REQUIRED Audio Checklist

NEVER RECORD AUDIO WITHOUT FIRST RUNNING DOWN THE CHECKLIST!!!!!

Otherwise you will waste HOURS of time recording stuff that you can't use.  This happens roughly 50% of the time... but now we have the checklist... so hopefully we're good now.

Audio Checklist 

1. AT2020 microphone is set to default recording device.
2. AT2020 microphone VOLUME SET TO MATCH (last test was 88%, mic level w/ box trick, 12-15 in from mic 11/23/18)
3. RECORD A "SAMPLER", and pull into MAGIX.
• Pull up the audio you want to mimic.
• Listen to it with the intent to mimic it... you should sort of be doing an impression of yourself in your mind.  The theme is the "charming authority" voice from phone sales.
• RECORD ON MAIN COMPUTER AS MANY DEMOS AS NECESSARY UNTIL YOU SOUND AS INTENDED, COMPARING SIDE BY SIDE
4. Sit on hardwood chair, make sure there's no weird clothing noise stuff going on.
5. Position yourself 8-12 inches from mic.
6. Test talk so that there's no echo and until you think you sound as intended.
7. Begin - and remember, you should always do AT LEAST 3-5 takes of the material as a whole.

TIPS:

• Every day your tone is a little different, make sure you play with style.
• Always go over-the-top high energy, balanced with keeping your volume low enough to prevent echo.  Feeling high energy and listening to it and noticing that it feels down beat is probably my most common issue.
• When in doubt, do a full test of record, start back up computer, and pull into MAGIX just to see if you're on track.  Extra time now means saving the full hour - 2 hours.
• ESPECIALLY DAY 1 AFTER WEEKS OF NOT RECORDING!!  Most likely NONE of your audio from your first recording sesh will be useful.  So just record 5-10 min and then load it in to see what went wrong.
• It helps the editing process a lot if you re-record starting at punctuation marks.  Since I am reading the script while I'm writing, I pause+play at every common, dash, period, etc.  So if you make a mistake while recording, don't just go back to the last pause, simply go back to the closest punctuation mark, and editing will be much more simple.  The hardest thing to edit is a frustrated, quick jump back to a mid-sentence blur.
• Any edits more than a word or two should be a pause, fix script, then pick back up, that way I see the long gap when editing and it makes it really obvious to see what's going on.  Don't reinvent the audio on the fly, improving script. It makes it much harder to edit later.

Audio Checklist - LAPTOP VERSION (OLD)

1. BEFORE TURNING OFF MAIN COMPUTER DO A "SAMPLER".
• Pull up the audio you want to mimic.
• Listen to it with the intent to mimic it... you should sort of be doing an impression of yourself in your mind.  The theme is the "charming authority" voice from phone sales.
• RECORD ON MAIN COMPUTER AS MANY DEMOS AS NECESSARY UNTIL YOU SOUND AS INTENDED.
2. Turn off main computer, plug AT2020 into laptop.
3. AT2020 microphone on laptop is set to default recording device.
4. AT2020 microphone VOLUME SET TO 80-85% !!!!!
5. Sit on hardwood chair, make sure there's no wierd clothing noise stuff going on.
6. Position yourself 8-12 inches from mic.
7. Test talk so that there's no echo and until you think you sound as intended.
8. Begin - and remember, you should always do AT LEAST 3-5 takes of the material as a whole.