I used to record voice overs, both professionally and as a volunteer for a radio reading service. I enjoy the work, and even invested in a decent microphone and amp. Then life happened with kids and pets and noisy house environments and technical software difficulties. It has been awhile but I decided I want to try again, and the downstairs coat closet had already been cleaned out for an office during the pandemic, so I moved my stuff in.

I’m pretty proud of myself in outfitting the room. The carpet was already there to keep the floor from being too cold for feral cats in cages, the curtains were all left by the previous owner, the curtain rods were all repurposed from other locations in time and space. The fairy lights were from a failed experiment in my kid’s room (they are too bright for her). The shelves were already there, I just rearranged them. The chair is from a set that migrates around the house and is good for recording because it doesn’t roll, creak, or make other unwanted noises. The only thing I purchased was a pop filter and a mouse pad (neither pictured). I used to have a pop filter, but I have no idea where it got off to. My optical mouse really doesn’t like the white surface on the shelves, and we have no spare mouse pads.

I did some initial tests, including a musical Zoom call (kid’s guitar lesson), and things seemed to all work OK.

I sat down on a quiet morning (everyone else was off to work and school) and started experimenting with the software. I’m using Adobe Audition because it is bundled with my graphic software package. I walked through the tutorials, which was a great refresher because I’ve already used this software to remix tracks for my chorus, and I learned some shortcuts that I didn’t know, and discovered spectral view (wowza). And a terrible, terrible buzz. I chased the source of the buzz for an hour, trying different settings, different microphones, different headphones. I had finally given up, thinking that the next step was to move everything back, went to turn off the desk lamp, and heard a pitch change. What? I had dug an old led clip light out of a drawer, and plugged it in for more light. I unplugged it, tried recording again, and the ambient noise level was undetectable. Of all the irritating things. Recording testing can now continue, and I don’t have to repurpose the room, again. For now.

Happy Halloween, may your electronics be shielded.