Listen Before You Treat.
Record thirty seconds of room tone and a short spoken passage in every plausible corner. Listen through headphones for traffic, appliances, computer fans, hard reflections, and low-frequency rumble.
The quietest-looking space is not always the quietest-sounding one. A smaller area with soft, uneven surfaces often gives you more control than a visually perfect empty room.
Ask before moving on
- What sound remains when you stop speaking?
- Which wall sends your voice back most clearly?
- What changes at the time of day you usually record?
Control Reflections, Not The Air.
Use dense, breathable materials at the first reflection points beside and behind the microphone. Leave enough air around the narrator to avoid the closed, boxy sound that comes from covering every surface indiscriminately.
Treat the surfaces your voice reaches first. Then record again. One deliberate change at a time will teach you more than a room full of untested material.
Ask before moving on
- What is directly behind the microphone?
- What is directly behind the narrator?
- Can treatment move without scraping or rustling?
Set A Repeatable Signal Path.
Choose a microphone position you can reproduce: distance, angle, seat height, and gain. Record at a healthy level with room for expressive peaks rather than trying to make the waveform look full.
Save a short reference take whenever the setup changes. Consistency across sessions matters more to a long-form listener than a small upgrade in equipment.
Ask before moving on
- Can you recreate the microphone position tomorrow?
- Do loud phrases peak without clipping?
- Does your reference take match the previous session?