The Recording Environment

The best way to minimize environmental noise is to record in a sound-proofed or sound-treated room. To reduce the effects of noise in an ordinary room:

• Choose a quiet location
• Cover large reverberant surfaces with blankets or cloths
• Unplug electrical appliances
• Close doors and windows
• Turn off lights and fans or air conditioning
• Remove anything that ticks, buzzes, bangs, rattles, squeaks, hisses, or otherwise makes itself heard

When recording citation form texts (e.g. word lists or sentences) it is usually possible to satisfy all, or most of the above conditions. However, to record speech in "natural" situations, speakers often must be allowed to move around and interact with other people, with objects, or with their surroundings. This makes it substantially more difficult to get optimal recording quality.

In natural speaking situations, speakers are much less likely to maintain a consistent distance from the microphone or consistent loudness levels. They may bump equipment and make noise while interacting with their surroundings, or their surroundings may generate noise. If the objective is to conduct different types of acoustic analysis, a portion of speech recorded in natural situations may not be useable. However, with digital equipment it is nevertheless possible to get very good overall recording quality in natural situations - i.e. speech that is not just clearly intelligible, but that can be analyzed for its acoustic properties.

To get the best possible recording quality, you need to match your equipment (especially the microphone) to the recording situation.