Tips on Digital Audio Recording
You do not have to have state-of-the-art equipment to make a decent digital audio recording. Just follow these tips using whatever digital recording device you have and you should be okay.
- Find someplace quiet to do your interview where you know you will not be disturbed.
- Make sure the recorder is plugged in or has enough battery power to last the whole interview. Nothing is more heartbreaking than having an equipment failure during a great conversation and losing some of your recording.
- Make sure your digital recording device is recording in a compression format we support. If you can, we prefer you record in MP3 format. For a complete list of audio formats which we accept click here.
- Make sure the microphone of the recording device is as close to all participants as possible. Anybody being recorded should be facing the microphone.
- Unplug unnecessary appliances and devices in the immediate filming area. These can create background noise that interferes with a clear audio recording.
- Do a quick test recording and play it back, this will help to insure that the equipment is working and that the audio quality is good. If you are unsatisfied you can try repositioning the microphone and test again.
- Do not feel as though you have to cut or edit the interview. We would rather have a recording with some dead space than no recording at all.
- As soon as you are done, play the recording back to make sure that everything can be heard clearly and that the whole interview was captured, then save it to your computer right away.