5 Things You Need to
Record Your Audiobook
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A Computer
It seems like there is little one can do these days without a computer. Luckily, computers are widely available and can be pretty cheap. The chance is, you already have one, and it is perfectly suitable for recording an audiobook. Despite a popular belief, you don't need a too powerful computer for audio production. People landed on the Moon while having computers virtually a million times weaker than your mobile phone. So, unless you are still tagging along with a laptop from the 20th century, you are good to go.
In case you do need a new computer, the only thing we would advise against is buying a Chromebook for audio-production. While it is certainly possible to do it, it is unnecessarily complicated. Instead, get a decent Windows-based laptop or a desktop, or one of the Macs.
Recommended laptop computers:
MacBook Air with Apple M1 Chip
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Recommended desktop computers:
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You can also use your phone or tablet, but then things become a bit more complicated. We will make sure to write a separate article about it. Until then, contact us, and we'll help you out.
A microphone
The next thing you need is a microphone. The built-in microphone of your computer is not going to cut it. You need a microphone that has a wider frequency response, does not pick-up the humming of your computer's fan, does not kick in with unsophisticated noise-reduction, and so on. Computer built-in microphones are for Zoom and Skype, not for recording.
Anyway, when it comes to microphones, there are thousands of options for any budget. Here at Ad Hoc Media, we use WA 87r2 condenser tube microphone, a faithful reproduction of the famed Neumann U 87 microphone used at the NPR and BBC. We also use Shure SN7B, another legendary microphone used at numerous radio stations and recording studios around the world.
But, these are pretty expensive options that require additional equipment and a treated recording room. Unless you are planning on recording dozens of audiobooks, these might be overkill.
Many of our clients use USB microphones - all-in-one solutions that are great value for money. They are easy to work with (you stick them into your computer's USB port, and you are good to go), they are reasonably cheap, widely available, and yield sufficiently good results. Nearly 90% of our clients use them, and many of them are authors with millions of audiobooks sold.
The USB microphones used by our clients, and the ones we can wholeheartedly recommend, are:
These are all under $200 microphones and often come bundled with some additional gear - shock-mounts, stands, headphones, pop-filters, and similar stuff. Additionally, these are all studio condenser microphones, which means they are sensitive and generally well-balanced. If you have access to a quiet room, these are a great choice. However, if you can't find your corner of peace and quiet, you would be better off with a dynamic microphone. There are several USB options of this kind of microphones, and we recommend to consider these:
We would always recommend dynamic microphones unless you have an acoustically treated room and you know exactly what you are doing. Condenser microphones might look professional, but if you are not a professional, they might end up sounding quite amateurish.
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Bear in mind that you might need a stand for some of these microphones. We recommend checking out this or this to get you started.
Recording software
If you want your audiobook to sound professional, you have to record it and store it as a high-quality audio file - either a WAV or AIFF file. These are uncompressed formats that preserve the full frequency spectrum of your recordings, leave many more options for postproduction, and simply sound better than compressed mp3, m4a, and similar formats. we also recommend that you make your reading as a 24bit, 48Khz WAV, or AIFF file.
To achieve this, you will have to use a dedicated audio recording program, or as they are also called Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). Luckily, there are free options for both Mac and Windows users. If you are using Mac, get GarageBand, and you will be good to go. If you use a Windows computer, Audacity is your free choice. You can also use a base version of ProTools - an industry standard DAW used by nearly all professionals (if they have to), but be aware that it might take you some time to figure it out. The good thing is that it will work both on Windows and Mac computers.
There are many other DAWs out there, and here at Ad Hoc Media, we can deal with the projects made in the following ones:
Even if we don't use the DAW which you used, we can still help you with postproduction. You will just need to export your recording as a WAV or AIFF file. You can always contact us if you need some help with that.
Quiet and non-reflective room
To make your recording sound professional, you don't want the sounds of children playing, laundry buzzing, busses passing to leak into your recording. So, choosing the quietest room in your apartment or house is the first thing you should do. Close the windows, shut the doors, turn off the A/C, a fan, or any other device you might use to control the temperature and the humidity in your room.
You also want to bring natural echo or reverb of your room to a minimum. It would be great if your quiet room also had a lot of furniture, pictures, and bookshelves on the walls and carpet or hardwood on the floor. If it doesn't, then it is time for some mitigation strategies.
One of the most effective is to use the dynamic microphone instead of the condenser one. We already wrote about this, but here are the links to these microphones again, just in case:
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Another way to reduce the impact of your room on your recording is to use recording shields. These weird-looking gadgets help isolate your microphone from your environment, effectively creating a mini vocal booth. You can check out a few options below:
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Aokeo Recording Isolation Shield
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And just a quick note - don't forget that you are making an audio recording - nobody will see you or the place where you are recording. Therefore, if your solution looks silly, so be it! Just get into that walk-in closet with a chair and a glass of water and narrate that book!
Patience
Unless you are a professional voice-over artist, it will take you some time to read everything right. You will make mistakes; the chair will crack; you'll get thirsty; somebody will burst into the room. That is all part of the job. Just stay focused and remember that Ad Hoc Media got your back. Oh, and if you can't make yourself to record your audiobook, remember that we have professional narrators on our roster, and they can record your audiobook in no time.