Screenshot of a mobile phone with a directional mic attached to it.This guide will help you to use a smartphone or laptop to record audio.

We won’t recommend specific devices, tools or apps. Instead we encourage you to use this guide as a starting point, to explore and evaluate your options prior to recording your audio for submission.

By taking some time to understand the tools you use you’ll produce higher quality content and gain transferable skills that can help you in studies and the workplace.

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Don't just start recording! Plan the narrative you out and how you will tell that story. It might not feel like it, but you are storytelling so ask yourself how you'd want to hear that tale. 

Recording an interview or podcast will be much smoother if you’ve identified an order you will follow. Take time to plan what will be discussed.

You don’t need to follow a script, but a bullet pointed list or cue cards will stop you drying up or going off topic.

If you're going to have multiple elements, for example:

  • music (intro, outro, midway padding as you move from one clip to another)
  • an interview
  • a reflective piece tying everything up together

Consider how you would sequence them to best tell your story. What elements would work and wouldn't?

Planning this before recording anything will help get a feel for the finished recording and save you time. 

A blank note pad with a pen.

        Image by

engin akyurt from Pixabay

]]>If working as a group, identify who will do what before recording starts. Some roles to consider include:

  • Presenter(s) – someone to start the conversation with some scene setting, keep things moving if conversation dries up and closes the recording with a thank you to participants
  • “Everyman” – the person who asks questions to clarify or makes statements allowing others to correct or expand information
  • Audio technician – essentially the person who starts and stops the recording and keeps an eye on equipment to check there are no issues during recording
  • Editor – It might be necessary to cut out sections to keep the flow of conversation interesting, e.g. someone had a coughing fit or went off topic

If working individually consider how you'll manage these roles and ensure you have time to carry out tasks in time for publication/submission. 

Pay particular attention to deadlines. Working with media can be time consuming, especially when you need to save your project as an audio file.

Tragedy and comedy masks.

Image by Wikimedia from Wikimedia Commons

]]>Look for somewhere quiet with minimal external or ambient noise. Usually it's unwise to record outside, the additional sounds can make it tricky to edit audio with out obvious cut points which can be extremely jarring when listening. Watch out for computer fans, air conditioning, noisy corridors and squeaky or loud doors. Do not pop the washing machine on prior to recording. Close any windows.

We naturally filter out a lot of these noises but when listening back they can be a massive distraction that is detrimental to the recording. Consider warning housemates/peers and popping up a sign saying “Recording, please be quiet” or similar.

A smaller carpeted room is generally a good bet as it will cut down on echoes and external noises. Particularly echoey  rooms can be dealt by hanging blankets up.

 

An illuminated sign saying "Quiet Please".

"Shhhhhhhh I'm trying to sleep!" by Rusty Clark ~ 100K Photos is licensed under CC BY 2.0

]]>Aim to speak clearly, without hurrying. If using technical “jargon” or scientific/industrial terminology try to enunciate and avoid slurring.

If using presenter/everyman roles plan out where they may need to act.

Ensure you keep your breathing steady and quiet, it can be off putting to hear someone breathing heavily.

Sit up straight or stand, it will give your voice greater strength and clarity.

The Presenter should introduce all the guests at the beginning so the listener knows who they are listening too. 

Group in discussion around a laptop

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

]]>Familiarise yourself with the equipment and apps you will use and test in the location you’ve identified would be suitable for recording.

Listen back and check the quality will be good enough.

Pay attention to participants natural levels of speech, if someone is quiet encourage them to speak louder.

Two hands holding a phone and carrying out some sort of activity.

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

]]>Smartphones should be placed in the centre of a table with participants sat around it. Depending on where the microphone is on the device you may need to sit in a horseshoe configuration or prop the microphone upwards. Test seating positions to check how it all sounds.

Consider placing materials under the smartphone to dampen any vibrations (and ensure participants keep potential vibration to a minimum).

Laptops probably need to be located away from the table with an external microphone placed central to the participants. Do not be tempted to use the laptops built in microphone, it is likely to produce poor quality sound, particularly if the devices fan is on. If you do not have a suitable external microphone, consider using a smartphone instead.

Placing phone on table.

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

]]>It's easy to feel overwhelmed or uncomfortable when being recorded. It's amazing how quickly your mouth dries up and you go blank when 'the red light' is on.  

We recommend you start recording but spend 5 - 10 minutes talking about anything at all to warm up. Maybe get everyone to spend a few moments talking about the last book/movie/show they enjoyed reading.

This preamble can be edited out after you've finished recording. You'll sound more at ease and the flow of conversation will be more cohesive. 

A photo of someone doing stretches on a sports field. They have a comical strained look on their face as if its unpleasant.

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

]]>Before any editing, create a backup copy of your recording just in case you mess things up. You might want to save different versions as you go, so you can move back a step if things go wrong.

You don’t want to have to rerecord things after technical issues (or stupidity).

Create a backup and save it into the Cloud or somewhere safe. If working as a group ensure everyone can access the backups and have a good idea of where content is stored in folders.

A usb cable plugged into a device.

Image by josemiguels from Pixabay

]]>Audio files can be fairly large. Make sure you've got space on your device. You don't want to run out midway through your recording!

As with making back up copies, you might consider moving some files to cloud storage.

A phone being held up to photo or video a cloud in a blue sky.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

]]>Make sure you've got enough charge in your device, consider using a charger or battery pack if you don't.

A phone plugged into a USB cable.

Image by StockSnap from Pixabay

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It’s rare you can record audio in one take without needing some minor edits. Consider it a cut and paste exercise, where you clip out unneeded audio, add/paste in new content and preserve the required material. 

Your device may already have native audio recording and editing tools, but you can search your app stores for alternatives if not.

The Digital Education Office often use Audacity for audio editing tasks. It's free, powerful and has a strong community of support and YouTube tutorials. 

If interested in creating Podcasts, we have seen some great work using this workflow which combines Microsoft Teams to record and Audacity to edit the audio:

 

The CEU Podcast Library has an excellent How to Edit Your Podcast workflow for creating and editing a podcast using Audacity. 

 

The following links are articles recommending various recording and editing apps/tools for various platforms:

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What if you can't get together?

There may be times when getting into the same room to record may be impossible. Don't panic! With a bit of planning and some post-recording tweaking you can still create audio files.

Microsoft Teams and Audacity Workflow

As displayed in the above Recording and Editing section, this workflow using Microsoft Teams and Audacity can provide a high quality finished product.

Video Conferencing

Most modern video conferencing or webinar systems will allow you to record a video. On a positive note this means you can see each other as you talk but typically you may need to export this recording as a video file and then find a way to seperate the audio as an individual file.

Note that the format of video conferencing tools may not be the same as the experience of recording together, so do consider which roles you need to adopt to keep the conversation flowing (see the Identify Roles section in Top Tips for more info).

Exporting Audio from Video Files

Windows - We recommend using the VLC workflow as described in the Recording and Editing section. 

Mac/iOS - How to extract audio from video on iPhone, iPad and Mac - this blog post shows you the quickest methods to create an audio file from a video file.

Note that you can also use VLC.

Android - How to Extract Audio from Video on Android - this blog post covers a few apps you can use to convert video into audio. Note that your Android device may already have a tool installed to convert files, so have a check before downloading third party apps.

Note that you can also use VLC.

What about the Video Conferencing Tool itself?

Some tools may allow you to record audio as an individual file or export a recording as an audio file. In theory Zoom allows you to record a separate audio track - this will be dependent on the licence terms and conditions and is likely to be subject to change (so have a plan b just in case it disappears).

Other video conferencing tools are available! Do have a search for your preferred video conferencing tool of choice.

 

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There are dozens of audio formats that can be offered to you as an audio editor. Most formats will be compatible with publishing platforms, playback on mobile devices or submission for assignments. It can be a bit bewildering being presented with formats such as mp3, Ogg Vorbis, wav, FLAC or M4A.

For almost all circumstances we recommend saving as mp3. You'll find it will work for practically everything.

You may be presented with some options around audio quality. For mp3 you will usually see quality options for different bitrates (usually as "kbps") ranging from low 120kbps to high 320kbps.

The higher the quality the larger the file size. If your audio is mostly people talking you can probably use a medium quality (180-210kbps) with no noticeable drop in quality, however if you are using music or soundscapes then aim to save the mp3 at the highest bitrate to preserve quality.

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Working with media can be different to working with authoring tools you may have previously used such as document files (Office etc).

Generally you will have an authoring file, which contains the various assets of media (audio recordings, music files, sound FX) and then a saved format file. 

It's important to understand which is which. If creating an audio file for assessment you don't want to submit the authoring file, as it won't work for the person marking - it will typically be blank as it's linking to your various bits of media you've been editing. 

Always save the finished project as a media format to submit!

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Music and sound effects can help to bring a professional feel to audio, you might want to use a theme at the start and end of a podcast for example. 

Music can be a powerful tool for setting a scene, creating a feeling  and hiding unavoidable background noise. 

Unfortunately we can't just use any tune we want, copyright means we can't just help ourselves to anything, but there are tools you can use to find bespoke music that's free to use.

A good place to start is Free Music Archive which has music pre-cleared for use in audio projects.

You could also visit Creative Commons Search for more Creative Commons licenced music for audio projects.

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