open-source.\u00a0 You can use editing tools like EQ to reduce or eliminate the plosives that DID get recorded, as well as improve intelligibility, reduce noise, etc.\u00a0 Audacity can do amazing things.\u00a0 There are other audio editors out there too.\u00a0 But if money is an issue, it really is hard to beat Audacity for the price.\u00a0 If you can afford to invest a couple hundred bucks into recording, you can use what I use, which is Adobe Audition.
\nThe above tips can be applied by anyone, without having to be an engineer and without having to spend much, if any money at all.\u00a0 If you want better audio\u2026more professional audio, keeping just those 3 things in mind will improve your audio greatly.
\nIf the tip about editing audio in Audacity sounded scary and technical, don\u2019t worry.\u00a0 It\u2019s actually pretty easy.\u00a0 You can find video tutorials<\/a> at Home Brew Audio that walk you through it.\u00a0 Anyone can understand it.
\nSo go forth and do no more audio harm.\u00a0 It won\u2019t cost you much, if anything.\u00a0 Knowledge trumps gear.
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ah, the pc recording studio.\u00a0 So many folks have one, yet so few use it to its full potential.\u00a0 Have you ever noticed that sometimes, a really professional-looking website with cool graphics and slick videos, will have audio content that sounds crappy?\u00a0 What\u2019s with that?\u00a0 It seems like lots people have set up computers to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15147,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[40],"class_list":{"0":"post-1641","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-recording-tips-and-techniques","8":"tag-good-recordings-on-a-budget","9":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\n3 Must-Know Tips For Getting Quality Audio From Your PC Recording Studio - Home Brew Audio<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/2016\/10\/30\/3-must-know-tips-for-getting-quality-audio-from-your-pc-recording-studio\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"3 Must-Know Tips For Getting Quality Audio From Your PC Recording Studio - Home Brew Audio\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ah, the pc recording studio.\u00a0 So many folks have one, yet so few use it to its full potential.\u00a0 Have you ever noticed that sometimes, a really professional-looking website with cool graphics and slick videos, will have audio content that sounds crappy?\u00a0 What\u2019s with that?\u00a0 It seems like lots people have set up computers to […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/2016\/10\/30\/3-must-know-tips-for-getting-quality-audio-from-your-pc-recording-studio\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Home Brew Audio\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-10-30T19:25:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ken\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ken\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/2016\/10\/30\/3-must-know-tips-for-getting-quality-audio-from-your-pc-recording-studio\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/2016\/10\/30\/3-must-know-tips-for-getting-quality-audio-from-your-pc-recording-studio\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Ken\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/#\/schema\/person\/adc4e5e93fcec48d1ffbc8778f61618b\"},\"headline\":\"3 Must-Know Tips For Getting Quality Audio From Your PC Recording Studio\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-10-30T19:25:26+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/2016\/10\/30\/3-must-know-tips-for-getting-quality-audio-from-your-pc-recording-studio\/\"},\"wordCount\":1080,\"commentCount\":6,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/2016\/10\/30\/3-must-know-tips-for-getting-quality-audio-from-your-pc-recording-studio\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\",\"keywords\":[\"good recordings on a budget\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Recording Tips and Techniques\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/2016\/10\/30\/3-must-know-tips-for-getting-quality-audio-from-your-pc-recording-studio\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/2016\/10\/30\/3-must-know-tips-for-getting-quality-audio-from-your-pc-recording-studio\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.homebrewaudio.co\/wp\/2016\/10\/30\/3-must-know-tips-for-getting-quality-audio-from-your-pc-recording-studio\/\",\"name\":\"3 Must-Know Tips For Getting Quality Audio From Your PC Recording Studio - 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